A NOVEL TIME-SHARED FLUOROMETER GIVES THE MITOCHONDRIAL REDOX STATE AS THE RATIO OF TWO COMPONENTS OF THE RESPIRATORY CHAIN OF THE ANIMAL AND HUMAN BUCCAL CAVITY WITH QUANTITATIVE MEASURES OF THE REDOX ENERGY STATE

Abstract

The source of energy for life is the tissue mitochondria and they demand a complex chain of biochemicals to ensure proper physiological function. Classically, the blood levels, and not the tissue levels of these metabolites, are determined by expensive and time-consuming biochemical analyses. Since the tissue mitochondria are the consumers of the substrates of glycolysis and of fatty acid metabolism, their redox state is a unique accessible monitor of tissue metabolism and its blockade due to toxins.