Microcalorimetric investigation of five Aconitum L. plants on the metabolic activity of mitochondria isolated from rat liver

Abstract

The fact that mitochondria still have metabolic activity and can live for a week with appropriate nutrients after isolated from the rat liver provides us a useful means to investigate the metabolic process of mitochondria influenced by chemicals. Using the TAM air isothermal microcalorimeter, the HP-time curves of the metabolic activity of mitochondria were measured. The effects of five Aconitum L. plants, Radix Aconiti Lateralis Preparata (RALP), Radix Aconiti (RA), Radix Aconiti Kusnezoffii (RAK), Radix Aconiti Brachypodi (RAB), and Radix Aconiti Singularis (RAS) on the metabolic activity of mitochondria were investigated, respectively. The quantitative information, such as k, Q, P max, T max, T lag, and P av obtained from the HP-time curves, were accumulated for analysis. With the help of PCA method, P av was selected as the standard for comparing the different effects of five Aconitum L. plants on metabolic activity of mitochondria. The potential sequence of efficiency was RAS > RAK > RAB > RA > RALP, and the EC50 were separately 1.43, 2.31, 1.10, 1.61, and 2.56 mg mL−1. The results demonstrated that the five Aconitum L. plants had different bioeffects on the mitochondria metabolism. Meanwhile, this study indicated that microcalorimetry was a powerful tool to evaluate the drugs’ efficiency on living system, providing some useful references for the application of five Aconitum L. plants in practice.