Extending Mitochondrial Viability Through Electrical Stimulation in Vivo

Mitochondria are essential in maintaining healthy and functional cells but if this part of the cell is damaged it can cause a variety of diseases. Dysfunctional mitochondria can be healed through a process called horizontal mitochondrial transfer. In this process, healthy mitochondria are delivered to cells with dysfunctional mitochondria, and through the process they can merge and recover function. To facilitate this process, mitochondria need to be extracted from a donor and purified However, mitochondria only stay viable for up to two hours post isolation at room temperature. In this work, we explored if electrical stimulation can prolong the viability of mitochondria through maintaining the electrical gradient present in the inner and outer membranes of mitochondria. Mitochondrial viability was assessed by tracking mitochondrial respiration To study the link between electrical stimulation and respiration, we varied the voltage applied during stimulation from one to nine volt, over a five-minute stimulation period. This work has found the mitochondrial stimulation is voltage dependent where higher voltages led to a decrease in mitochondrial respiration. While low voltages led to an increase in respiration versus control. Future work is building on our findings by further tuning different stimulation parameters and developing a method to enhance horizontal mitochondrial transfer.