Bicarbonate and Mitochondrial Oxidative Phosphorilation

[nanonug]

Some people here on PR have noticed improvements when supplementing with one form of another of bicarbonate. I never paid much attention to this as I couldn't see a convincing mechanism for its purported effects. Well, that changed today!

It seems that (mitochondria produced) bicarbonate may induce an upregulation of the mitochondrial electron transport chain (and thus more ATP production). I'm not yet convinced that exogenous bicarbonate would have the same kind of effect, but bicarbonate transporters do exist and it is at least conceivable that it may.

The paper from which I derived my conclusion is quite technical and it took me three full readings to get a modest grasp of what is going on. The paper is entitled "Cyclic AMP produced inside mitochondria regulates oxidative phosphorylation."

 

[BadBadBear]

I take both sodium bicarb and potassium bicarb daily as I tend toward acidosis, but have never noticed an energy boost, alas.

 

[ljimbo423]

I watched a video on oxidative phosphorylation a couple hours ago and it said that calcium increased it in skeletal muscle. I looked it up and found this study and quote-

Specifically, Ca(2+) increased the conductance of Complex IV (2.3-fold), Complexes I and III (2.2-fold), ATP production/transport (2.4-fold), and fuel transport/dehydrogenases (1.7-fold).

These data support the notion that Ca(2+) activates the entire muscle oxidative phosphorylation cascade, while extrapolation of these data to the exercising muscle predicts a significant role of Ca(2+) in maintaining cellular energy homeostasis.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23547908

I had no idea calcium was so important to energy production in muscle cells!

I have supplemented bicarbonate but unfortunately it made me feel odd and out of sorts. I'm not sure why I had the weird reaction, maybe it was it's alkalizing effects.

Jim

 

[aquariusgirl]

Alethea Black was talking about this.. also, check out my lastest post in the genetic forum about SNPs affecting cAMP...

 

[sb4]

Interesting. What is confusing me is I have read that carbonic anhydrase inhibitors cause an increase in mitochondrial respiration by increasing the levels of CO2. This study says that CAI decrease respiration by stopping bicarbonate from activating sAC -> cAMP -> PKA -> COX.

The only way I can square this hole is by saying that carbonic anhydrase inhibitors mainly work in blood in vivo, where the extra CO2 will increase O2 delivery to cells (Bohr effect); yet have not so much effect in mitochondria.

@nanonug The study you posted alludes to this saying both CO2 and Bicarbonate increase respiration despite different pH's but never explains how.

"Addition of the carbonic anhydrase inhibitor (CAI) acetazolamide, diminished COX driven respiration by 10% (p<0.01), indicating that CO2 diffusing through the mitochondrial membranes is converted into bicarbonate that activates sAC and stimulates COX."

"We note that, since OXPHOS activity is increased by both bicarbonate and by exogenously generated CO2, in a carbonic anhydrase dependent manner, these effects cannot be due to pH changes (or ionic strength), because bicarbonate addition increases pH while CO2 addition decreases it."