Studies on the TCA cycle in Brain mitochondria Part Ⅱ, On the non-epileptic and epileptic brain mitochondria

The respiration of human brain mitochondria was measured by the Warburg's manometer and the members of the TCA cycle were used as the substrate. The O(2)-uptake of the non-epileptic brain mitochondria is about on and half times of the epileptic brain mitochondria. On the oxidation of the substrate: Malate, fumarate, pyruvate, oxalacetate and α-ketoglutarate accelerate the O(2)-uptake in both cases, and the O(2)-uptake of non-epileptic cases are always 2 or 3 times of the epileptic cases. Citrate accelerate the O(2)-uptake in the non-epileptic case, but not in the epileptic case. Succinate accelerate the O(2)-uptake in both cases and its about several times of the other substrate. Especially the increase of the O(2)-uptake of the epileptic brain mitochondria by succinate is higher than of the non-epileptic brain mitochondria.