Acute exposure to cold rapidly increases the number of nucleotide binding sites, but not proton conductance, in BAT mitochondria

Studies on the effect of acute cold exposure of rats on brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenic activity have produced equivocal results. Therefore, the authors have reexamined the response of BAT mitochondria to abrupt changes in environmental temperature. 3H-GDP binding to BAT mitochondria increased more than 2-fold in 20 min when rats were moved from 270C to 40C. When rats housed at 40C for 2 h were returned to 270C, GDP binding decreased sharply in 20 min and returned to control levels in 2 h. On the other hand, GDP-inhibitable proton conductance, as measured by passive swelling in isotonic K-acetate of KCl buffers, was unaffected by brief cold exposure but more than doubled in rats kept at 40C for 10 days. The authors conclude that GDP-inhibitable swelling may be more indicative of uncoupling protein concentration whereas thermogenic activity is more appropriately indicated by GDP binding. GDP binding to BAT mitochondria from warm and acutely cold treated rats was not altered by prior swelling of the mitochondria nor by freeze-thawing the mitochondria before assay. Therefore, alterations of the number of GDP binding sites may not be a result of conformational changes of the mitochondril membrane