Melatonin role in the mitochondrial function

Abstract

Melatonin is an ancient molecule present in unicellular organisms at the very early moment of life. Initially identified as a secretory product of the pineal gland in mammals and in other species, it was considered a hormone related to reproduction. The evidence that melatonin is produced in many organs and tissues of the body, reaching concentrations higher than in the blood, support the multiplicity of the melatonin actions. The best-known actions of melatonin, currently supported by experimental and clinical data, include antioxidant and anti-inflammatory abilities, some of them involving genomic regulation of a series of enzymes. Besides, melatonin displays anticonvulsant and antiexcitotoxic properties. Most of the beneficial consequences resulting from melatonin administration may depend on its effects on mitochondrial physiology. The physiological effects of melatonin on normal mitochondria, its role to prevent mitochondrial impairment, energy failure, and apoptosis in oxidatively-damaged mitochondria, and the beneficial effects of the administration of melatonin in experimental and clinical diseases involving mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death, are revised.

Melatonin: a possible link between the presence of artificial light at night and reductions in biological fitness

“…The antioxidant capacity of melatonin is derived in part because it is amphiphilic and is thus able freely to move intracellularly across membranes, including mitochondria, the organelle primarily responsible for cellular respiration and thus one of the main sites of free radical generation [62,63]. At the cellular level, endogenous melatonin has been directly linked to enhanced cell maintenance [61], mitochondrial activity [63,64] and increased antioxidant capacity of gametes in vertebrates [65,66].…”

Melatonin Inhibits Benzene-Induced Lipid Peroxidation in Rat Liver

“…Melatonin increases the activity of the respiratory chain complexes I and IV, inhibits mitochondrial pathways of apoptosis, and participates in the circadian oscillations of oxidative phosphorylation (46,47). Metabolic pathways of melatonin in microsomes and mitochondria involve the same CYPs.…”

Melatonin for Protection Against Ionizing Radiation

“…It is well documented that the apoptotic signaling activated during UVB stress mainly converges at the mitochondrial level into intrinsic pathway and supporting evidence consider this pathway might be the principle target of melatonin to prevent apoptosis in human leukocytes (Radogna et al 2008) as well as in other tumor cell lines and in vivo models (Acuna-Castroviejo et al 2007). An in vitro stress model for the cell protection and antiapoptotic functions of melatonin was studied using U937 cells exposed to UVB radiation (Luchetti et al 2006).…”