The activities of the enzymes NADH dehydrogenase, NADH cytochrome e reductase, succinate dehydrogenase, succinate cytochrome e reductase, cytochrome e oxidase and citrate synthase in normal and sick human skeletal muscle mitochondria were determined. A control group was formed by 13 normal people and without using continuous medication. The patient group was formed by 10 people whose pathological diagnosis indicated suspicion of mitochondrial myopathy. A decrease in the activity of the enzymes in all patient was observed: 7 with abnormality in all the tested enzymes; 2 with deficiencies in all the enzymes except cytochrome e oxidase; and 1 with dysfunction only in the activities of succinate dehydrogenase and succinate cytochrome e reductase. The results indicate multiple or combined deficiencies in the respiratory chain, besides dysfunction of citrate synthase in 9 patients. In one exceptional case, the enzymatic deficiency was restricted to complex II. It is possible to conclude that the methodology used herein is adequate and easily applicable to clinical objectives, and that the results obtained allow characterization of the deficient mitochondrial enzymatic complexes, thus showing that the origin of the diseases is an energetic metabolic dysfunction.
mitochondria human skeletal muscle; mitochondrial myopathy; NADH cytochrome e reductase; NADH dehydrogenase; succinate dehydrogenase; succinate cytochrome e reductase; cytochrome c oxidase citrate synthase