Mitochondrial alterations and tendency to apoptosis in peripheral blood cells from children with Down syndrome

Edited by Jesus Avila

Received 5 December 2006; accepted 26 December 2006. published online 17 January 2007.

Abstract

Different types of cells from subjects with Down syndrome (DS) have an increased susceptibility to cell death. We have studied apoptosis and mitochondrial (mt) membrane potential (ΔΨm) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from DS children and age-matched healthy donors after in vitro treatment with apoptogenic molecules, along with mtDNA content. We found that PBMC from DS and healthy controls had a similar tendency to undergo apoptosis and a similar amount of mtDNA. However, in cells from DS subjects, mitochondria showed a higher loss of ΔΨm, underlying the presence of an increasing susceptibility of these organelles to damaging agents.

Keywords: Down syndrome, Mitochondria, mtDNA, Apoptosis

a Chair of Immunology, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, via Campi 287, 41100 Modena, Italy

b Department of Pathobiology, University of Palermo, via Tukory 211, 90134 Palermo, Italy

c Department of Child Neuropsychiatry, AUSL Modena, via Cardarelli 45, 41100 Modena, Italy

d Department of Neurosciences, Head–Neck, Rehabilitation, Section of Dentistry and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, via del Pozzo 71, 41100 Modena, Italy

e Department of Pediatrics, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, via del Pozzo 71, 41100 Modena, Italy

Corresponding author. Fax: +39 0 59 2055426.

1 E. Roat and N. Prada have equally contributed to this work.

PII: S0014-5793(07)00041-5

doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2006.12.058

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