No abstract

No abstract

THE authors have already investigated [Jowett and Quastel, 1933] the glyoxalase activity of red blood corpuscles. A study has now been made of the glyoxalase activity of tissues with the use of tissue-slices. An interesting finding, which former workers have not made clear, is that, owing to the high glyoxalase activity of tissues, diffusion of methylglyoxal sets a limit to the activity shown by tissue-slices of the usual thicknesses. The glyoxalase activity is proportional not to the weight of the tissue-slices, but to their surface areas. The observed activity depends on the diffusion coefficient of methylglyoxal in tissues as well as on the intrinsic activity of the cells. This additional variable makes the designing and interpretation of experiments more difficult. Nevertheless we have been able to obtain a little further information on the part played by methylglyoxal in glycolysis.

No abstract

Tmis paper is concerned with measurements of the rates of acetoacetic acid formation from fatty acids in tissues other than liver. The oxidation of fatty acids in the liver has been dealt with in Parts I and II of this series [Jowett and Quastel, 1935, 1, 2]. The paper also describes the effect of sodium malonate in increasing acetoacetic acid formation in the liver-an effect which is largely due to its inhibitory action on acetoacetic acid breakdown-and the effects of atoxyl and quinine in depressing the " spontaneous " acetoacetic acid formation in this organ. Measurements have been made of the rate of destruction of acetoacetic acid by tissues.