An abnormal ratio of cytochromes in the respiratory chain of mouse and human myelomas.

Mouse myeloma cells and mitochondria had the same kinds of cytochrome components in the respiratory chain as the normal ones. Their constitution, however, was abnormally different from that found in normal cells and mitochondria. The cytochrome aa3 concentration was especially low in the myeloma as compared with cytochrome c concentration, and the resulting cytochrome aa3/c ratio was 0.25, which was the lowest ever reported in animal mitochondria. Normal lymph node cells, producing the immunoglobulin similar to the myeloma cells, had a ratio of 1.1. Human myeloma mitochondria had the same characteristics as the mouse myeloma. Ascite form myeloma originated from mouse solid from myeloma grew faster, and yet aa3/c of 0.5 in the ascites myeloma was found to be quite similar to that observed in various ascites tumor cells such as hepatomas, Ehrlich and sarcoma 180. A significant part of the cytochromes in the respiratory chain of the mouse myeloma remained in the oxidized form in the cyanide-inhibited or anaerobic states, and was reduced only by the addition of dithionite. The properties of the b cytochromes in mouse myeloma mitochondria are also described and discussed in the context of multiple forms of the b cytochromes in the respiratory chain.