No abstract

1. The effect of three types of diabetes (alloxan, partial pancreatectomy and anti-insulin serum) on the concentrations of individual amino acids in the plasma and heart muscle of rats was studied. 2. Insulin deficiency produced complex alterations in the concentrations of amino acids in plasma and heart muscle; the concentrations of some (alanine, valine, leucine and isoleucine) increased, others decreased and a small number were unchanged. The complexity of the results may in part be attributed to the diverse hormonal and metabolic changes that accompany diabetes.

This paper describes experiments conducted with membranous and soluble fractions obtained from Escherichia coli that had been grown on succinate, malate, or enriched glucose media. Oxidase and dehydrogenase activities were studied with the following substrates : nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, reduced form (NADH), nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate, reduced form (NADPH), succinate, malate, isocitrate, glutamate, pyruvate, and a-ketoglutarate . Respiration was virtually insensitive to poisons that are commonly used to inhibit mitochondrial systems, namely, rotenone, antimycin, and azide . Succinate dehydrogenase and NADH, NADPH, and succinate oxidases were primarily membrane-bound whereas malate, isocitrate, and NADH dehydrogenases were predominantly soluble . It was observed that E. coli malate dehydrogenase could be assayed with the dye 2,6-dichlorophenol indophenol, but that porcine malate dehydrogenase activity could not be assayed, even in the presence of E . coli extracts. The characteristics of E. coli NADH dehydrogenase were shown to be markedly different from those of a mammalian enzyme . The enzyme activities for oxidation of Krebs cycle intermediates (malate, succinate, isocitrate) did not appear to be under coordinate genetic control .

1. Rat heart perfused with Krebs-Henseleit bicarbonate buffer released material containing ninhydrin-positive nitrogen, but the amount was less than that reported to be released by diaphragm; glucose, but not insulin, decreased the release of ninhydrin-positive nitrogen and increased the concentration of the same material in the intracellular water of heart. 2. When heart was perfused with a mixture of amino acids and glucose, there was actually a net uptake, and an increase in intracellular concentration, of ninhydrin-positive nitrogen. Changes in the concentration of ninhydrin-positive nitrogen did not accurately reflect changes in concentration of amino acids. 3. The effect of insulin on the actual concentration of individual amino acids in heart muscle was examined by perfusing the heart with a mixture of amino acids and other ninhydrin-positive substances in the same concentration as they are found in plasma. 4. The effect of insulin on the concentrations of amino acids in the medium and in the intracellular water of the heart was determined after perfusion for different periods of time. No clear or meaningful effect of insulin was observed, despite the fact that insulin significantly increased the accumulation, in each of the same hearts, of radioactivity from amino[(14)C]isobutyric acid.