Lipid acyl double bonds in isolated mitochondrial membranes were gradually reduced by palladium-complex-catalysed hydrogenation, and the resulting saturation was monitored by fatty acid analysis of phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine and cardiolipin. The courses of hydrogenation of these phospholipids suggested that cardiolipin is in a membrane compartment which is less accessible to the applied catalyst. Native cardiolipin and its hydrogenation products were further characterized by analysis of their molecular diacylglycerol species. A decrease in the double bond content was accompanied by an increased amount of motionally restricted lipids at the hydrophobic interface of proteins as measured by two different spin-labelled lipids (C-14 positional isomers of spin-labelled stearic acid and phosphatidylcholine analogues). The protein-immobilized fraction of spin-labelled stearic acid increased in parallel with the hydrogenation of cardiolipin rather than of phosphatidylcholine or phosphatidylethanolamine. These data are interpreted in terms of a tight association of cardiolipin with membrane proteins, which becomes looser upon double bond reduction leading to the replacement of cardiolipin by spin-labelled stearic acid in the solvation shell. Thus the hydrophobic moiety of cardiolipin, characterized by double-unsaturated C18-C18 diacylglycerol species, seems to be an important structural requirement for the high protein affinity of this compound.