Supplementary Material for: Mitochondrial Aging: Focus on Mitochondrial DNA Damage in Atherosclerosis - A Mini-Review

Atherosclerosis is a complex disease which can be described as an excessive fibrofatty, proliferative, inflammatory response to damage to the artery wall involving several cell types such as smooth muscle cells, monocyte-derived macrophages, lymphocytes, dendritic cells and platelets. On the other hand, atherosclerosis is a typical age-related degenerative pathology, which is characterized by signs of cell senescence in the arterial wall including reduced cell proliferation, irreversible growth arrest and apoptosis, increased DNA damage, the presence of epigenetic modifications, shortening of telomere length and mitochondrial dysfunction. The most prominent characteristics of mitochondrial aging are their structural alterations and mitochondrial DNA damage. The mechanisms of mitochondrial genome damage in the development of chronic age-related diseases such as atherosclerosis are not yet well understood. This review focuses on the latest findings from studies of those mutations of the mitochondrial genome which may play an important role in the development of atherosclerosis and which are, at the same time, also markers of mitochondrial aging and cell senescence

Data on association of mitochondrial heteroplasmy and cardiovascular risk factors: Comparison of samples from Russian and Mexican populations

Despite the fact that the role of mitochondrial genome mutations in a number of human diseases is widely studied, the effect of mitochondrial heteroplasmy in the development of cardiovascular disease has not been adequately investigated. In this study, we compared the heteroplasmy levels of mtDNA from leukocytes for m.3256C>T, m.3336T>C, m.12315G>A, m.5178C>A, m.13513G>A, m.14459G>A, m.14846G>A, m.15059G>A, m.652insG and m.1555A>G mutations in CVD-free subjects and CVD patients in samples derived from Russian and Mexican populations. It was demonstrated that heteroplasmy level of m.5178C>A was associated with CVD in Russian men, and m.14459G>A – in Russian women. Mitochondrial heteroplasmy level of m.13513G>A and m.652insG were associated with CVD in Mexican men, and only m.652insG– in Mexican women. The levels of heteroplasmy for mitochondrial mutations m.3336T>C, m.5178C>A, m.14459G>A, m.14846G>A and m.1555A>G were significantly higher in CVD-free Mexican men, and for m.3256C>T, m.3336T>C, and m.14459G>A – in CVD-free Mexican women. © 2018 The Author