The effect of agaric acid on citrate transport in rat liver mitochondria

The effect of agaric acid (αcetyl citric acid) , a competitive inhibitor of the adenine nucleotide translocase, was studied on the citrate uptake in rat liver mitochondria. The experiments carried out reveal that citrate uptake is progressively inhibited by increasing concentrations of agaric acid, showing a typical competitive type of inhibition. The apparent Ki for agaric acid is 5.2 μM, a concentration lower than that which inhibits the adenine nucleotide translocase. The results also show that mersalyl diminishes the Ki to 3.4 μM; 10 mM KCl reverses the inhibitory action of agaric acid on the ADP and ATP exchange but does not affect the agaric acid induced inhibition of citrate uptake.