Mitochondrial metabolism of pyruvate in bovine spermatozoa

Treatment with the polyene antibiotic, filipin, renders the spermatozoan cell membrane permeable to small molecules, but not to the intracellular enzymes aldolase and lactate dehydrogenase. Pyruvate (10 mM) as the sole substrate was metabolized very slowly. L-Carnitine increased pyruvate metabolism 3- to 4-fold and allowed limited rates of oxidative phosphorylation. When spermatozoa treated with filipin were supplemented with malate, there was a rapid, almost linear rate of pyruvate metabolism which was slightly increased by L-carnitine. In the absence of malate, 20 to 30% of the pyruvate used was reduced to lactate; this increased to 57% in the presence of malate. Without malate, about 90% of the pyruvate metabolized was converted to lactate and acetate or L-acetylcarnitine. Rutamycin or rotenone increased both the rate of pyruvate use and the delta lactate/deltapyruvate ratio. Under all treatments, L-carnitine consistently reduced the percentage of pyruvate converted to lactate by about 10%; part of the pyruvate was preferentially shunted into L-acetylcarnitine rather than lactate. The mitochondrial inhibitors, rotenone or rutamycin, did not change the amount of pyruvate that was converted to metabolites other than lactate, or L-acetylcarnitine, or both. Pyruvate-supported State 3 respiration was linear only if L-carnitine, or malate, or both, were added to the incubation medium. Added malate was necessary to produce a rapid State 3 respiratory rate and was also required for significant respiratory activity in the presence of rotenone or rutamycin. From cells metabolizing [2-14C]pyruvate (1.4 mM), 14C-labeled acid-extractable metabolites were separated by ion exchange column chromatography. All of the [2-14C]pyruvate (+/-5%) used was recovered in 14C-labeled metabolites and 14CO2. In the presence of malate, citrate accumulation was significant, and was always large in comparison to flux through the citric acid cycle. Glutamate, beta-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetate, fumarate, aspartate, and alpha-ketoglutarate did not accumulate in significant amounts. Some 14C-labeled succinate was produced but only in the presence of malate. Alkaline hydrolysis of a fraction containing carnitine esters yielded acetate and a compound tentatively identified as beta-hydroxybutyrate or lactate. As in intact cells, intramitochondrial lactate dehydrogenase competes successfully with the electron transport system for the NADH generated by pyruvate metabolism. The role of lactate and L-carnitine, and conclusions suggested by the accumulation of certain metabolites are discussed in relation to control of citric acid cycle activity.