Mitochondrial ultrastructure in cardiomyocytes from 3- and 24-month-old Wistar and OXYS rats was investigated using a new approach designed for morphometric analysis. The data fully confirm the ...electron microscopy data: the area of the inner mitochondrial membrane per unit volume of mitochondria was significantly decreased with age, as found on heart muscle section. In 3-month-old Wistar rats from the control group, this parameter was 41.3 ± 1.52 μm
2
/μm
3
, where-as in OXYS rats it was decreased to 30.57 ± 1.74 μm
2
/μm
3
. With age, an area of the inner mitochondrial membrane per unit volume of mitochondria declined in both rat strains: Wistar — from 41.3 ± 1.52 to 21.47 ± 1.22 μm
2
/μm
3
, OXYS — from 30.57 ± 1.74 to 16.3 ± 0.89 μm
2
/μm
3
. A new method that we designed and used for morphometric analysis notably simplifies the process of morphometric measurements and opens up good opportunities for its further optimization using image recognition technology.
A comparative electron microscopic and morphometric analysis of age-related transformations in the ultrastructure of the skeletal muscle mitochondrial apparatus was carried out in animal species with ...different aging programs: short-lived classical objects, such as C57BL/6 mice and Wistar rats, prematurely aging OXYS rats, and the longest-living rodents, naked mole-rats (
Heterocephalus glaber
), characterized by delayed aging. In C57BL/6 mice, age-related reorganization of the skeletal muscle mitochondrial apparatus corresponds to that reported previously for Wistar rats: the mitochondrial reticulum forms by the age of 2.5–3 months; by the age of 30 months, it undergoes a drastic reduction, due to which the number of mitochondrial cross-sections in muscle fibers decreases almost twofold, from 0.45 ± 0.074 to 0.23 ± 0.017 profiles per µm
2
. In C57BL/6 mice, no destructive changes in the mitochondrial ultrastructure were observed, in contrast to OXYS rats, in which age-related changes in the chondriome affect both the overall structure and internal ultrastructure of the muscle fiber mitochondrial apparatus. At the same time, in naked mole-rats, which are comparable with mice in their size, the number and size of mitochondria in skeletal muscles increase significantly by the age of five years, although no mitochondrial reticulum forms. It is hypothesized that a special organization of the mitochondrial apparatus in naked mole-rat skeletal muscles provide a proper level of redox processes in muscles, thus preventing a decline in their physical efficiency and the development of sarcopenia, whereas in C57BL/6 mice, Wistar and OXYS rats, age-related abnormalities in the structural organization of skeletal muscle mitochondrial apparatus may be one of the major causes for the development of age-related pathologies, including sarcopenia.
The early period of postnatal development of premature infants is often complicated by bacterial infections, in particular respiratory infections, which in adverse course can be transformed into ...generalized forms (sepsis), leading to life-threatening conditions. The development of these complications may be associated with delayed diagnosis and delayed start of targeted therapy. Thus, the development of new approaches to the diagnosis of inflammatory pathological processes, especially in the first hours of life, is an important area of research in modern neonatology. In this work the profiling of blood plasma lipids from newborn premature babies was performed in order to identify potential markers of inflammatory processes. The study involved three groups of patients who were diagnosed with pneumonia, pneumonia complicated by sepsis, or respiratory distress syndrome in the early postnatal period. As a result of HPLC-MS analysis of blood plasma lipid extracts, characteristic molecular profiles were obtained, which revealed significant differences between the groups under study. Analysis of the molecular composition showed differential representation of lipid classes such as phosphatidylcholines, phosphatidylethanolamines, di- and triglycerides, sphingolipids and lysophospholipids. Our results may indicate that the inflammatory processes at the local and systemic levels affect lipid metabolism and their composition in blood plasma. Moreover, each pathology—sepsis, pneumonia or RDS—has its own specific lipid profile, which may be useful not only to detect inflammation but also to differentiate inflammation-associated diseases from each other.
A comparative electron microscopic and morphometric analysis of age-related transformations in the ultrastructure of the skeletal muscle mitochondrial apparatus was carried out in animal species with ...different aging programs: short-lived classical objects, such as C57BL/6 mice and Wistar rats, prematurely aging OXYS rats, and the longest-living rodents, naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber), characterized by delayed aging. In C57BL/6 mice, age-related reorganization of the skeletal muscle mitochondrial apparatus corresponds to that reported previously for Wistar rats: the mitochondrial reticulum forms by the age of 2.5–3 months; by the age of 30 months, it undergoes a drastic reduction, due to which the number of mitochondrial cross-sections in muscle fibers decreases almost twofold, from 0.45 ± 0.074 to 0.23 ± 0.017 profiles per µm2. In C57BL/6 mice, no destructive changes in the mitochondrial ultrastructure were observed, in contrast to OXYS rats, in which age-related changes in the chondriome affect both the overall structure and internal ultrastructure of the muscle fiber mitochondrial apparatus. At the same time, in naked mole-rats, which are comparable with mice in their size, the number and size of mitochondria in skeletal muscles increase significantly by the age of five years, although no mitochondrial reticulum forms. It is hypothesized that a special organization of the mitochondrial apparatus in naked mole-rat skeletal muscles provide a proper level of redox processes in muscles, thus preventing a decline in their physical efficiency and the development of sarcopenia, whereas in C57BL/6 mice, Wistar and OXYS rats, age-related abnormalities in the structural organization of skeletal muscle mitochondrial apparatus may be one of the major causes for the development of age-related pathologies, including sarcopenia.
