Inorganic lead, added to the diet of suckling rat in high doses, produces an encephalopathy similar to that seen in the immature human. Pathologic changes of edema and hemorrhage are seen earliest and are most prominent in the cerebellum. In this study, we measured respiration in cerebral hemisphere and cerebellar mitochondria isolated from led-fed and age-matched normal rat pups. Lactating mothers were begun on ad libitum feedins containing 4% lead carbonate when their pups were 2 weeks old. Mitochondria were isolated by differential centrifugation. Oxygen consumption was measured polarographically, NAD-linked respiration was measured with oxidation of the substrate pair, glutamate and malate. Cytochrome oxidase (cytochrome c oxidase, EC. 1.9.3.1) activity was measured in the presence of tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride (TMPD) and ascorbate. Within 2 days of starting lead feedings, rat pups showed a significant loss in body weight (P less than 0.02) and, after 1 week, a significant loss in cerebral hemisphere wet weight (P less than 0.01) compared with controls. Overt encephalopathy appeared in pups from two of nine litters receiving lead feedings for 1 week and in half of the litters after 2 weeks of feedings. None of the lead-fed mothers developed encephalopathic signs. With oxidation of the NAD-linked substrate pair, there was a progressive decrease, relative to controls, in ADP/O ratios in both cerebellar and cerebral mitochondria from lead-fed animals. After 2 weeks these differences were significant in mitochondria from both regions (cerebellum, P less than 0.02; cerebrum, P less than 0.005). Respiratory control ratios were significantly lower in cerebellar mitochondria from lead-fed rats within 2 days of beginning feedings (P less than 0.02) and in mitochondria from both regions after 2 weeks of lead feedings (cerebellum, P less than 0.01; cerebrum, P less than 0.05). The decrease in control ratios in cerebellar mitochondria from animals receivint lead feedings for 1 week or less was due to a small decrease in state 3 respiration and a large, but inconsistent, increase in state 4 respiration. The decrease in control ratios in both cerebellar and cerebral hemisphere mitochondria after 2 weeks of lead feedings was due to a marked inhibition of state 3 respiration, relative to controls (cerebellum, P less than 0.01; cerebral hemisphers, P less than 0.05). In cerebellar mitochondria from lead-fed animals, cytochrome oxidase activity showed similar changes compared with controls: a highly significant (P less than 0.001) increase within 2 days of beginning feedings and a significant (P less than 0.01) decrease after 2 weeks of feedings.