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Effect of Aging and Caloric Restriction on the Mitochondrial Proteome

Departments of ¹ Physiology, ² Cellular and Structural Biology, and³ Medicine and ⁴ Biochemistry and the ⁵ Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
⁶ Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center, South Texas Veterans Health Care System, San Antonio.

Address correspondence to Walter F. Ward, PhD, Department of Physiology, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive-MSC 7756, San Antonio, TX 78229-3900. E-mail: wardw{at}uthscsa.edu

The rat mitochondrial proteome was analyzed using two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (2-D PAGE), and proteins altered by age or caloric restriction (CR) were identified using mass spectrometry. Of 2061 mitochondrial proteins analyzed in the three tissues, a significant change with age occurred in 25 liver proteins (19 increased, 6 decreased), 3 heart proteins (1 increased, 2 decreased), and 5 skeletal muscle proteins (all increased). CR prevented the age-related change in the level of one liver mitochondrial protein, altered the levels of four proteins (one increased, three decreased) from heart, and one protein (decreased) from skeletal muscle. Identification of the proteins that changed with age or CR revealed that they were varied among the three tissues, that is, not one mitochondrial protein was changed, in common, by age or CR in any tissue studied. Thus, the effect of age on the mitochondrial proteome appears to be tissue-specific, and CR has a minor effect on age-related protein changes.