This Reference Guide to the Basic Science Aspects of the Mitochondria was compiled under the direction of the American Medical Research, LLC and its founder William S. Coury. Until about twenty years ago, the mitochondria were the redheaded stepchildren of biology and biology based scientific research. Three discoveries: 1) that mitochondria are endosymbionts, with their own unique genome, and thus are an indispensable part of human genetics and 2) that these symbiotic organelles have a large number of functions until recently unsuspected, all relating to energy production and the handling of oxygen in human metabolism, have resulted in an explosion of research, and 3) the discovery that mitochondria and mutations of their genome are at the root of a large number of serious diseases, has led to an explosion of research.

That mitochondria are involved in the etiology and quite likely in the prevention and treatment of many diseases in which their involvement has been heretofore unsuspected is an evolving concept and one which is likely to be extremely important to physicians during the coming years.

In 1962, Luft R, Ikkos D, Palmeieri G, et al. A case of severe hypermetabolism of non-thyroid origin with a defect in the maintenance of mitochondrial respiratory control: a correlated clinical, biochemical and morphological study. J Clin Invest 1962;41:1776-804, was the first report that mitochondria are involved in human diseases. The development of that concept was chronicled by Luft R. The development of mitochondrial medicine. Biochem Biophys Acta 1995;1271:1-6. Until fairly recently, this was recognized in diseases involving the nervous system and muscles. Continuing research in that regard has led to the realization that mitochondrial dysfunction is involved in many other diseases in which this involvement is not so immediately apparent, since many of these other diseases make their appearance in middle age. Since 1980, there have been in excess of 90,000 articles concerning mitochondria in the basic science literature. Only a few of these have been published in the clinical medical literature. The reporting in 1981 that mitochondria possess their own genome made these organelles an essential part of a study of genetics and the explosion of information about genetic influences on diseases, which is ongoing. One of the results of this is that recent college graduates who have had a course or two in biology are probably possessed of more of to day information about mitochondria than physicians who completed their education twenty-five years ago. The purpose of this guide line is to help physicians who are interested in integrating this newer knowledge into their practice catch up without having to read all 90,000 of the recently published references on mitochondria. This is not intended as a textbook, nor written with the rigor of textbooks. It is intended as a reference guide to help in self-education in an emerging field of medicine, which is likely to be of extreme importance in the next few years.

We gratefully acknowledge the kindness of numerous scientists who furnished us with reprints of their published papers, in particularly the kindness of Dr. Douglas Wallace of Emory University in providing us with copies of the numerous papers published by his department, and the invaluable assistance of Maury Silverman in obtaining copies of hard to find references from the National Library of Medicine.

These references have been assembled and compiled by the joint efforts of William M. Cargile, D.C., L.Ac., Daniel G. Clark, M.D., Steve G. Haltiwanger, M.D., William H. Moore, Jr., M.D., J.D., and Marjorie Moore, with the invaluable assistance in research of David A. Steenblock, D.O. and the staff of the Institute of Quantum and Molecular Medicine.