The kinetics of in vivo regulation of mitochondrial respiration by ADP was studied in rat heart, slowtwitch skeletal muscle (soleus) and fast-twitch skeletal muscle (gastrocnemius, plantaris, quadriceps and tibialis anterior) by means of saponin-skinned fibres. Mitochondria1 respiratory parameters were determined in the absence and presence of creatine (20 mM), and the effect of proteolytic enzymes (trypsin, chymotrypsin or elastase) on these parameters was investigated in detail. Chem. 270, 19921 -199291, who studied muscle fibres from normal and transgenic mice, that the kinetics of respiration regulation in muscle cells is tissue specific. We found that in rat cardiac and soleus muscle fibres the apparent K,,, for respiration regulation was 300-400 pM and decreased to 50-80 pM in the presence of creatine. In contrast, in skinned fibres from gastrocnemius, plantaris, tibialis anterior and quadriceps muscles, this value was initially very low, 10-20 pM, i.e. the same as that is in isolated muscle mitochondria, and the effect of creatine was not observable under these experimental conditions. Treatment of the fibres with trypsin, chymotrypsin or elastase (0.125 pg/ml) for 15 min decreased the apparent K,,, for ADP in cardiac and soleus muscle fibres to 40-98 pM without significant alteration of V,,,, or the intactness of outer mitochondrial membrane, as assessed by the cytochrome c test. In fibres from gastrocnemius, trypsin increased the apparent K,,, for ADP transiently. The effects of trypsin and chymotrypsin were studied in detail and found to be concentration dependent and time dependent. The effects were characterised by saturation phenomenon with respect to the proteolytic enzyme concentration, saturation being observed above 1 pM enzyme. These results are taken to show that in cardiac and slow-twitch skeletal muscle, the permeability of the outer mitochondrial membrane to adenine nucleotides is low and controlled by a cytoplasmic protein that is sensitive to trypsin and chymotrypsin. This protein may participate in feedback signal transduction by a mechanism of vectorial-ligand conduction. This protein factor is not expressed in fasttwitch skeletal muscle, in which cellular mechanism of regulation of respiration is probably very different from that of slow-twitch muscles.Keywords: heart; skeletal muscle; respiration ; regulation; adenine nucleotide.The cellular mechanism of regulation of respiration in vivo is still unknown. The conventional explanation that the rate of respiration of mitochondria in intact cells is governed by the cytoplasmic ADP concentration according to a simple Michaelis-Menten type relationship is in disagreement with many experimental data [l-51. First, it has been shown in numerous experiments on isolated hearts that the increases in workload and oxygen consumption are usually observed at stable, low and sometimes even decreasing steady-state ADP levels [I -51. Second, Kushmerick et al. have found that in slow-twitch skeletal muscle, an increase of frequency of stimulation does...

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Very recent experimental data, obtained by using the permeabilized cell technique or tissue homogenates for investigation of the mechanisms of regulation of respiration in the cells in vivo, are shortly summarized. In these studies, surprisingly high values of apparent Km for ADP, exceeding that for isolated mitochondria in vitro by more than order of magnitude, were recorded for heart, slow twitch skeletal muscle, hepatocytes, brain tissue homogenates but not for fast twitch skeletal muscle. Mitochondrial swelling in the hypo-osmotic medium resulted in the sharp decrease of the value of Km for ADP in correlation with the degree of rupture of mitochondrial outer membrane, as determined by the cytochrome c test. Very similar effect was observed when trypsin was used for treatment of skinned fibers, permeabilized cells or homogenates. It is concluded that, in many but not all types of cells, the permeability of the mitochondria outer membrane for ADP is controlled by some cytoplasmic protein factor(s). Since colchicine and taxol were not found to change high values of the apparent Km for ADP, the participation of microtubular system seems to be excluded in this kind of control or respiration but studies of the roles of other cytoskeletal structures seem to be of high interest. In acute ischemia we observed rapid increase of the permeability of the mitochondrial outer membrane for ADP due to mitochondrial swelling and concomitant loss of creatine control of respiration as a result of dissociation of creatine kinase from the inner mitochondrial membrane. The extent of these damages was decreased by use of proper procedures of myocardial protection showing that outer mitochondrial membrane permeability and creatine control of respiration are valuable indices of myocardial preservation. In contrast to acute ischemia, chronic hypoxia seems to improve the cardiac cell energetics as seen from better postischemic recovery of phosphocreatine, and phosphocreatine overshoot after inotropic stimulation. In general, adaptational possibilities and pathophysiological changes in the mitochondrial outer membrane system point to the central role such a system may play in regulation of cellular energetics in vivo.