Unsaturation of mitochondrial membrane lipids is related to palmitate oxidation in subsarcolemmal and intermyofibrillar mitochondria.

Membrane lipid composition is thought to influence the function of integral membrane proteins; however, the potential for lipid composition to influence overall mitochondrial long-chain fatty acids (LCFA) oxidation is currently unknown. Therefore, the naturally occurring variability of LCFA oxidation rates within subsarcolemmal (SS) and intermyofibrillar (IMF) mitochondria in muscles with varying oxidative potentials (heart → red → white) was utilized to examine this relationship. To this end, SS and IMF mitochondria were isolated and palmitate oxidation rates were compared to membrane phospholipid composition. Among tissues, rates of palmitate oxidation in mitochondria displayed a 2.5-fold range, creating the required range to determine potential relationships with membrane lipid composition. In general, the percent mole fraction of phospholipid head groups and major fatty acid subclasses were similar in all mitochondria studied. However, rates of palmitate oxidation were positively correlated with both the unsaturation index and relative abundance of cardiolipin within mitochondria (r = 0.57 and 0.49, respectively; p < 0.05). Thus, these results suggest that mitochondrial LCFA oxidation may be significantly influenced by the total unsaturation and percent mole fraction of cardiolipin of the mitochondrial membrane, whereas other indices of membrane structure (e.g., percent mole fraction of other predominant membrane phospholipids, chain length, and ratio of phosphatidylcholine to phosphatidylethanolamine) were not significantly correlated.