Compartmentation and metabolic parameters of mitochondrial hexokinase and creatine kinase depend on the rate of oxidative phosphorylation.

Oxidative phosphorylation in rat heart mitochondria was stimulated by the presence of hexokinase, by simultaneous operation of mitochondrial hexokinase and creatine kinase, or by mitochondrial hexokinase plus exogenously added phosphofructokinase. Under these conditions, 32Pi studies were conducted to estimate the extent of ATP compartmentation in the mitochondria in the vicinity of the active sites of hexokinase and creatine kinase. In all cases studied the extent of ATP compartmentation at 500 microM ATP concentration was no more than 12%. Within the same experimental design, the extent of ATP compartmentation increased with an increase in the rate of oxidative phosphorylation. The degree of ATP compartmentation depended on the relative location of the enzyme and inner mitochondrial membrane: it was maximal in the vicinity of the creatine kinase active sites and minimal for that of phosphofructokinase. The difference in the extent of ATP compartmentation in the neighborhood of the active sites of hexokinase and creatine kinase diminished with an increase in the rate of oxidative phosphorylation. We conclude that there is an ATP concentration gradient in the mitochondrial intermembrane space during oxidative phosphorylation, the minimum concentration being at the surface of the inner membrane. It was found that stimulation of oxidative phosphorylation led to a decrease in the apparent constants, Km (MgATP) and Vmax, for the two enzymes, however, to different degrees. Possible reasons for the change in kinetic parameters of the above enzymes are discussed.

Prevalence of Corynebacteria in diabetic foot infections.

OBJECTIVE: Microbiological flora of diabetic foot infections are usually polymicrobial and frequently include bacteria of the Corynebacterium sp. (diphtheroids). The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of these bacteria in both deep and superficial cultures in diabetic patients with foot infections. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: The charts of 50 patients of successive admissions to the Orthopedic-Diabetes Service at our hospital were reviewed to obtain the following data: age, sex, ethnic origin, method of treatment of diabetes, blood glucose level, prior antibiotics, and reports of cultures taken from bedside and intraoperative sites. Data were analyzed to compare the prevalence of diphtheroids in reliable versus nonreliable cultures and the influence of other parameters on the presence of these organisms. RESULTS: Fourteen of 19 (74%) of the intraoperative specimens grew diphtheroids compared with 25 of 65 (39%) of the bedside cultures, a highly significant difference. In addition, there was a somewhat greater occurrence of diphtheroids in women compared with men. The likelihood that contamination is the cause for the presence of diphtheroids is highly unlikely, because one arm of the study included cultures derived from deep tissue at the time of the surgical procedure (i.e., the intraoperative cultures). Cultures always grew at least one other organism in addition to the diphtheroid. CONCLUSIONS: Corynebacteria, commonly known as diphtheroids, are present as a part of the polymicrobial flora in a large percentage of diabetic patients with foot infections. Because the diphtheroids were identified in culture material taken in the operating room or at the time of incision and drainage in a higher percentage of patients than in specimens from superficial cultures, it is highly unlikely that they are contaminants.

Lack of hormonal stimulation of pyridoxine metabolism in isolated rat hepatocytes.

Isolated hepatocytes obtained from Sprague-Dawley rats (145-175 g) were incubated for 15 min at 30 degrees C in Krebs-Henseleit bicarbonate buffer, pH 7.4, containing 0.5 mM concentration of each of the 20 natural amino acids and either 4.5 or 23 microM [U-14C]pyridoxine. Pyridoxine, pyridoxal, pyridoxal phosphate, and pyridoxic acid separated by an anion-exchange chromatographic technique were quantified using a phosphate analyzer and a liquid scintillation counter. The conversion of [U-14C]pyridoxine to its metabolites was more than doubled by increasing the amount of pyridoxine (4.5 to 23 microM) in the incubation medium. Insulin (10 mU/ml), glucagon (1 nM), or epinephrine (10 microM) did not have any significant effect on the conversion of [14C]-pyridoxine to pyridoxal, pyridoxal phosphate, or pyridoxic acid. Our earlier observations of a large decrease in serum pyridoxal phosphate in the diabetic rat cannot be explained by any direct hormonal effects on pyridoxine metabolism.

