Effects of sodium valproate on mitochondrial membranes: electron paramagnetic resonance and transmembrane protein movement studies.

Sodium valproate (VPA), the salt of a branched short-chain fatty acid, is a major antiepileptic whose mode of action, as yet unclear, may involve effects on the organization of membranes. VPA was either injected into rats whose liver and kidney mitochondria were then isolated, or was preincubated with isolated mitochondria. First, liver and kidney mitochondria were studied with paramagnetic probes. The electron paramagnetic resonance spectra of proteins of VPA-treated mitochondria spin-labeled with 4-maleimido-2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-pyrrolidinoxyl showed that the ratio of weakly immobilized to strongly immobilized SH groups was reduced with respect to control mitochondria, more so in liver than in kidney mitochondria of VPA-injected rats, and more so in kidney than in liver mitochondria for VPA-incubated mitochondria. Spectra of mitochondrial lipids spin-labeled with 5-doxyl stearic methyl ester showed that VPA had no significant effect on order parameters S. Second, the transmembrane movement of aspartate aminotransferase was studied by incubating liver mitochondria in a sucrose-succinate medium and then fractionating them. The translocation of aspartate aminotransferase from mitoplasts, vesicles formed of inner membrane and matrix, to the intermembrane fluid, was significantly higher in VPA-treated than in control mitochondria. Thus, VPA, at concentrations in the range of those used therapeutically, interacted with membranes by modifying the structural organization of the internal mitochondrial membrane, essentially the membrane protein conformation.