Abstract
MITOCHONDRIA of the intestinal mucosa of the following vertebrates have been examined by electron microscopy: the rat (Rattus norvegicus), guinea pig (Cavia percellus), chicken (Gallus domesticus), lizard (Tiliqua rugosa), toad (Bufo marinus) and carp (Carassius auratus) (Fig. 1). The mitochondria in the intestinal cells of these species showed no major differences in structure from the other mitochondria that have already been described1,2. The intestinal mitochondria from all these species swelled when they were isolated by differential centrifugation in 0.25 M sucrose (Fig. 2), but all except those from the rat exhibited considerable succinoxidase activity as measured manometrically (Table 1). The oxygen uptake of homogenates of the intestinal mucosa of rats was also low and variable compared with that of homogenates of intestinal mucosa prepared from guinea pigs. In contrast, the oxygen uptake (per mgm. dry weight) of whole intestinal cells of both the rat and the guinea pig was similar.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Sjostrand, F. S., Nature, 171, 30 (1953).
Zetterqvist, H., The Ultrastructural Organization of the Columnar Absorbing Cells of the Mouse Jejunum (Aktiebolaget Godvil, Stockholm, 1956).
Edwards, S. W., and Ball, E. G., J. Biol. Chem., 209, 619 (1954).
Nakamura, M., Pichette, P., Broitman, S., Bezman, A. L., Zamcheck, N., and Vitale, J. J., J. Biol. Chem., 234, 206 (1959).
Nachlas, M. M., Morgulies, S. I., and Seligman, A. M., J. Biol. Chem., 235, 2739 (1960).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
STANBURY, P. Comparison of the Mitochondria of the Small Intestine of Vertebrates. Nature 192, 67 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/192067a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/192067a0
This article is cited by
-
Respiratory Activity of Rat Intestinal Mitochondria
Nature (1966)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.