Abstract
1. Nuclei were prepared from frozen rat liver by a modification of the technique of Behrens, and were studied with regard to the content of free amino acids and nucleic acid. 2. Under rigorously controlled conditions, preparations of nuclei are obtained by the Behrens' method which form a gel in the presence of 5 or 10 per cent NaCl or of water plus a small amount of dilute alkali; whereas when conditions are less rigorously controlled, nuclei are obtained which form no such gel. The property of forming gels with alkali is probably characteristic of all cell nuclei which have not undergone autolysis. 3. Nuclei prepared by the Behrens' technique contain the enzymes arginase, catalase, and esterase in very appreciable concentrations. 4. The free amino acids of the isolated cell nuclei, as well as of other liver cell fractions, have been investigated using the technique of paper chromatography. 5. The chromatographic patterns of the free amino acids of whole cells, ground cytoplasm, and isolated cell nuclei were very similar or identical. A feature of interest in these chromatograms was the faintness or absence of the spots due to a number of the essential amino acids, as compared to the intensities of the spots due to glycine, alanine, and glutamic acid. Glutathione was present in the isolated nuclei as well as in the whole cells. 6. Chromatograms made from hydrolysates of nuclei showed high concentrations of the essential amino acids and were similar to chromatograms of hydrolysates of typical proteins.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (822.8 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- ARNESEN K., GOLDSMITH Y., DULANEY A. D. Antigenic properties of nuclei segregated from spleens of normal and leukemic mice. Cancer Res. 1949 Nov;9(11):669–671. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Consden R., Gordon A. H., Martin A. J. Qualitative analysis of proteins: a partition chromatographic method using paper. Biochem J. 1944;38(3):224–232. doi: 10.1042/bj0380224. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- DENT C. E. A study of the behaviour of some 60 amino-acids and other ninhydrin-reacting substances on phenol-collidine filter-paper chromatograms, with notes as to the occurrence of some of them in biological fluids. Biochem J. 1948;43(2):169–180. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Dent C. E. The amino-aciduria in Fanconi syndrome. A study making extensive use of techniques based on paper partition chromatography. Biochem J. 1947;41(2):240–253. doi: 10.1042/bj0410240. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Dounce A. L., Lan T. H. ISOLATION AND PROPERTIES OF CHICKEN ERYTHROCYTE NUCLEI. Science. 1943 Jun 25;97(2530):584–585. doi: 10.1126/science.97.2530.584. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- HOGEBOOM G. H. Cytochemical studies of mammalian tissues; the distribution of diphosphopyridine nucleotide-cytochrome c reductase in rat liver fractions. J Biol Chem. 1949 Feb;177(2):847–858. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- MIRSKY A. E., RIS H. Variable and constant components of chromosomes. Nature. 1949 Apr 30;163(4148):666–666. doi: 10.1038/163666a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- MOSES M. J. Nucleoproteins and the cytological chemistry of Paramecium nuclei. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1949 Aug;71(4):537–539. doi: 10.3181/00379727-71-17247. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- SCHNEIDER W. C., POTTER V. R. Intracellular distribution of enzymes; the distribution of oxalacetic oxidase activity in rat liver and rat kidney fractions. J Biol Chem. 1949 Feb;177(2):893–903. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]