Radioimmunoassay data handling and calculations with a graphics-statistics computer program.

This paper discusses the application of the data handling-graphics-statistics program Stata (Computing Resources Center, Santa Monica, CA) to radioimmunoassay. We have found that this program is more powerful and easier to use than a spreadsheet for analyzing various kinds of laboratory data generated from chromatography, radiolabeling experiments, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, and radioimmunoassays, to name several examples. Data from a radioimmunoassay procedure, originally analyzed using a spreadsheet, Lotus 1-2-3, have been processed with Stata. Simple programs (batch files) have been devised for computations and graphics. The original data and a comparison of results are presented.

Extracellular phosphate requirement for insulin action on isolated rat hepatocytes.

Isolated rat hepatocytes were prepared in KHB buffer, pH 7.4; were centrifuged and washed twice in KHB buffer containing various amounts of phosphate and calcium; and were incubated at 30 degrees in the presence of tracer [2,3-14C]succinate and a 0.5 mM concentration of each of the 20 natural amino acids. Hepatocytes washed and incubated in KHB buffer containing less than 0.1 mM phosphate failed to show any insulin stimulation of [2,3-14C]succinate oxidation or protein incorporation of tracer carbons. The absence or presence of extracellular phosphate did not alter the specific activity of 32P-adenine nucleotides; they remained the same in the presence or absence of insulin. The maximal insulin stimulatory effect on succinate oxidation and tracer incorporation into protein was observed in the presence of 1.18 mM phosphate and 1.9 mM calcium ion. The lack of external phosphate did not prevent the stimulation of succinate oxidation by either glucagon on epinephrine, whereas removal of calcium from the medium abolished their hormonal effects. The lack of medium calcium also prevented the insulin stimulation of succinate oxidation and protein synthesis. Our data indicate that a diminished insulin responsiveness in hypophosphatemic patients may be due to the insensitivity of mitochondria to insulin in the hypophosphatemic state.

The relation of diabetic control to in vivo pH of soft tissue abscesses.

It has been shown that induced soft tissue abscesses have a lower intra-abscess pH in the uncontrolled diabetic host than in the nondiabetic control. These differences were felt to be secondary to alterations in white cell metabolism. The current study compares the intra-abscess pH in three groups of mice: (I) nondiabetic, (II) untreated diabetic, and (III) insulin-treated diabetic. Diabetes was induced with streptozotocin in male white mice. The bacteria used to induce the abscesses were a combination of B. fragilis and Enterococcus. The blood glucose values of groups I, II, and III were 189 mg% (+/- 20.3), 256 mg% (+/- 121.9), and 712.8 mg% (+/- 169.7), respectively. None of the animals were ketotic, and peritoneal pH (reflecting systemic pH) showed no significant differences between groups. There were no significant differences in colony counts between any groups. The intra-abscess pH values of groups I, II, and III were 6.97 (+/- 0.26), 6.85 (+/- 0.41), and 6.08 (+/- 0.70). The differences in intra-abscess pH and blood glucose levels were all significantly different from each other when all three groups were compared. The insulin-treated mice tended to return to normality but had the widest spread of values. Since a decrease in intra-abscess pH has been felt to be a reflection of white cell activity, our studies may be the first to demonstrate an in vivo effect of insulin on white cell activity.

Lack of insulin stimulation on Percoll-prepared or high-speed-centrifuged rat liver hepatocytes.

