Inactivation and reactivation of mitochondrial respiration by charged detergents

Respiration of submitochondrial preparations can be inhibited by the cationic detergent cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide and the anionic detergent sodium dodecyl sulfate in the range of 0.3-2 mumol of detergent per mg of mitochondrial membrane protein depending on the substrate and detergent used. This inhibition can be rapidly reversed by neutralizing a given detergent by the detergent of the opposite charge. At higher levels of the inhibiting detergent, no such reactivation was observed. Spin labeling assays of membrane structure were used to correlate structural effects with the loss and recovery of respiratory functions. Because the detergents progressively disrupt membrane structure, mitochondrial were cross-linked with bifunctional imidoesters to an extent that osmotic properties and detergent lysis were gone, but respiration remained. Such fixed respiring mitochondria also show inhibition reactivation phenomena.