AUTHOR=Amadoro Giuseppina , Corsetti Veronica , Florenzano Fulvio , Atlante Anna , Bobba Antonella , Nicolin Vanessa , Nori Stefania Lucia , Calissano Pietro TITLE=Morphological and bioenergetic demands underlying the mitophagy in post-mitotic neurons: the pink–parkin pathway JOURNAL=Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience VOLUME=6 YEAR=2014 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/aging-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00018 DOI=10.3389/fnagi.2014.00018 ISSN=1663-4365 ABSTRACT=

Evidence suggests a striking causal relationship between changes in quality control of neuronal mitochondria and numerous devastating human neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Contrary to replicating mammalian cells with a metabolism essentially glycolytic, post-mitotic neurons are distinctive owing to (i) their exclusive energetic dependence from mitochondrial metabolism and (ii) their polarized shape, which entails compartmentalized and distinct energetic needs. Here, we review the recent findings on mitochondrial dynamics and mitophagy in differentiated neurons focusing on how the exceptional characteristics of neuronal populations in their morphology and bioenergetics needs make them quite different to other cells in controlling the intracellular turnover of these organelles.