Rb. Doctor et al., METHOD FOR RECOVERING ATP CONTENT AND MITOCHONDRIAL-FUNCTION AFTER CHEMICAL ANOXIA IN RENAL-CELL CULTURES, The American journal of physiology, 266(6), 1994, pp. 30001803-30001811
Cultured renal cells provide a highly reproducible and malleable model
to study cellular responses to metabolic perturbations. Nevertheless,
there is currently no good method to achieve metabolic inhibition and
complete recovery in cultured cells. This study describes a specific
method for reversibly inhibiting both glycolytic and oxidative metabol
ism. Glycolysis was inhibited by removing all glycolytic substrates, a
nd mito-chondrial respiration was inhibited with rotenone, a site I in
hibitor of the electron transport chain. Within 30 min, ATP values wer
e decreased by 98%. Glycolysis was restored through the reintroduction
of glucose. Oxidative metabolism was restored by the addition of hept
anoate, a short odd-chain fatty acid, which supplies reducing equivale
nts to site II of the electron transport chain. Employing Madin-Darby
canine kidney and LLC-PK1 cell lines, this protocol caused the immedia
te and complete recovery of mitochondrial respiration and, by 60 min,
the complete recovery of cellular ATP levels. Application of this prot
ocol should allow the investigation of the cellular effects and altera
tions that occur within cells recovering from sublethal energy depleti
on.