Fig. 1. Change of mitochondrial morphology during swelling. Mitochondria within a
HeLa cell were stained by Mitotracker and imaged using a fluorescence
microscope. (A) Under the normal condition, mitochondria appeared as
filamentous structures. (B) After mitochondria were induced to swell by
exposing the cell to a hypo-osmotic medium (5 mM potassium phosphate buffer,
pH 7.4) for 1 minute, mitochondria were found to change into spherical shapes.
(C) Calculated changes in volume and diameter when a mitochondrion swelled
without stretching its surface. The length/diameter ratio was assumed to be
five before swelling (Scheffler,
1999). Scale bar: 10
µm.
