Fig. 1: The role of mitochondria as signaling organelles.
From: The effect of extracellular vesicles on the regulation of mitochondria under hypoxia
Mitochondria play greatly important roles in generating ATP through oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS). The main mitochondrial-dependent signaling events: the release of mitochondrial ROS to induce the changes of gene expression through HIF/AMPK/Ca2+/Cn; release of metabolites to induce histone acetylation, histone and DNA demethylation, which determined cell differentiation; activation of AMPK regulates mitochondrial metabolism, mitophagy, and mitochondrial fission and fusion; release of cytochrome C activates caspases cascade reaction to induce cell death; release of mtDNA causes the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Moreover, mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM) can be used as a signaling platform. B cell lymphoma-2 (BCL-2)-associated X protein (BAX) and BCL-2 antagonist/killer 1 (BAK), endoplasmic reticulum (ER), Ca2+/ Calcineurin (Cn), hypoxia inducible factor (HIF), Adenosine monophosphate‑activated protein kinase (AMPK).