Rat liver hepatocytes isolated from a 30-31% percoll density gradient at 10,000g are refractory toward insulin stimulation of 14CO2 formation and 14C-incorporation into protein from [2,3-14C]succinate. Basal hepatocyte oxidation of succinate was not impaired by the presence of 5% percoll in the incubation medium nor was it impaired when percoll-free hepatocytes were used that had been isolated after centrifugation at 9000g; however, in both instances the stimulatory effect of insulin was lost. Hepatocyte damage may have occurred in these processes. This is in contrast to previous work which shows that insulin (10 mU/ml) will stimulate [2,3-14C]succinate oxidation and [2,3-14C]succinate carbon incorporation into protein in non-percoll-treated hepatocytes (isolated by centrifugation at 10g) by about 29%. We conclude that the latter procedure although more time consuming is the more gentle method of choice and leaves the hepatocyte in a form more closely related to an in vivo state than does treatment with a percoll density gradient at 10,000g.

Myokinase and contractile function of glycerinated muscle fibers.

Glycerinated rabbit psoas muscle fibers containing native CPK, ATPase, and myokinase activities were used and isometric contraction and relaxation responses to either ADP or ATP + CP or to ATP alone in the presence and absence of P1, P5-di(adenosine-5'-pentaphosphate), a myokinase inhibitor, were compared. In previous (14) work it was shown that CP generated more efficient and faster contraction and relaxation of glycerinated muscle fibers than ATP. The present work deals with the role of myokinase in the differential response of fibers to CP and ATP. Inhibition of the myokinase activity of these fibers caused slight diminution of the rate of contraction at physiological concentrations of ATP. Uninhibited fibers were not able to reach maximum contraction, because the tension began to drop gradually even in the presence of Ca2+. Addition of Ap5A permitted maximum contraction and the ability to stay at the contracted state. In the case of CP + adenosine nucleotides (ATP or ADP), myokinase activity decreased the rate of tension development which was statistically significant after 5-7 sec of contraction. Thus, a higher tension was obtainable when myokinase was inhibited. At high concentration of adenine nucleotides (greater than 2 mM) and in the absence of Ap5A, not only the maximum tension never was reached, but a spontaneous drop in tension was observed before addition of EGTA, as was seen with ATP alone. Relaxation was faster and more complete in the presence of uninhibited myokinase activity except that the ADP was low (125 mM). These observations provide further evidence for a close functional interaction of these three enzymes in the mechanism of contraction and relaxation, giving further support to the notion of the creatine-phosphocreatine energy shuttle.

Myofibrillar end of the creatine phosphate energy shuttle.

Isometric contraction and relaxation of glycerinated rabbit psoas muscle fibers containing native creatine kinase (CK) and ATPase activities were studied. Energy for contraction and relaxation was provided either by ADP + creatine phosphate (CP) or ATP alone, and the effectiveness of these additions on rate and maximum force of contraction and relaxation were compared. In the presence of 250 microM ADP, physiological concentration of CP (10 mM) produced faster and stronger contraction and faster and more complete relaxation than equimolar or even higher concentrations of ATP. When contraction was initiated by addition of ADP to fibers preincubated with 10 mM CP, the apparent Km for ADP was 1.18 +/- 0.24 mM. If the fibers were preincubated with ADP and contraction initiated by addition of 10 mM CP, the apparent Km for ADP was more than an order of magnitude smaller (76.0 +/- 4 microM). The observed Km for ADP for contraction was about half the Km for CP in solution (151.5 microM). The apparent Km for CP for rate of contraction was 2.67 +/- .046 mM independent of sequence of addition of ADP. Since these experiments were done in the presence of P1,P5-diadenosine 5'-pentaphosphate, a powerful inhibitor of adenylate kinase, the role of this enzyme in the process was not significant. These observations support the idea of compartmentation of myofibrillar CK in close function with myosin ATPase as part of the phosphoryl creatine energy shuttle.

Evidence for functional hexokinase compartmentation in rat skeletal muscle mitochondria.

