The ATP synthesizing system of liver mitochondria.

Abstract

Pathological states of the liver are numerous with prolonged alcohol consumption resulting in perhaps one of the most frequent. It seems quite appropriate, therefore, that a basic science workshop designed to review the current state of knowledge of liver metabolism includes a paper on the ATP synthesizing system of this tissue. Our laboratories were the first to isolate the ATP synthesizing system of liver (Catterall and Pedersen, 1971). A graduate student, William A. Catterall (now an Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Washington, and an already well-known neurochemist), played a major role in these early studies (Catterall and Pedersen, 1971; Catterall and Pedersen, 1972; Catterall et al., 1973; Catterall and Pedersen, 1974). In the same year (1971) Henry Lardy’s laboratory also reported the isolation of the ATP synthesizing system of liver (Lambeth and Lardy, 1971). Since that time much additional information concerning the structure, function, and regulation of the ATP synthesizing system of liver mitochondria has accumulated in our laboratories. It is this information that I to summarize briefly today.