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Cells destroy donated mitochondria to build blood vessels

Organelles called mitochondria are transferred to blood-vessel-forming cells by support cells. Unexpectedly, these mitochondria are degraded, kick-starting the production of new ones and boosting vessel formation.
  1. Chantell S. Evans

    1. Chantell S. Evans is in the Department of Cell Biology, Duke University School of Medicine, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Durham, North Carolina 27710, USA.

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Blood vessels deliver oxygen and nutrients to tissues and remove waste products from them. When these vessels become narrow or blocked, the blood supply and waste clearance are prevented, resulting in what is called ischaemia, which in turn leads to conditions such as coronary heart disease and heart attack1. Writing in Nature, Lin et al.2 report an innovative transplantation strategy to aid the repair of ischaemic tissue; it relies on energy-generating organelles called mitochondria being transferred from one cell to another.

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Nature 629, 539-541 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01233-y

References

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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