Quantitative isolation of liver mitochondria by zonal centrifugation

✍ Scribed by Margaret A. Wilson; Joseph Cascarano; Wendy L. Wooten; Cecil B. Pickett

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1978
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 671 KB
• Volume: 85
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-2697
• DOI: 10.1016/0003-2697(78)90297-x

✦ Synopsis

A method was developed using zonal centrifugation to recover liver mitochondria quantitatively and free of other cellular components from a sample of whole homogenate. The fractions containing mitochondria were identified by the distriiution of cytochrome oxidase and these fractions contained over 90% of the total cytochrome oxidase recovered. The mitochondrial fractions were found to be only slightly contaminated by Y-nucleotidase (plasma membranes), acid phosphatase (lysosomes), glucose&phosphatase (microsomes), and cataiase (peroxisomes). There was no detectable contamination by nuclear DNA (nuclei). This method was used to quantitate total liver mitochondrial protein. The development of this procedure provides a means for following total changes in mitochondrial components during mitochondrial biogenesis.