Isolation of Mitochondria From Fresh Mice Lung Tissue

Direct analysis of isolated mitochondria enables a better understanding of lung dysfunction. Despite well-defined mitochondrial isolation protocols applicable to other tissues, such as the brain, kidney, heart, and liver, a robust and reproductive protocol has not yet been advanced for the lung. We describe a protocol for the isolation of mitochondria from lung tissue aiming for functional analyses of mitochondrial O₂ consumption, transmembrane potential, reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, ATP production, and swelling. We compared our protocol to that used for heart mitochondrial function that is well-established in the literature, and achieved similar results.