Mitochondrial Transplantation Therapy

Mitochondrial transplantation was ever referred to the assisted reproductive technology that injects isolated normal mitochondria into oocytes using micromanipulation. While, in the recent years, the technique of injecting healthy mitochondria directly into damaged tissues or organs, or injecting into the blood circulation, and subsequently exerting a therapeutic effect is also named as mitochondrial transplantation. In the cultured cell models, mitochondria are directly incubated with cells. This technique can also be termed as mitochondrial therapy. In the present review, the mitochondrial transplantation in diverse tissue and organ injury models, including but not limited to heart, brain, liver, kidney, lung, and skeletal muscle, in experimental animal models such as mice, rats, rabbits, and pigs, as well as preliminary clinical studies conducted on children with heart diseases are introduced. The proposed internalization mechanism, which is mitochondria entering cells to produce ATP, and its limitations are also introduced and discussed. Finally, a hypothesis that mitochondria may not need to enter the cell to function is proposed and named as non-internalization mechanism corresponding to the former internalization mechanism. This review puts forward a new direction for deepening the study of mitochondrial transplantation and the related mechanisms.

CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2023.07.0011