Figure 1.

Schematic visualization of the thickness of the exclusion zone versus pH factor at the surface of polyvinyl alcohol gel [14]. The gel was stored in pure water at pH 5.7. The signs + and − denote positively and negatively charged particles suspended in aqueous solution at different pH and excluded from the exclusion zone. The exclusion zone is formed by the static electric field emanating from the gel surface charge. The measured curves are important for understanding the ordered water layers around mitochondria. As the inner membrane potential of mitochondria depends on the level of oxidative metabolism (i.e., on the intensity of the static electric field), the working point shifts along the curve and very likely even the point of zero thickness may move as shown by the arrows. The shifts of the working point along the pH axis seem to explain Warburg’s “more structure” in normal cells.