Mitochondrial function in peripheral blood cells across the human lifespan

Johannes K Ehinger; Emil Westerlund; Eleonor Åsander Frostner; Michael Karlsson; Gesine Paul; Fredrik Sjövall; Eskil Elmér

doi:10.1038/s41514-023-00130-4

Mitochondrial function in peripheral blood cells across the human lifespan

NPJ Aging. 2024 Feb 7;10(1):10. doi: 10.1038/s41514-023-00130-4.

Authors

Johannes K Ehinger^#^{1

2

3}, Emil Westerlund^#^{4

5}, Eleonor Åsander Frostner⁴, Michael Karlsson⁶, Gesine Paul⁷, Fredrik Sjövall^{4

8}, Eskil Elmér^{4

9}

Affiliations

¹ Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. johannes.ehinger@med.lu.se.
² Mitochondrial Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. johannes.ehinger@med.lu.se.
³ Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Skåne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden. johannes.ehinger@med.lu.se.
⁴ Mitochondrial Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
⁵ Emergency Department, Kungälv Hospital, Kungälv, Sweden.
⁶ Department of Neurosurgery, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
⁷ Translational Neurology Group and Wallenberg Center for Molecular Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
⁸ Department of Intensive- and Perioperative Care, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden.
⁹ Clinical Neurophysiology, Medical Imaging and Physiology, Skåne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Mitochondrial dysfunction is considered a hallmark of aging. Up to now, a gradual decline of mitochondrial respiration with advancing age has mainly been demonstrated in human muscle tissue. A handful of studies have examined age-related mitochondrial dysfunction in human blood cells, and only with small sample sizes and mainly in platelets. In this study, we analyzed mitochondrial respiration in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and platelets from 308 individuals across the human lifespan (0-86 years). In regression analyses, with adjustment for false discovery rate (FDR), we found age-related changes in respiratory measurements to be either small or absent. The main significant changes were an age-related relative decline in complex I-linked respiration and a corresponding rise of complex II-linked respiration in PBMCs. These results add to the understanding of mitochondrial dysfunction in aging and to its possible role in immune cell and platelet senescence.