The Effects of Mitochondrial Mutation of Tumorigenesis

Abstract

This paper investigated the activity of tumorigenesis within mitochondrially mutated progenitor cells. It seeks to answer how the epigenetics of mitochondrially mutated cells containing the NMyc oncogene changes the rate of tumorigenesis. The experiment investigated the changes in methylation and acetylation of the N-Myc infected progenitor cells to determine the extent that gene expression and regulation were occurring at. It focused on the differences in acetylation and methylation regarding the different genotypes in the PolG mice model (wild type, heterozygous, homozygous) containing the N-Myc gene. Immunofluorescent imaging was used to quantify the changes in acetylation and methylation of the cells and establish the degree of change in the epigenetics compared to how the cells experienced changes in tumorigenesis. Preliminary results indicated decreased tumorigenesis in the homozygous N-Myc progenitor cells compared to the wild type and heterozygous models infected with N-Myc. Studies to determine the degree of change in acetylation and methylation between genotypes are ongoing.