SERUM AND MUSCLE-TISSUE UBIQUINONE LEVELS IN HEALTHY-SUBJECTS

Ubiquinone, or coenzyme Q, is a mitochondrial component with antioxida nt properties. It has been suggested that ubiquinone therapy may have clinical benefits in some diseases with mitochondrial dysfunction and that the antioxidant effects could be useful, for example, in the prev ention of atherosclerosis. Based on this clinical interest, guidelines for the interpretation of ubiquinone analyses are needed. Our results show that serum and muscle ubiquinone levels vary over a wide range i n healthy subjects. The serum levels of ubiquinone depend mostly on th e amount of ubiquinone-containing lipoproteins in circulation. Physica l activity markedly affects muscle tissue levels of ubiquinone. We obs erved that serum and muscle tissue ubiquinone levers do not correlate with each other, suggesting that they are independently regulated.