A magnesium-responsive defect of respiration and oxidative phosphorylation in skeletal muscle mitochondria of dystrophic hamsters

Skeletal muscle mitochondria were isolated in the presence and absence of the proteinase Nagarse from dystrophic hamsters of the BIO 14.6 strain, aged 45–196 days, and from normal hamsters. Mitochondria from the dystrophic animals prepared by glass-on-glass homogenization without Nagarse in 0.25 M sucrose – 1 mM EDTA, pH 7.4, did not differ from normal in their respiratory rate or capacity for oxidative phosphorylation. However, these functions were subnormal in mitochondria isolated with Nagarse from the same animals, both in the presence and absence of albumin. Respiration measured with an O2 electrode was reduced by 50–70% and the stimulation of O2 uptake normally seen after ADP addition was minimal or absent. This was most marked in mitochondria from young hamsters about 65 days old with muscle necrosis. The defect was ameliorated by addition to the Polarographie test system of an ATP trap or of Mg2+, one of the trap constituents. This ion, when added to the defective mitochondria prior to ADP and substrate, restored respiration and oxidative phosphorylation to values that did not differ significantly from those found with skeletal muscle mitochondria of normal hamsters.