modulation of mercury-induced rat liver mitochondria dysfunction.

Mercury (Hg) is a toxic environmental pollutant that exerts its cytotoxic effects as cations by targeting mitochondria. In our work, we determined different mitochondrial toxicity factors using specific substrates and inhibitors following the addition of Hg to the mitochondria isolated from Wistar rat liver . We found that Hg induced marked changes in the mitochondrial ultrastructure accompanied by mitochondrial swelling, mitochondrial membrane potential collapse, mitochondrial membrane fluidity increase and Cytochrome release.