Further studies of mitochondrially bound hexokinase have been carried out in order to elucidate the mechanism first proposed to increase efficiency of oxidative phosphorylation by the acceptor effect (Bessman, S. P. (1954) in Fat Metabolism (Najjar, V., ed) pp. 133-137, Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore). During isolation of mitochondria, Mg2+ caused increased quantities of hexokinase to be bound or retained. This effect is concentration-dependent, saturable, and cannot be explained by Mg2+-linked activation or stabilization. Rebinding of hexokinase to isolated mitochondria also shows a similar dependence on Mg2+. When added to a homogenate made without it, Mg2+ could not bind the same amount of hexokinase to the mitochondria as could be observed when Mg2+ had been included in the homogenizing medium from the start. Using mitochondria prepared with Mg2+ in order to bind hexokinase to the largest extent possible, we have demonstrated that as in the case of mitochondrial creatine phosphokinase, a compartment exists that permits more efficient production of glucose 6-phosphate during mitochondrial respiration--the hexokinase acceptor effect. This effect probably results from a favorable positioning of the active site of hexokinase, perhaps within the intermembrane space, providing a diffusion-favorable situation. Thus, newly synthesized ATP transported through the inner membrane supplies substrate to hexokinase with greater efficiency than that of ATP which must pass through the outer membrane by diffusion from the medium. These observations lend support to proposals that in vivo modulation of the soluble particulate distribution of hexokinase by hormones or by metabolites may be physiologically necessary and important.

Three-step preparation and purification of phosphorus-33-labeled creatine phosphate of high specific activity.

Rabbit heart mitochondria were used as a source of enzymes for the synthesis of phosphorus-labeled creatine phosphate. This method is based on the coupled reaction between mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and mitochondrial-bound creatine kinase. It is possible to convert more than 90% of the inorganic phosphate (Pi) to creatine phosphate. The method used only small amounts of adenine nucleotides which led to a product with only slight nucleotide contamination. This could be removed by activated charcoal extraction. For further purification, a method for the removal of residual Pi is described.

Kinetic properties and functional role of creatine phosphokinase in glycerinated muscle fibers--further evidence for compartmentation.

The following phenomena were observed when relative contraction and relaxation effects of ATP and creatine phosphate (CP) were studied in rabbit psoas muscle glycerinated fiber bundles containing native creatine phosphokinase (CPK) and ATPase activities: (1) nucleotide was absolutely necessary for contraction; (2) in the presence of a small amount of ADP (250 microM), physiological concentration of CP (10 mM) produced faster and stronger contraction and faster, more complete, relaxation than equimolar or higher concentrations of ATP; (3) if the nucleotide was in the form of ATP, the nucleotide Km for contraction was about 1.5 mM; (4) if the nucleotide was in the form of ADP, the nucleotide Km for contraction at physiological concentration of CP (10 mM) was 0.076 to 1.18 mM depending upon the order of addition of ADP and CP; (5) the apparent Km for CP for contraction was 2.67 mM independent of sequence of addition of ADP and CP.

Application of chromatography to the analysis of phosphate compounds in small biopsy tissue samples in different experimental conditions.

Biochemical analysis of tissue biopsy samples for evaluation of the phosphate compounds of metabolism has been limited to a large tissue sample size, and thus, repeated biopsies on the same animal or patient are too difficult to obtain. We report here the use of the Bessman analyzer: anion exchange chromatography followed by automatic phosphorus analysis on small tissue samples. The method described here enables the repetitive measurement of high-energy phosphate compounds (ATP, ADP, AMP, creatine phosphate (CP], inorganic phosphorus (Pi), sugar phosphorus (glucose 6-phosphate and fructose 6-phosphate), and inosine monophosphate (IMP), an indicator of adequate biopsy processing and sample preparation. The data also emphasize the importance of adequate oxygenation of the experimental animal or patient. This method is easy to apply in almost any clinically oriented research laboratory for the study of needle biopsies from human and animal tissues and permits a more convenient and complete investigation of the high-energy phosphate compounds of intermediary metabolism than do the methods of firefly luminescence or the multiple, NAD-linked enzymatic systems required for the necessary sensitivity.

Compartmentation of mitochondrial creatine phosphokinase. I. Direct demonstration of compartmentation with the use of labeled precursors.

