FlowCytometry-Based Assessment of Mitophagy Using MitoTracker

Mitophagy is an important mechanism in mitochondrial quality control through autophagic clearance of damaged mitochondria and has been considered to assume protective roles against some diseases, especially neurodegeneration, including Parkinson's disease (Haelterman et al., 2014), and Alzheimer's disease (Ye et al., 2015). To understand the role of mitophagy in these diseases, measures to assess mitophagy are of great importance. Among those established methods, engulfment of mitochondria by autophagosome shown by transmission electron microscope (TEM) provides unequivocal evidence of occurrence of mitophagy (Klionsky et al., 2012). However, it demands painstaking effort and is difficult to quantify mitophagy.