UCLA scientists able to study mitochondrial respiration with new method

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), researchers developed a new technique for measuring mitochondrial respiration in frozen tissue.

Dr. Orian Shirihai, director of the metabolism theme at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, led a team of scientists in creating the method for restoring decades-old oxygen-consumption activity to previously frozen mitochondria samples, UCLA Newsroom reported. 

The innovation attributed to Shirihai, Linsey Stiles, an assistant professor of medicine, and Rebeca Acin-Perez, senior scientist in Shirihai’s laboratory, restores essential electron-transfer components lost when the mitochondrial membrane sustains damage during freezing and thawing.

It makes it possible for scientists to study mitochondrial function in a single instance.

“We succeeded in restoring oxygen consumption in frozen samples to the identical levels of fresh samples,” Shirihai told UCLA Newsroom. “This greatly simplifies the testing process. We need only one-tenth of the tissue previously required and can run the tests in parallel, reducing our cost 400-fold per sample.”