Mitochondria regulate cardiac contraction through ATP-dependent and independent mechanisms

Abstract

The multipurpose organelle mitochondria play an essential role(s) in controlling cardiac muscle contraction. Mitochondria, not only function as the powerhouses and the energy source of myocytes but also modulate intracellular Ca²⁺ homeostasis, the production of intermediary metabolites/reactive oxygen species (ROS), and other cellular processes. Those molecular events can substantially influence myocardial contraction. Mitochondrial dysfunction is usually associated with cardiac remodelling, and is the causal factor of heart contraction defects in many cases. The manipulation of mitochondria or mitochondria-relevant pathways appears to be a promising therapeutic approach to treat the diseases.

Keywords:

• Cardiomyocyte
• contractility
• free radical
• metabolism
• mitochondria

Acknowledgements

The authors thank members of Center for Mitochondrial Biology and Medicine at Xi’An Jiaotong University for helpful discussions. The authors thank Ms. Jenifer Bush and Dr. Lei Li at Harvard Medical School for careful reading of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

J. D. is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC31771371) and “Young Talent Scholar Grant” of Xi’an Jiaotong University. J. K. L. is supported by National Basic Research Program (973 program 2015CB553602), National Natural Science Foundation of China grants (NSFC91649106, 31570777, and 31770917), and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (08143008 and 08143001).