Mitochondrial creatine kinase was first proposed to act as a functional component in respiratory control in 1966 (Bessman, S. P., and Fonyo, A. (1966) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 22, 597-602). Since that time, evidence has accumulated to support the theory of a creatine-phosphorylcreatine shuttle mechanism involved in supplying energy for aerobic muscle contraction (Bessman, S. P., and Geiger, P. J. (1981) Science 211, 448-452). To demonstrate directly the interaction between mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and that of creatine phosphate synthesis, we have studied the labeling of adenine nucleotides and creatine phosphate with [33P]H3PO4 or [gamma-32P]ATP over a range of adenine nucleotide concentrations incubated with rabbit cardiac and rat skeletal muscle mitochondria. An apparent direct mitochondrial ATP contribution to creatine phosphate synthesis was observed that varied inversely with the total adenine nucleotide present in the reaction system. This reaction of de novo synthesized ATP with creatine phosphokinase prior to equilibration with the total ATP pool was observed regardless of the entry point of electrons from oxidizable substrate into the electron transport chain. This special relation was not observed for added yeast hexokinase in forming glucose 6-phosphate. Mitochondria could not synthesize creatine phosphate in the presence of atractyloside, thus underscoring the requirement for adenine nucleotide translocase-linked transport of ATP prior to reaction with the bound creatine phosphokinase. These studies show that there is coupling or compartmentation of ATP synthesis and transport with creatine phosphate formation in heart and skeletal muscle mitochondria.

Compartmentation of mitochondrial creatine phosphokinase. II. The importance of the outer mitochondrial membrane for mitochondrial compartmentation.

In order to define further the nature of the apparent close interaction between mitochondrial creatine phosphokinase and oxidative phosphorylation (Erickson-Viitanen, S., Viitanen, P., Geiger, P. J., Yang, W. C. T., and Bessman, S. P. (1982) J. Biol. Chem. 257, 14395-14404), rabbit heart and rat skeletal muscle mitochondria prepared by gentle mechanical homogenization were compared with preparations isolated after tryptic digestion of tissues, a method which has been reported to yield superior mitochondria (Reichert, M., Schaller, H., Kung, W., and Gerber, G. (1978) Acta Biol. Med. Germ. 37, 1167-1176). The ability of de novo synthesized and exported mitochondrial ATP to interact with creatine phosphokinase prior to total mixing of the ATP pool, which we consider to be evidence of compartmentation, could not be demonstrated with mitochondria prepared via the trypsin procedure. Mitochondria from rabbit cardiac muscle treated with digitonin synthesized ATP and creatine phosphate, but failed to show apparent compartmentation of creatine phosphokinase. Km values for ATP were compared for four conditions: 1) respiring, digitonin-treated rabbit heart mitochondria, 2) atractyloside-inhibited, digitonin-treated rabbit heart mitochondria supplied with a pyruvate kinase-phosphoenolpyruvate regenerating system, 3) respiring rabbit heart mitochondria, 4) atractyloside-inhibited rabbit heart mitochondria supplied with an ATP regenerating system. The observed Km values for ATP for conditions 1, 2, and 3 were similar but lower than that for condition 4. These findings suggest that an outer membrane diffusion barrier influences or controls mitochondrial creatine phosphokinase compartmentation.

Transport of energy in muscle: the phosphorylcreatine shuttle.

In order to explain the insulin-like effect of exercise, it was proposed in 1951 that contracting muscle fibers liberate creatine, which acts to produce an acceptor effect--later called respiratory control--on the muscle mitochondria. The development of this notion paralleled the controversy between biochemists and physiologists over the delivery of energy for muscle contraction. With the demonstration of functional compartmentation of creatine kinase on the mitochondrion, it became clear that the actual form of energy transport in the muscle fiber is phosphorylcreatine. The finding of an isoenzyme of creatine phosphokinase attached to the M-line region of the myofibril revealed the peripheral receptor for the mitochondrially generated phosphorylcreatine. This established a molecular basis for a phosphorylcreatine-creatine shuttle for energy transport in heart and skeletal muscle and provided an explanation for the inability to demonstrate experimentally a direct relation between muscle activity and the concentrations of adenosine triphosphate and adenosine diphosphate.