Mitochondrial DNA Damage in Iron Overload
The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2009

“...Overall, our results support the idea that long-term iron-mediated damage to cells and organs is associated with progressive damage to mtDNA. This can lead to decreased synthesis of respiratory chain subunits encoded by the mitochondrial genome and subsequent loss of normal cellular respiration. This pathogenic mechanism suggests the possibility of a feed-forward mechanism in which mitochondria with sufficiently damaged genomes may become factories for the production of increased amounts of reactive oxygen species that, in turn, further accelerate organ damage. Finally, we should note that there are interesting parallels between the iron-mediated mitochondrial damage we have observed and the mitochondrial damage found in patients with neurodegenerative diseases. Damage to mtDNA has been reported in a variety of such disorders (including Parkinson, Alzheimer, and Huntington diseases) (44). It is possible that progressive loss of mtDNA and associated metabolic changes may be important in these disorders as well...”

full paper: http://www.jbc.org/content/284/8/4767.full