Comparative study of free respiration in liver mitochondria during oxidation of various electron donors and under conditions of shutdown of complex III of the respiratory chain

The present work shows that the rate of free respiration of liver mitochondria (in the absence of ATP synthesis (state 4) during the oxidation of succinate is 1.7 times higher than during the oxidation of glutamate with malate. In turn, in the case of oxidation of ferrocyanide with ascorbate, this value is 3.1 times greater than in the case of succinate oxidation. A similar pattern is also observed upon stimulation of free respiration by low concentrations (5 and 10 μM) of the protonophore uncoupler 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP). It is found that the passive leakage rate of protons in state 4 is the same if the H+/O ratios are 10, 6, and 2 upon the oxidation of glutamate with malate, succinate, and ferrocyanide with ascorbate, respectively. At these values of the H+/O ratio, low concentrations of DNP stimulate passive proton leakage equally during the oxidation of these respiration substrates. In the case of succinate oxidation, bypassing complex III by N,N,N′,N′-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine (TMPD) to the maximum degree, as well as switching this complex completely to idle mode by α,ω-hexadecanedioic acid (HDA) cause a 3-fold stimulation of respiration in state 4. We conclude that at mitochondrial free respiration the values of the H+/2e− ratio for complexes I, III, and IV of the respiratory chain are 4, 4, and 2, respectively. It is assumed that the free respiration of mitochondria is carried out by simple diffusion of protons through the inner membrane, and the rate of this diffusion depends on the total number of protons released by the complexes of the electron transport chain into the intermembrane space.