Development of a microspectrophotometer system for monitoring the redox reactions of respiratory pigments

The continuing demand for non-invasive tools for use in clinical diagnosis has created the need for flexible and innovative optical systems which satisfy current requirements. We report the development of a microspectrophotometer system for use on mitochondrial respiratory pigments. This novel optical fibre set-up uses visible spectrophotometry to monitor the reduction of mitochondrial electron carriers. Preliminary data is presented for the reduction of cytochrome-c by two methods. In the first, cytochrome-c was reduced in isolation using sodium dithionite. The second was an in-vivo simulation of the reduction of cytochrome-c using the mitochondrial extract from rat liver. The key features of the system are; front end adaptability, high sensitivity and fast scanning capabilities which are essential for the rapid biological reactions which are observed.