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. 1985 May 1;227(3):903–908. doi: 10.1042/bj2270903

Studies on the metabolism of rat liver copper-metallothionein.

R K Mehra, I Bremner
PMCID: PMC1144920  PMID: 4004805

Abstract

The degradation of purified 35S-labelled rat liver isometallothioneins (MT) by lysosomal extracts was studied. Zn-MT-I was more readily hydrolysed than Zn-MT-II, but no significant degradation of the Cu-containing metallothioneins could be detected, even after 24 h incubation. The susceptibility of MT to degradation in vitro may be related to the strength of the metal-thiolate bonds. However, the turnover rates of cytosolic MT in vivo, as established by pulse-labelling techniques, are apparently subject to different controls. The half-lives of MT-I and -II in the liver cytosol of Cu2+-injected rats were only 15.4 +/- 1.5 and 18.2 +/- 1.1 h respectively. Approx. 25% of the total liver MT was present in particulate fractions (probably in lysosomes) of the liver and had a half-life of 25.1 +/- 4.1 h.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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