This presentation is a brief review of current knowledge concerning some biochemical, physiological and medical aspects of the function of ubiquinone (coenzyme Q) in mammalian organisms. In addition to its well-established function as a component of the mitochondrial respiratory chain, ubiquinone has in recent years acquired increasing attention with regard to its function in the reduced form (ubiquinol) as an antioxidant. Ubiquinone, partly in the reduced form, occurs in all cellular membranes as well as in blood serum and in serum lipoproteins. Ubiquinol efficiently protects membrane phospholipids and serum low-density lipoprotein from lipid peroxidation, and, as recent data indicate, also mitochondrial membrane proteins and DNA from free-radical induced oxidative damage. These effects of ubiquinol are independent of those of exogenous antioxidants, such as vitamin E, although ubiquinol can also potentiate the effect of vitamin E by regenerating it from its oxidized form. Tissue ubiquinone levels are regulated through the mevalonate pathway, increasing upon various forms of oxidative stress, and decreasing during aging. Drugs inhibiting cholesterol biosynthesis via the mevalonate pathway may inhibit or stimulate ubiquinone biosynthesis, depending on their site of action. Administration of ubiquinone as a dietary supplement seems to lead primarily to increased serum levels, which may account for most of the reported beneficial effects of ubiquinone intake in various instances of experimental and clinical medicine.

Preparations of rat-liver mitochondria catalyze the oxidation of exogenous NADH by added cytochrome c or ferricyanide by a reaction that is insensitive to the respiratory chain inhibitors, antimycin A, amytal, and rotenone, and is not coupled to phosphorylation. Experiments with tritiated NADH are described which demonstrate that this "external" pathway of NADH oxidation resembles stereochemically the NADH-cytochrome c reductase system of liver microsomes, and differs from the respiratory chain-linked NADH dehydrogenase. Enzyme distributation data are presented which substantiate the conclusion that microsomal contamination cannot account for the rotenone-insensitive NADH-cytochrome c reductase activity observed with the mitochondria. A procedure is developed, based on swelling and shrinking of the mitochondria followed by sonication and density gradient centrifugation, which permits the separation of two particulate subfractions, one containing the bulk of the respiratory chain components, and the other the bulk of the rotenone-insensitive NADH-cytochrome c reductase system. Morphological evidence supports the conclusion that the former subfraction consists of mitochondria devoid of outer membrane, and that the latter represents derivatives of the outer membrane. The data indicate that the electron-transport system associated with the mitochondrial outer membrane involves catalytic components similar to, or identical with, the microsomal NADHcytochrome b5 reductase and cytochrome bs.

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