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Tumour necrosis factor-alpha uncouples respiration in isolated rat mitochondria
Sílvia Busquets1, Xavier Aranda, Miquel Ribas-Carbó
1Cancer Research Group, Departament de Bioquimica i Biologia Molecular, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 645, Barcelona 08028, Spain.
Abstract:
Recent studies have demonstrated the existence of an intracellular (associated with mitochondria) tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF) binding protein. In an attempt to elucidate if this receptor could be involved in TNF action, we have incubated liver isolated mitochondria in the presence of recombinant murine TNF. The results show that the addition of TNF at concentrations as low as 10(-6) U/microl resulted in a clear uncoupling respiration of liver isolated mitochondria, therefore suggesting that TNF can indeed exert intracellular effects, which are possibly linked with its cytotoxic mechanism.