Addition of a more reduced pool of ketone bodies increases basal mitochondrial respiration and maximal respiratory capacity.

<p>A: Example trace of the oxygen consumption rate (OCR) as a percentage of the baseline as a function of time. Redox compounds at 0 mM (control, gray) or 20 mM ketone bodies (d-βOHB, black, or Acoc, white), 2 μM oligomycin, 0.25 μM FCCP, and 1 μM antimycin A were sequentially added at the time points indicated. Each point shows the avg ± SE of 3 or 4 replicates. This trace is one representative trace of 4 independent experiments. B: Quantification of the increase in OCR upon addition of the redox compounds normalized to the control. C: Maximal respiratory capacity relative to the control. For B and C, raw OCR values after addition of antimycin A were subtracted before further analysis, as they correspond to non-mitochondrial respiration. B and C data represent avg ± SEM of 4 independent experiments. Different letters indicate statistical significance (<i>p</i> < 0.05, ANOVA, Tukey’s posthoc analysis).