Impairment of myocardial and skeletal mitochondria in mice with viral myocarditis and their correlation

In order to investigate the impairment of mitochondrial membrane phospholipid localization and DNA³⁸⁶⁷ (mtDNA³⁸⁶⁷) deletion and the correlation between cardiac and skeletal muscle cells in mice with viral myocarditis, 50 BALB/c mice were divided into two groups randomly. In experimental group (n=40), the mice were intraperitoneally injected with 0.1 mL Eagle liquid with CVB₃(TCID₅₀=10⁸), while in the control group (n=10), the mice were subjected to equal volume of Eagle liquid. The impairment of mitochondrial membrane phospholipid localization and mtDNA³⁸⁶⁷ deletion rate of cardiac and skeletal muscle were detected separately at day 3, 11 and 24 after injection. The correlation of mitochondrial membrane phospholipid localization and mtDNA³⁸⁶⁷ deletion rate between cardiac and skeletal muscle cells cells was analyzed using Spearman method. At the day 3 after injection, in both cardiac and skeletal muscle cells, mtDNA³⁸⁶⁷ deletion rate was significantly higher in experimental group than in control group (P<0.05), but the localization of mitochondrial membrane phospholipid showed no difference between two groups (P>0.05). At day 11 after injection, the mtDNA³⁸⁶⁷ deletion rate of both cells in experimental group was increased to the peak level (P<0.05), and the impairment of mitochondrial membrane phospholipid localization of both cells also increased markedly in experimental group as compared with control group (P>0.05). At the day 24 after injection, the impairment of mitochondrial membrane phospholipid localization and mtDNA³⁸⁶⁷ deletion of both cells showed a recovery tendency, but still severer than those at the day 3 after injection (P<0.05). The impairment of mitochondrial membrane phospholipid localization and mtDNA³⁸⁶⁷ deletion were consistent and synchronistic between cardiac and skeletal muscle cells, and showed good correlations (P<0.05). The impairment of mitochondria plays an important role in the pathogenesis of viral myocarditis, and the skeletal muscle cells might act as a peripheral "window" to reflect the mitochondrial damage of cardiac myocytes.