Anne-Marie Koop

78 Mitochondrial function Mitochondrial content Mitochondrial content was studied using different assays and subsequently expressed as: the ratio of mitochondrial DNA – nuclear (18S) DNA, the ratio of the number mitochondria to myofibrils, mitochondrial yield (mg mitochondrial protein per gram RV), citrate synthase activity or citrate synthase mRNA expression. Combining all the data from different models 27,28,42–45 and including all analyses, a significant decrease of mitochondrial content in the pressure loaded RV could be demonstrated (g = -0.60, p = 0.016). However, several studies used data form the same experiment. After exclusion of the possible duplicate measurements (choosing most optimal determination, ranked according order above), mitochondrial content tended to decrease, but lost its statistical significance (g = -0.68, p = 0.054)( figure 5a ). Plotting duration against mitochondrial content suggests a curvilinear association, with a significant negative correlation in the first six weeks ( figure 5b ). In addition, mitochondrial content is negative correlated to the degree of RV pressure load ( suppl. figure 4 ).