title: Capillary electrophoresis monitors changes in the electrophoretic behavior of mitochondrial preparations.
abstract: The presence of electrical charges on the surface of an organelle is the source of the organelle's electrophoretic mobility. Recently, we reported that capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection (CE-LIF) can be used to determine the electrophoretic mobility of individual mitochondria. Here, we describe the use of CE-LIF to monitor changes in the electrophoretic mobility distributions of: (i). mitochondria isolated from cultured NS-1 mouse hybridoma cells disrupted by nitrogen cavitation or mechanical homogenization; (ii). mitochondria isolated from rat liver and purified by gradient centrifugation before and after being frozen in liquid nitrogen; and (iii). mitochondria chemically transformed into mitoplasts. These results indicate that the organelle electrophoretic mobility observed by researchers is affected by preparation procedures and that CE-LIF is a complementary technique for monitoring the quality of mitochondrial preparations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, 207 Pleasant St SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA.
authors.forename: Kathryn M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Fuller
authors.forename: Edgar A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Arriaga
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019075:Electrophoresis, Capillary / Q000379:methods*; D005453:Fluorescence; D005615:Freezing; D051379:Mice; D008930:Mitochondria, Liver / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats