Effect of injected glucagon or fatty acids on mitochondrial ATPase

The intraperitoneal injection of glucagon or the intravenous infusion of oleic acid provoked a rapid change in the properties of rat liver mitochondrial ATPase. When mitochondria of treated animals were isolated an increase in ATPase activity was observed as well as a modification on the response to activators and inhibitors and to the sulfhydryl reagent N-ethylmaleimide. Sensitivity to the activators dinitrophenol or bicarbonate decreased, whereas the sensitivity to inhibitors KOCN and KSCN increased, and an inhibitory effect of N-ethylmaleimide appeared. These effects gradually disappeared when mitochondrial suspensions were kept at 10 degrees C, and after approximately 5 h ATPase from mitochondria of treated and control animals behaved almost identically. If the oxidizing agent dichlorophenolindophenol was added to the isolated mitochondria the effects induced by glucagon or fatty acids immediately disappeared. The activation caused by the reducing agent dithionite on ATPase activity in mitochondria from control animals did not take place in fresh mitochondria from treated animals; however, dithionite was effective in these latter mitochondria when tested 5 h later after keeping them at 10 degrees C. The intravenous infusion of oleic acid produced a rise in the [NADH]/[NAD+] and [Total flavin]/[FAD] ratios in mitochondria, and values double as those in the controls were observed; these values gradually approached those of the control mitochondria when kept at 10 degrees C; after 24 h these ratios were the same in mitochondrial suspensions from treated and nontreated animals. These results suggest that the modification of the properties of mitochondrial ATPase induced by glucagon or fatty acids might be mediated by a change in the mitochondrial redox state.