Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2021, Vol. 52 ›› Issue (2): 286-299.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2021.02.002

• REVIEW • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The Role of Mitochondrial DNA in Innate Immunity

SONG Yinjuan, LIAO Yi, ZHOU Xiangmei*   

  1. College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
  • Received:2020-07-29 Online:2021-02-23 Published:2021-02-24

Abstract: Mitochondria are important cellular organelles involved in many different functions and are known as the energy factory of cells. Mitochondria maintain their genetic material, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), mtDNA is widely known for its role in oxidative phosphorylation. In recent years, increasing researches show that mtDNA acts as an agonist of the innate immune system and plays an important role in the pathogen infection and the pathologic development of inflammatory diseases. On entering the cytoplasm or extracellular environment, mtDNA can engage multiple pattern-recognition receptors of the innate immune system to trigger pro-inflammatory cytokines secretion and type Ⅰ interferon response. This review summarizes the mechanism of mtDNA to activate innate immunity and its role in the pathogenesis of infection and related diseases, the purpose is to provide theoretical basis for further research on the role and mechanism of mtDNA in pathogen infection and related diseases.

Key words: mitochondrial DNA, innate immunity, infection, inflammatory diseases

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