C1q binding to mitochondria: a possible artefact?

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Abstract
Mitochondrial preparations, obtained from human tonsils and from rat spleen, liver, heart, and kidney tissues, bound [125I]Clq with affinities of 107–108 M−1. The binding of Clq was not affected by treatment of the mitochondrial preparations with pronase, trypsin, or phospholipase D, but it was lowered 5–6‐fold following treatment of the mitochondria with DNase and RNase. Binding of Clq to mitochondrial preparations was also greatly diminished by limited chemical modification of Clq with cyclohexane‐1,2‐dione. It is suggested that the reported binding of Clq to mitochondria may have arisen from the protein binding to DNA and/or RNA contaminating the mitochondrial preparations.