Feeding effects on liver mitochondrial bioenergetics of Boa constrictor (Serpentes: Boidae)

Snakes are interesting examples of overcoming energy metabolism challenges as many species can endure long periods without feeding, and their eventual meals are of reasonably large sizes, thus exhibiting dual extreme adaptations. Consequently, metabolic rate increases considerably to attend to the energetic demand of digestion, absorption and, protein synthesis. These animals should be adapted to transition from these two opposite states of energy fairly quickly, and therefore we investigated mitochondrial function plasticity in these states. Herein we compared liver mitochondrial bioenergetics of the boid snake Boa constrictor during fasting and after meal intake. We fasted the snakes for 60 days, then we fed a subgroup with 30% of their body size and evaluated their maximum postprandial response. We measured liver respiration rates from permeabilized tissue and isolated mitochondria, and from isolated mitochondria, we also measured Ca2+ retention capacity, the release of H2O2, and NAD...