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Updated: Sep 28, 2026

Preparation of Highly Coupled Rat Heart Mitochondria
Published on: September 23, 2010
Sodium tanshinone IIA sulfonate mediates electron transfer reaction in rat heart mitochondria
Guangyin Zhou1, Wen Jiang, Yan Zhao
1Laboratory of Visual Information Processing, Department of Molecular and Cell Biophysics, Institute of Biophysics, Academia Sinica, Beijing 100101, PR China.
Abstract:
In this paper, an electron transfer reaction mediated by sodium tanshinone IIA sulfonate (STS) was studied in rat heart mitochondria. It was found that STS could stimulate mitochondrial NADH oxidation dose-dependently and partly restore NADH oxidation in the presence of respiratory inhibitor (rotenone or antimycin A or KCN). It was likely that STS could accept electrons from complex I similar to ferricyanide and could be converted to its semiquinone form that could then reduce oxygen molecule. The data also showed that cytochrome c (Cyt c) could be reduced by STS in the presence of KCN, or STS could transfer the electron to oxygen directly. Free radicals were involved in the process. The results suggest that STS may protect ischemia-reperfusion injury through an electron transfer reaction in mitochondria against forming reactive oxygen radicals.
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