Cardiolipin is essential for maintaining proton charge in the inner mitochondrial membrane for ATP energy production.

“but this cardiolipin is is um it has to interdigitate with other molecules of cardiolipin in the inner mitochondrial membrane in order to hold the proton um charge essentially so when we create energy we have to in our inner mitochondria our powerhouses and ourselves we have to create energy um through ATP and the way we do that is we first build a proton gradient inside the inner mitochondrial membrane and those protons which are basically hydrogen atoms they have to be held in place um through this membrane that's solid”