New paper on mitochondrial distribution across the human body If you have more mitochondria than the average person in your heart, does that mean you also have more than average in your brain, muscles, kidneys, etc? We investigated inter-organ correlations in mitochondria 🧵The basic hypothesis is that there are systemic factors - genetics, behaviors, diet, etc - that likely drive some people to have more or less mitochondria across the whole body The alternative is that different people have different levels of mitochondria in different organsWe looked at correlations between organs, or patterns of "coherence" We found little evidence for global coherence in mitochondrial expression across the body There was coherence between brain regions, and between some organs, but surprisingly little overall Some organs showed no coherence at all, like the liver and kidneys (that are anabolic and feed the rest of the body), and adrenal glands (that make cortisol and other steroid hormones)Graph showing the amount of mitochondrial coherence across all organs - Brain in green - Digestive system in dark blue - Reproductive organs in red - Anabolic organs (organs that give) in pink - Muscles in orange - "Other" tissues in yellow Blood immune cells mitochondria showed no coherence with other organsCould it be that people have different aptitudes, resilience, and vulnerabilities because of how much mitochondria they have in different organs? This dataset (GTEx) showed three main clusters of people who either have lots of mitochondria in their brain+muscle (Cluster 1), in their heart+fat (Cluster 2), or highest in the heart (Cluster 3) These people differed in the diseases and conditions they presented with at the time of deathOne implication of this discovery is that different people may "invest" different amount of "mitochondrial resources" in different parts of the body Like everything else in biology, this could happen with trade offs. So if you invest more here, you have less to invest there.Mitochondria are not all created equal. There are different types of mitochondria -- mitotypes -- in different organs. Different types of interventions, diets, or states of mind could affect either mitochondria quality or distribution across the bodySuperb work on this project by Jack Devine (his first paper!) and @AnnaMonzel with @cohenaginglab Thank you to @janellison @BaszuckiGroup and @NIH for the precious support Thanks to @lifemetabolism2 for the robust reviews

New paper on mitochondrial distribution across the human body If you have more mitochondria than the average person in your heart, does that mean you also have more than average in your brain, muscles, kidneys, etc? We investigated inter-organ correlations in mitochondria 🧵 ... The basic hypothesis is that there are systemic factors - genetics, behaviors, diet, etc - that likely drive some people to have more or less mitochondria across the whole body The alternative is that different people have different levels of mitochondria in different organs ... We looked at correlations between organs, or patterns of "coherence" We found little evidence for global coherence in mitochondrial expression across the body There was coherence between brain regions, and between some organs, but surprisingly little overall Some organs showed no coherence at all, like the liver and kidneys (that are anabolic and feed the rest of the body), and adrenal glands (that make cortisol and other steroid hormones) ... Graph showing the amount of mitochondrial coherence across all organs - Brain in green - Digestive system in dark blue - Reproductive organs in red - Anabolic organs (organs that give) in pink - Muscles in orange - "Other" tissues in yellow Blood immune cells mitochondria showed no coherence with other organs ... Could it be that people have different aptitudes, resilience, and vulnerabilities because of how much mitochondria they have in different organs? This dataset (GTEx) showed three main clusters of people who either have lots of mitochondria in their brain+muscle (Cluster 1), in their heart+fat (Cluster 2), or highest in the heart (Cluster 3) These people differed in the diseases and conditions they presented with at the time of death ... One implication of this discovery is that different people may "invest" different amount of "mitochondrial resources" in different parts of the body Like everything else in biology, this could happen with trade offs. So if you invest more here, you have less to invest there. ... Mitochondria are not all created equal. There are different types of mitochondria -- mitotypes -- in different organs. Different types of interventions, diets, or states of mind could affect either mitochondria quality or distribution across the body ... Superb work on this project by Jack Devine (his first paper!) and @AnnaMonzel with @cohenaginglab Thank you to @janellison @BaszuckiGroup and @NIH for the precious support Thanks to @lifemetabolism2 for the robust reviews