Pink1-mediated mitophagy in the endothelium releases proteins encoded by mitochondrial DNA and activates neutrophil responses during inflammation
- University of Illinois Chicago, United States
Abstract
Eukaryotic mitochondria are characterized by several features that represent vestiges of their prokaryotic ancestry. One such feature is the N-terminal formylation of proteins encoded by mitochondrial DNA that undergo translation by mitochondrial ribosomes. N-formylated proteins are also released by bacteria and trigger activation of immune cells such as neutrophils. Growing evidence indicates that circulating levels of mitochondrial formyl proteins are elevated in the serum of patients with excessive inflammatory responses. However, the mechanisms by which they are released into circulation are not known. In this study, we have identified vascular endothelial cells as a source of Pink1-dependent release of mitochondrial formyl proteins in response to inflammatory mediators. Mechanistically, the mitophagy mediator Pink1 is stabilized by inflammatory activation of endothelial cells, promoting mitophagy and mitochondrial formyl peptide release both in mice and primary human endothelial cells. Using nanoparticle delivery of Pink1-targeting sgRNA in mice expressing endothelial-specific Cas9, we developed a mouse model in which Pink1 is specifically depleted in the endothelium. Deletion of endothelial Pink1 decreased circulating formyl peptide levels, lowered lung neutrophil infiltration and reduced mortality in mice. We thus propose that endothelial cells upregulate pro-inflammatory mitophagy in response to inflammation, leading to the release of mitochondrial formyl peptides and detrimental neutrophil recruitment into the lung.
Data availability
Data are included in the manuscript and the supporting files. No new sequencing datasets were generated for this manuscript.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Institutes of Health (P01HL160469)
- Priyanka Gajwani
- Li Wang
- Young-Mee Kim
- Jalees Rehman
National Institutes of Health (R01HL174916)
- Li Wang
- Pierina Danos
- Jalees Rehman
National Institutes of Health (R01HL152515)
- Young-Mee Kim
- Jalees Rehman
National Institutes of Health (R01HL149300)
- Shubhi Srivastava
- Zijing Ye
- Jalees Rehman
AHA (18PRE34070092)
- Priyanka Gajwani
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: All animal procedures were performed in accordance with guidelines by the Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of Illinois Chicago, as per approved protocols (ACC 20-196 and ACC 23-152). For endpoint experiments, mice were anesthetized with intraperitoneal administration of a mixture of Ketamine (100mg/Kg), Xylazine (2mg/Kg) and acepromaxine (2 mg/Kg) in saline solution and every effort was made to minimize suffering.
Copyright
© 2026, Gajwani et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Pink1-mediated mitophagy in the endothelium releases proteins encoded by mitochondrial DNA and activates neutrophil responses during inflammation
eLife 15:e82205.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.82205
