Increased transcription of mitochondrial genes for Complex I in human platelets during ageing

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Abstract
We studied the effect of ageing on the mRNA levels of mitochondria‐encoded polypeptides in human platelets. We used quantitative real‐time reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) to investigate the expression of selected cytochrome c oxidase (COX) genes (subunits I and III) and Complex I genes (subunits reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) dehydrogenase (ND)1 and ND5) in platelets from young and aged healthy subjects. Northern blot analysis confirmed the PCR results. COX I expression is higher than that of COX III in both young and aged platelets. A significant increase of transcripts for Complex I was found during ageing. On the contrary, the mRNA levels of the two COX subunits did not significantly vary during ageing.