AIM: To study the mechanism of resazurin as indicator of mitochondrial function and to develop a rapid and sensitive assay for measuring metabolic activity of isolated mitochondria from rat liver in vitro. METHODS: The screening was carried out on 96-well microtitre plates by monitoring fluorescence intensity of resazurin reduced by mitochondria. Experimental conditions were optimized and influences of several inhibitors on mitochondrial func- tion were observed. RESULTS: Fluorescence intensity increased in a linear manner when the mitochondrial protein concentration from 5 to 50 μg protein per well was incubated with resazurin (5 μmol/L) during 230 min period at 37 oC. Edetic acid could promote the reduction of resazurin in mitochondria. The fluorescence intensity decreased greatly after pretreatment with NaN3, antimycin A, carbonyl cyanide p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone (FCCP), and oligomycin compared with the control. However, the typical complex I inhibitor, rotenone enhanced the fluorescence intensity without mitochondria. CONCLUSION: Using resazurin to determine mitochondrial func- tion is sensitive, inexpensive and could be easily automated for high throughput screening. AIM: To study the mechanism of resazurin as indicator of mitochondrial function and to develop a rapid and sensitive assay for measuring metabolic activity of isolated mitochondria from rat liver in vitro. METHODS: The screening was carried out on 96-well microtitre plates by monitoring fluorescence intensity of resazurin reduced by mitochondria. Experimental conditions were optimized and influences of several inhibitors on mitochondrial func tion were observed. RESULTS: Fluorescence intensity increased in a linear manner when the mitochondrial protein concentration from 5 to 50 μg protein per well was incubated with resazurin (5 μmol / L) during 230 min period at 37 oC. Edetic acid could promote the reduction of resazurin in mitochondria. The fluorescence intensity decreased greatly after pretreatment with NaN3, antimycin A, carbonyl cyanide p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone (FCCP), and oligomycin with the control. However, the typical complex I inhibitor, rotenone enhanced the fluorescence intensity without mitochondria. CONCLUSION: Using resazurin to determine mitochondrial func- tion is sensitive, inexpensive and could be be automated easy for high throughput screening.