A Technique to Monitor the Real-Time Proton Leak Status of Cells

Karen Poon¹, Yuan Yizhi¹, Baliji B Prasath¹ and Ruihua Wang²*

Received: November 08, 2017;   Published: November 15, 2017

DOI: 10.26717/BJSTR.2017.01.000535

Full Text PDF

To view the Full Article   Peer-reviewed Article PDF

Abstract

Proton leak was a detour of protons from their original path leading to the reduction of mitochondrial membrane potential. It leads to the decrease of ATP production per glucose molecule. It is a form of energy loss [1]. Proton leak was found to reduce the reactive oxygen species (ROS) level [2]; therefore, it plays a role in aging [3], diet [4-5] and health [6-9]. A method to monitor the real-time proton leak in cells would help for the understanding of physiological system and disease conditions. When protons were leaked out from mitochondria, it increased the leaking of electrons from electron transport chain [10]. The leaked electron would generate electric signal in Microbial Fuel Cells (MFC). Measuring the electric signal sent out during the process of proton leak would be a way to quantify thereal-time status of proton leak in live cells. Theoretically, higher the electric signal means higher is the proton leak. However, the accuracy of MFC measurements is influenced by the internal resistance of the apparatus. The internal resistance is contributed by the activation loss from electron transfer from cells to the anode, the characteristics of cellular metabolism, the flux of reactants and ohmic loss [11].

Introduction| Methods| Result and Conclusion| Acknowledgement| References|