Title Page
Contents
Abstract 9
I. INTRODUCTION 11
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS 14
2.1. Cell culture and MOTS-c treatment 14
2.2. Cell size measurement 14
2.3. Reverse transcription and real-time qPCR 15
2.4. Western blotting 15
2.5. OCR measurements 17
2.6. Mitochondrial function analysis 18
2.7. ROS assay 18
2.8. Lipid droplet assay 19
2.9. Statistical analysis 19
III. RESULTS 21
3.1. MOTS-c restores the morphology of old hPD-MSCs and their expression of stem cell markers 21
3.2. MOTS-c activates AMPK, a critical regulator of stem cell homeostasis 22
3.3. MOTS-c decreases mitochondrial oxygen consumption 23
3.4. MOTS-c enhances mitochondrial homeostasis by preventing mitochondrial dysfunction 23
3.5. MOTS-c decresases lipid metabolism 24
IV. DISCUSSION 34
V. CONCLUSION 40
REFERENCES 41
ABSTRACT IN KOREAN 45
FIGURE 1. (A) Bright-field images of young, old, and MOTS-c-treated old... 26
FIGURE 2. Western blot analysis and phosphorylation ratios determined from the... 27
FIGURE 3. (A) (Left) Real-time oxygen consumption in young, old,... 28
FIGURE 4. (A) Representative confocal images of young, old, and... 29
FIGURE 5. (A) Fluorescence images of lipid droplets in young, old, and... 30
FIGURE S1. Primer list for quantitative real-time PCR 31
FIGURE S2. AMPK activation ratio according to MOTS-c concentration (Top) Western... 32
FIGURE S3. The ratio of pACC/ACC. Western blot analysis of pACC/ACC relative to... 33