Mitochondrial dysfunction in spontaneous inbred turkey cardiomyopathy.

Mitochondrial enzyme activities were examined in cardiac tissues of turkeys with spontaneous inbred cardiomyopathy. Marked declines in specific enzyme activities were noted for respiratory complexes III and V ranging from 65-90% of the control values. No significant differences in complexes I, IV and citrate synthase nor in mitochondrial DNA copy number were detected. These results suggest that specific mitochondrial enzyme defects occur in cardiac tissues during spontaneous inbred turkey cardiomyopathy.