Mitochondrial DNA integrity.

<p>mtDNA damage (A-B) and copy number (C-D) in MDA-MB-231 (A,C) and H23 (B,D) cells after exposure to DMSO [(0.02%) black bars], MitoT (dark gray bars), MitoQ (gray bars) or MitoCA (light gray bars) at 2μM for 24 hours. mtDNA fragmentation (A-B) was evaluated using PCR amplification of a long mitochondrial sequence relative to a short mitochondrial sequence. Band intensities of PCR products were quantitated using densitometry. In A-B, gels are representative images for PCR products. In C & D, mitochondrial copy number was assessed by amplification of short regions of house-keeping genes in both nDNA and mtDNA. Bars depict the mean ratio of long to short band intensities (A-B) or the mean ratio of mtDNA:nDNA (C-D) relative to the DMSO treatment +/-1 SEM. Asterisks show statistical significance at p<0.05 relative to the DMSO control at each time. For each assay, two independent experiments were performed (n = 3).