Mitochondrial ATP-ASE as a measure of uncoupling of rat muscle mitochondria in experimental infection with Trichinella spiralis and Trichinella pseudospiralis.

Changes in a bioenergetic state of Trichinella spiralis and Trichinella pseudospiralis infected rat and mouse muscle mitochondria were evaluated enzymatically, and in both infections 3-4-fold increase of mitochondrial, Mg++-stimulated ATP-ase (EC 3.6.1.3) was observed. Looking for the dynamics of those bioenergetic changes in T. pseudospiralis infected rat and mouse muscle mitochondria 1-2 weeks, pi, the 5-6-fold stimulation of mATP-ase activity, followed by a significant drop between the week 3-4th was found. In in vitro experiments cytoplasmic fractions isolated from T. spiralis and T. pseudospiralis larvae stimulated strongly mATP-ase activity of control rat liver mitochondria, the effect being much more pronounced in case of T. spiralis larvae. The factor(s) present in cytoplasmic fractions seem(s) to be heat-labile, of high molecular weight. Those experiments in vitro prove the causative role of the presence of T. spiralis and T. pseudospiralis larvae in the uncoupling of host muscle mitochondria. Since some relationship between the intensity of infection and the degree of uncoupling was observed, the measurements of the activity of this enzyme might serve not only as a biochemical method of differentiation between infected and normal muscles, but may be useful in crude evaluation of the intensity of these tissue infections.