Preliminary Studies on the Mechanism of Radiation Damage to Oxidative Phosphorylation in Spleen Mitochondria

摘要

Several studies have demonstrated that whole body x-irradiation causes a marked inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation in the spleen (1-5). This effect indicates a breakdown by radiation of the most important source of energy for cellular metabolism.nTo test this hypothesis, studies were made of the effect of serum albumin on the oxidative phosphorylation activity of normal and irradiated rat spleen mitochondria. The inference is made that if the loss of oxidative phosphorylation caused by the radiation were due to changes in membrane permeability that induced the leakage of mitochrome, then the loss in activity might be restored with the addition of albumin to the reaction mixture.