ATP synthase activity in ovine ceroid lipofuscinosis [OCL6]

We measured ATP synthase activities in mitochondria isolated from livers of lambs with ceroid lipofuscinosis (OCL6) and compared them with those from similar isolations from obligate heterozygous and control lambs. Addition of excess Ca2+ to the incubation mixture resulted in an up-regulation of activity in mitochondria from control lambs but down-regulation in those from OCL6 affected lambs. The mean change in activity with Ca2+ for heterozygous animals was midway between those from control and affected groups being significantly different from control but not from affected. The change in ATP synthase activity to added Ca2+ was also measured in isolated mitochondria from affected and control lambs from 3 days to 25 months of age. As above, there was down-regulation to the addition of Ca2+ in affected lambs. There was a fall in percentage change to Ca2+ with age in both affected and control lambs. This was not significantly different in affected lambs indicating it was not associated with the stage of disease. The above in vitro results, if extrapolated to neurons in vivo, imply a potential dysfunction of mitochondria in OCL6 lambs that could lead to calcium mediated neurotoxicity and neuron death due to production of free radicals as implicit in the energy-linked excitotoxic hypothesis.