Fig. 5. Effect of CVB3 on mitochondria. Expression of CVB3 genome in murine cardiac tissue results in tissue damage. Besides damage in contractile tissue the mitochondria tend to retain a rounded phenotype (upper picture, EM graph at 10.300x magnification). Besides structural effects on the mitochondria, the mitochondrial respiratory chain is affected by CVB3 (lower panel). The first four complexes of the respiratory chain (I‐IV) build up a proton gradient in the across the inner mitochondrial membrane and transport free electrons over ubiquinone and cytochrome c along the membrane. Complex V, the ATP‐Synthase, uses the proton gradient to generate ATP by shuttling protons back into the mitochondrial matrix.