Mitochondrial Distribution in Hamster Cremaster Muscle

Abstract

The most important function of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems is to deliver oxygen to the various tissues of the body. For centuries scientists have tried to better understand the process of oxygen delivery from the blood to tissues in both normal and disease states. Nearly every mathematical model of oxygen transport beginning with Krogh (1919) has assumed that oxygen is consumed homogeneously by tissue. Since the majority of oxygen is consumed by the oxidative phosphorylation enzyme system which is contained within mitochondria and not distributed homogeneously throughout the cytoplasm, and since mitochondria are discrete organelles which are themselves not homogeneously distributed, the assumption of homogeneous oxygen consumption must be incorrect. In order to replace the assumption of homogeneous consumption with à more correct assumption, quantitative information on the distribution of mitochondria in relation to the blood supply must be acquired. Only Kayar and Banchero (1982) have systematically quantified mitochondrial distribution, although many other investigators have reported qualitative descriptions.