Figure 5.

Psychological distress increases the number of slips in WT animals without altering the bioenergetic parameters in PBMCs. Bioenergetic parameters of PBMCs from stressed and unstressed WT rats (WT S + and WT S-, respectively) and from stressed and unstressed PINK1-KO rats (PINK1-KO S + and PINK1-KO S-, respectively) were associated with motor dysfunction as represented by the number of slips (n# of slips, x axis) in the beam balance test in the same cohort of animals. This test was used to measure the fine motor coordination by allowing the animals to cross a 2 m longledge tapered beam at an angle of 15° from the floor. The rats were trained once followed by three trials with 1–2 min of rest between them, as previously described³. (a) relationship of basal glycolysis vs. basal respiration, (b) ATP production vs # of slips, (c) basal respiration vs # of slips, (d) basal glycolysis vs # of slips and (e) glycolytic capacity vs # of slips. Stressed groups represent samples obtained in both day 3 and day 10. OCRs data are expressed as percent means ± SEM relative to time 0 of WT S- group for each cohort/experimental group and normalized to total protein content and mitochondrial content by densitometric analysis of TOM20 levels; ECAR data are expressed as mean percentage ± SEM relative to time 0 of WT S- group for each respective cohort/experimental condition and normalized to total protein content.