Carbon tetrachloride activation by highly purified liver mitochondrial preparations.

Highly purified rat liver mitochondrial preparations were found to be able to activate CCl4 to reactive metabolites that bind covalently to lipids. Part of the process is of an enzymatic nature, but most of it is non-enzymatic. The enzymatic mitochondrial CCl4 activation operates more efficiently under anaerobic conditions; it requires NADPH, is CO sensitive, is inducible by phenobarbital pretreatment and is only weakly inhibited by high concentrations of cyanide or azide. The non-enzymatic mitochondrial CCl4 activation is not inhibited by CO and proceeds equally well under air or nitrogen.