[Lipoamide dehydrogenase, citrate synthase and beta-hydroxyacyl-CoA-dehydrogenase of skeletal muscle. 9. Influence of frozen storage of musculature of sheep, game and poultry on activity and subcellular distribution].

Frozen storage at -20 degrees C for three months and thawing of muscles from sheep, hare and deer, and of the breast and leg muscles from chicken and duck did not result in significant changes in the extractable total activities of the mitochondrial enzymes citrate synthase and beta-hydroxyacyl-CoA-dehydrogenase; however there was a decrease in the total activity of lipoamide dehydrogenase except in the chicken leg muscle, where such a decrease did not occur. From the increase in the activities of the three enzymes in the muscle press juice it was concluded that - additionally to the effect of freezing and thawing itself - frozen storage results in further damage to the inner membrane of muscle mitochondria which is signalled by the release of membrane-bound enzymes. Chicken muscle mitochondria seem to be more stable against frozen storage of the tissue than the mitochondria in the muscles of the other species studied (including bovine and porcine muscle).