Muscle mitochondrial ATP production in progressive supranuclear palsy.

Abstract

Six patients with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and 12 age-matched disease-free subjects participated in this study designed to compare rates of ATP production by intact mitochondria from biopsied skeletal muscle. When pyruvate and malate were used as metabolic substrates, rates of ATP production were 0.184 +/- 0.025 mumol/min/U of citrate synthase (CS) activity (a mitochondrial marker) in control subjects and 0.131 +/- 0.051 mumol/min/U of CS in PSP patients. In the presence of succinate, rates of ATP formation were 0.137 +/- 0.02 mumol/min/U of CS in controls and 0.109 +/- 0.04 mumol/min/U of CS in patients. With N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine (TMPD) and ascorbate, rates were 0.034 +/- 0.008 mumol/min/U of CS in controls and 0.022 +/- 0.01 mumol/min/U of CS in PSP subjects. Differences between the control and PSP populations reached statistical significance with pyruvate/malate and TMPD/ascorbate. No differences in either muscle histopathology or histochemistry were found between patient and control subjects. Results of this study suggest that oxidative phosphorylation defects occur in muscle mitochondria from patients with PSP.