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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Dec 16.
Published in final edited form as: Shock. 2017 Dec;48(6):600–609. doi: 10.1097/SHK.0000000000000906

Fig. 2. Mitochondrial disintegrity as an inducer of intracellular and systemic inflammatory response.

Fig. 2.

The mitochondria play an essential role in the regulation of inflammatory response as well as metabolism and apoptosis. Disruption of mitochondrial integrity leads to release of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to the cytosolic fraction, which, in turn, induces activation of NLRP3 inflammasome. Moreover, when mtDNA and mitochondrial proteins (e.g., HSP60, formylated peptides) are released to the circulation, they function as mitochondrial DAMPs and thereby cause and/or exacerbate systemic inflammation. DAMPs indicates damage-associated molecular patterns; HSP60, heat shock protein 60; NLRP3, nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor family, pyrin domain-containing-3.