DEFECTS in mitochondria, the energy-producing structures within cells, could play a role in metabolic syndrome – the mix of obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other problems that affects 47 million people in the US alone.
When a team led by Richard Lifton of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Yale University surveyed 142 members of an extended family, they found that high blood pressure and high cholesterol were inherited only through mothers – like mitochondria. Sure enough, the team found a mitochondrial mutation (Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1102521).
This result, together with earlier studies, suggests that mitochondrial defects may predispose…
