Question: What diseases can you get in the Mitrochondria?

Christie Waddington answered on 15 Jun 2016:

Many! Mitochondrial Disease is a broad term describing a disease that affects the mitochondria. Most proteins used by the mitochondria are encoded on the nuclear DNA, rather than the mitochondrial DNA, but you can get mutations in both DNAs that lead to Mitochondrial Disease.
The parts of the body that are mostly affected are those which require a lot of energy such as the muscles, the heart and the brain. So patients typically suffer from epilepsy (brain), muscle weakness (muscles), tremors (brain and muscle), deafness, and heart problems.

I’ve been working with a patient recently who has MIDD (maternally-inherited Diabetes and Deafness) and is caused by a mutation in the mitochondrial DNA. Another patient has MERRF (myoclonic epilepsy with red ragged fibres) which is also caused by a mutation on the mitochondrial DNA. The red ragged fibres just refer to what you see down the microscope.

If you take a look at our website, or the Lily Foundation website, it will give you a good overview of Mitochondrial Disease :-).

http://www.newcastle-mitochondria.com/mitochondria/what-is-mitochondrial-disease/