It seems most likely that free-radical signals optimise respiration, within individual mitochondria, by raising the number of respiratory complexes, so increasing respiratory capacity. Because mitochondria spend much of their time fusing together and then splitting apart again, making more complexes (and more copies of mitochondrial DNA) translates into making more mitochondria – what’s known as mitochondrial biogenesis.9 Free-radical leak can therefore increase the number of mitochondria, which between them make more ATP! Conversely, blocking free radicals with antioxidants prevents
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