image: Cells with primed mitochondria are more sensitive to chemotherapy than those with unprimed mitochondria. Chemotherapy induces death signaling, ultimately in the form of pro-death BH3-only proteins (red spikes). Cells containing unprimed mitochondria (left) have ample unoccupied anti-apoptotic proteins (brown "Y") that can absorb and sequester these death signals. In cells containing higly primed mitochondria (right), however, there is little anti-apoptotic reserve, so that BH3 only proteins are free to (indirectly) cause the permeabilization of the mitochondrial outer membrane and cell death. The measurement of how primed mitochondria are before treatment can be performed with BH3 profiling. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the Oct. 27, 2011, issue of Science Express, published by AAAS. The paper, by T. Ni Chonghaile of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA, and colleagues, was titled, “Pretreatment Mitochondrial Priming Correlates with Clinical Response to Cytotoxic Chemotherapy.” view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Triona Ni Chonghaile