FIG. 1.

Significant mtDNA depletion was present but compensated for at the posttranscriptional level. The amount of mtDNA (mtDNA copy number) is expressed as mtDNA copy number/cell; the COX activity, a mitochondrial respiratory chain activity strictly dependent on normal function of the mtDNA, is expressed as nmol·min⁻¹·mg⁻¹ of protein in adipose tissue homogenate; the amounts of subunit 2 of COX (MT-CO2p), an mtDNA-encoded mitochondrial protein, and α-tubulin (Tubulin), a cytoskeleton component, were expressed as the percentages of the level in one of the controls, arbitrarily chosen. The steady-state level of mRNA from the MT-CO2 gene located on the mtDNA (MT-CO2 mRNA) was expressed as cDNA copies, normalized to the β-actin level. The open circles are values from samples of HIV-infected patients' adipose tissue, and the closed circles are values from control samples. The median value of each group of data is shown as a bar. The asterisks mark statistically significant differences between results for patients' and control samples.