A study of mitochondria in spinal ganglion neurons during life: quantitative changes from youth to extremely advanced age

In view of the central role that mitochondria are thought to play in the ageing process, we investigated changes in mitochondria of spinal ganglion neurons in rabbits aged 1, 3.6, 6.7, and 8.8 years (the latter extremely old). Mitochondrial size increased significantly with age, while mitochondrial structure did not change. The total volume of mitochondria within the perikaryon did not change significantly during life. This indicates that in these neurons mitochondrial degradation was completely compensated by the production of new mitochondria even in the extremely advanced age. We also found that the mean volume of neuronal perikaryon increased markedly with age, so that the mean percentage of perikaryal volume occupied by mitochondria decreased significantly with a difference of about 33% between the youngest and the oldest animals. This decrease is only in very small part due to lipofuscin accumulation, so that the ratio of the total volume of mitochondria to the volume of functionally active cytoplasm decreased with age. The mitochondria of the neurons studied seem therefore unable to adapt their total volume to the volume of functionally active cytoplasm, that increases with age. This result is consistent with the observation that the neurons of old animals have a reduced ability to respond to high energy demands.