Cause and consequences of dynamic compartmentation of adenine nucleotides in the mitochondrial intermembrane space in respect to exchange of energy rich phosphates between cytosol and mitochondria.

By means of reconstituted systems consisting in rat heart mitochondria and pyruvate kinase it was shown, that the mitochondrial ATP-production is remarkable increased if ADP is produced by enzymes localized in the mitochondrial intermembrane space as creatine kinase or adenylate kinase. This result and different amount of inhibition by atractyloside or carboxyatractyloside of hexokinase- and creatine kinase stimulated respiration further support the concept of dynamic compartmentation of adenine nucleotides in the mitochondrial intermembrane space.