Intractable unphysiologically low adenylate energy charge values in synaptosome fractions: an explanatory hypothesis based on the fraction's heterogeneity.

Synaptosomes prepared and incubated in a variety of ways from rat cerebra exhibited intractable, unphysiologically low adenylate energy charge values (approximately 0.37-0.60), low total adenine nucleotide contents (approximately 8-10 nmol/mg protein), and much higher adenylate kinase apparent Keq values (approximately 3-8) as compared to intact brain tissue (values of approximately 0.90, 25 nmol/mg, and 0.74, respectively). Synaptosomes prepared from mouse, dog, and chicken cerebra had values essentially identical to those from rat. When incubated under oxygen in a physiological salt solution containing glucose, synaptosomes metabolized more glucose to lactic acid than to CO2, and the addition of 100 microM veratridine caused a two- to threefold stimulation of O2 uptake, lactate accumulation, and CO2 output. It is known that synaptosome fractions contain a substantial number (at least 30-45% by volume) of cytoplasm-containing particles devoid of mitochondria (henceforth termed "cytosolic particles"), and that approximately 80% of brain hexokinase is bound to the outer mitochondrial membrane. For the cytosolic particles, lacking oxidative phosphorylation, to maintain their "in vivo" ATP turnover would require about a 19-fold increase in the glycolytic rate, which is not possible due to limiting amounts of hexokinase, and thus these particles are postulated to be responsible for the high level of aerobic lactate accumulation and the intractable low energy charge values found in synaptosome fractions. The mitochondria-containing particles are postulated to have a normal energy charge, a submaximal glycolytic rate, and minimal lactate production, on the basis of the capacity of veratridine to stimulate synaptosomal O2 uptake and CO2 and lactate output. Calculations based on this "two populations of particles" hypothesis indicate that for synaptosome fractions in general, (1) the cytosolic particles contain approximately 35-64% of the total adenine nucleotides and maintain an energy charge of approximately 0.12; (2) the cytosolic particles and mitochondria-containing particles have adenylate kinase apparent Keq values of approximately 0.21-1.66 and 0.74, respectively, revealing that the higher apparent Keq values of the synaptosome fractions probably are not real departures from equilibrium: and (3) approximately 31-45% of synaptosome fraction protein is contained in debris, which, when taken into account, yields total adenine nucleotide contents in the cytosolic particles and mitochondria-containing particles of approximately 15-24 and approximately 11-19 nmol/mg of particle protein, respectively.