Friedreich's ataxia: malic enzyme activity in cellular fractions of cultured skin fibroblasts

Abnormalities of mitochondrial enzymes in hereditary ataxias

The activity of 7 mitochondrial enzymes, fumarase, NAD-malate dehydrogenase (MDH), citrate synthase (CS), valine dehydrogenase (VDH), succinate dehydrogenase (SDH), glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH), pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC) has been measured in platelet preparations from patients affected by Friedreich's ataxia (FA), dominant and non-dominant olivopontocerebellar atrophy (DOPCA, NDOPCA) and normal individuals. Significant decreases of GDH (P less than 0.01), PDHC (P less than 0.01), VDH (P less than 0.05) and SDH (P less than 0.05) activities were observed in FA patients. Significant decreases of GDH (P less than 0.01), PDHC (P less than 0.01), VDH (P less than 0.05), SDH (P less than 0.05) and CS (P less than 0.05) activities were Observed in ND-OPCA patients, whereas in DOPCA patients only GDH activity was significantly (P less than 0.05) decreased. In 8 of 10 patients with FA and in all patients with NDOPCA the activity of one or more of 4 enzymes, i.e. GDH, VDH, SDH, PDHC, was lower than the lowest of control values. Four of 6 patients with DOPCA had GDH activity lower than the lowest of control values. These results indicate that abnormalities of mitochondrial metabolism is a constant element in hereditary ataxia and suggest that the alteration primary leading to the different types of ataxias should be related to mitochondrial oxidative metabolism, at least at a regulatory level.

Mitochondrial dysfunction and spinocerebellar degenerations

A simplified classification of the spinocerebellar degenerations is proposed. Axonal ataxias include Friedreich's ataxia and other conditions involving, primarily, neurons with very long axons. Multiple system degenerations include the various olivopontocerebellar atrophies and related disorders. Ataxic encephalopathies are diffuse diseases of the nervous system in which ataxia is a prominent clinical feature. Several lines of data suggest that mitochondrial damage is a common mechanism in the spinocerebellar degenerations. Reasonable pathophysiological mechanisms can be invoked, linking mitochondrial damage to the observed pathologies (including the many cases of intermediate on variant forms).

Cardiac malic enzyme in Friedreich's disease

We measured the activity of cytosolic and of mitochondrial malic enzyme in the hearts from 4 patients with Friedreich's disease and from two non-ataxic control subjects. There was a wide variability in the results and the slight overall decreases in both enzyme activities were not considered to be statistically significant. From these and other results, we conclude that deficient mitochondrial malic enzyme activity is not a constant or primary feature of Friedreich's disease.