Mitochondrial Morphofunctional Alterations in Smooth Muscle Cells of Aorta in Rats

Table 2

Enzymatic activity of citrate synthase and of the complexes of the respiratory chain (I to IV) in the thoracic aorta of rats with atherogenesis induced by HF and treated with vitamin E.

	Ctr	AI	AIE
Citrate synthase (𝜇mol Co.A/min/mg protein)	0.3596±0.004	0.080±0.001	0.31±0.012
Complex I (𝜇mol NADH/min/mg protein)	0.0646±0.00131	0.0083±0.003	0.07±0.0025
Complex II (fmol succinate/min/mg protein)	0.0566±0.00184	0.0406±0.00174	0.0676±0.00195
Complex III (𝜇mol ubiquinone/min/mg protein)	0.2617±0.010	0.07±0.0132	0.2094±0.01
Complex IV (𝜇mol iron-cytochrome c/min/mg protein)	0.1712±0.0017	0.031±0.005	0.28±0.01

Ctr: control; AI: atherogenesis induced for 120 days; AIE, atherogenesis induced for 120 days and treated with vit. E (𝑛=12).
Activities of citrate synthase and complexes I–IV. Data are means ± SEM: AI versus Ctr: 𝑃<0.001; Ctr versus AIE: 𝑃<0.01; AIE versus AI: 𝑃<0.001.