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Contribution of diffusion to the oxygen dependence of energy metabolism in cells

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Conclusion

In suspensions of normally respiring human neuroblastoma cells, respiration has an oxygen dependence similar to that of suspensions of isolated mitochondria in medium with a comparable phosphorylation state ratio. When mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation is uncoupled, the metabolically imposed oxygen dependence is very small. The respiration of uncoupler treated cells at limiting oxygen pressures is indicative of the diffusion induced oxygen pressure difference between the extracellular medium and the mitochondria. This P50 is proportional to the cellular respiratory rate, with a value of 0.15 Torr for the respiratory rate of normal neuroblastoma cells. The oxygen pressure difference between the cytoplasm surrounding the mitochondria and the mitochondria is probable only a few tens of milliTorr.

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  1. Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Medical School, University of Pennsylvania, 19104, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

    D. F. Wilson

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Wilson, D.F. Contribution of diffusion to the oxygen dependence of energy metabolism in cells. Experientia 46, 1160–1162 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01936927

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