Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the lactate dehydrogenase. Lactic acid is the end product of anaerobic glycolysis in muscle tissue has been known for all of this century. Cell-free extracts able to catalyze the oxidation of lactate to pyruvate. The five different permutations of two different polypeptide chains readily explained the electrophoretic patterns. The distribution of these two polypeptide chains was dependent on whether the extract originated in aerobic tissue, such as heart or in anaerobic tissue as in skeletal muscle. The NAD + binding structure found in L-lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) occurs frequently in other dehydrogenases and other proteins. In LDH the problem of catalysis is presented in stark simplicity. The complications of metal ions, linked substrate phosphorylation, or of ammonia uptake are absent. LDH is the only simpler dehydrogenase where both structure and sequence are known at present. The concept of multiple molecular forms of LDH has stimulated many investigations into the nature, function, and control of isozymes. There are only two major structural genes and there is a complex variety of other LDH genes, which can be expressed in some tissues at certain stages of development.

4 Lactate Dehydrogenase

The relationship between the dose of intravenously administered streptozotocin (a N-nitroso derivative of glucosamine) and the diabetogenic response has been explored by use of the following indices of diabetogenic action: serum glucose, urine volume, and glycosuria, ketonuria, serum immunoreactive insulin (IRI), and pancreatic IRI content. Diabetogenic activity could be demonstrated between the doses of 25 and 100 mg/kg, all indices used showing some degree of correlation with the dose administered. Ketonuria was only seen with the largest dose, 100 mg/kg. The most striking and precise correlation was that between the dose and the pancreatic IRI content 24 hr after administration of the drug, and it is suggested that this represents a convenient test system either for both related and unrelated beta cytotoxic compounds or for screening for modifying agents or antidiabetic substances of a novel type. Ability to produce graded depletion of pancreatic IRI storage capacity led to an analysis of the relationship between pancreatic IRI content and deranged carbohydrate metabolism. Abnormal glucose tolerance and insulin response were seen when pancreatic IRI was depleted by about one-third, while fasting hyperglycemia and gross glycosuria occurred when the depletion had reached two-thirds and three-quarters, respectively. The mild yet persistent anomaly produced by the lowest effective streptozotocin dose, 25 mg/kg, exhibits characteristics resembling the state of chemical diabetes in humans and might thus warrant further study as a possible model. Finally, the loss of the diabetogenic action of streptozotocin by pretreatment with nicotinamide was confirmed and was shown to be a function of the relative doses of nicotinamide and streptozotocin and of the interval between injections.

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Diabetogenic action of streptozotocin: relationship of dose to metabolic response.

The quantitative histochemistry of the retina.

Nucleotide metabolism: ii. chromatographic separation of acid-soluble nucleotides

Margaret M. Ciotti

Papers

The reaction of pyridine nucleotide with cyanide and its analytical use.

Molecular Heterogeneity and Evolution of Enzymes

Reaction of pyridine nucleotide analogues with dehydrogenases.

Chemistry and properties of the 3-acetylpyridine analogue of diphosphopyridine nucleotide

Pyridine nucleotide synthesis in the mouse