Mitochondrial DNA Mutations in Mutator Mice Confer Respiration Defects and B-Cell Lymphoma Development

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutator mice are proposed to express premature aging phenotypes including kyphosis and hair loss (alopecia) due to their carrying a nuclear-encoded mtDNA polymerase with a defective proofreading function, which causes accelerated accumulation of random mutations in mtDNA, resulting in expression of respiration defects. On the contrary, transmitochondrial mito-miceΔ carrying mtDNA with a large-scale deletion mutation (ΔmtDNA) also express respiration defects, but not express premature aging phenotypes. Here, we resolved this discrepancy by generating mtDNA mutator mice sharing the same C57BL/6J (B6J) nuclear background with that of mito-miceΔ. Expression patterns of premature aging phenotypes are very close, when we compared between homozygous mtDNA mutator mice carrying a B6J nuclear background and selected mito-miceΔ only carrying predominant amounts of ΔmtDNA, in their expression of significant respiration defects, kyphosis, and a short lifespan, but not the alopecia. Therefore, the apparent discrepancy in the presence and absence of premature aging phenotypes in mtDNA mutator mice and mito-miceΔ, respectively, is partly the result of differences in the nuclear background of mtDNA mutator mice and of the broad range of ΔmtDNA proportions of mito-miceΔ used in previous studies. We also provided direct evidence that mtDNA abnormalities in homozygous mtDNA mutator mice are responsible for respiration defects by demonstrating the co-transfer of mtDNA and respiration defects from mtDNA mutator mice into mtDNA-less (ρ⁰) mouse cells. Moreover, heterozygous mtDNA mutator mice had a normal lifespan, but frequently developed B-cell lymphoma, suggesting that the mtDNA abnormalities in heterozygous mutator mice are not sufficient to induce a short lifespan and aging phenotypes, but are able to contribute to the B-cell lymphoma development during their prolonged lifespan.