[Degradation of Mitochondria to Lipofuscin upon Heating and Illumination].

In the present work, it has been shown that the isolated mitochondria can undergo transformation to lipofuscin granules without any additional factors (oxygen saturation, prooxidants). The process occurs spontaneously and slowly at low temperature, and rapidly--by heating (thermo-lipofuscin) or under UV irradiation (photo-lipofuscin). The main contribution to the formation of mitochondrial lipofuscin comes from denatured proteins.