Abstract
The phosphates of acid-soluble and acid-insoluble fractions of rat liver were fractionated one hour after the intraperitoneal injection of Na2HP32O4, and the renewal rate of phosphorus in thiamine-deficient rats was compared with normal and pair-fed rats. For the fractionation of acid-soluble phosphate compounds, the method of Kaplan and Greenberg was principally employed. The ATP-ADP fraction was separated from the Ba-insoluble fraction, and the contaminated inorganic P32 was precipitated by the addition of a very small amount of carrier phosphate. For the fractionation of acid-insoluble phosphate compounds Schmidt-Thannhauser's and Schneider's methods were used with a slight modification. The following fractions were separated and analyzed: (A) Acid-soluble fractions: i) labile P of ATP-ADP frac-tion, ii) inorganic phosphate from Ba-insoluble precipitate, iii) Hg fraction, and iv) alcohol fraction from Ba-soluble fraction; (B) Acid-insoluble fractions: i) lipid fraction, ii) RNA, iii) DNA. The results were as follows:
1. No remarkable difference was observed in the distribution of P31 in all the fractions described above, except the lipid fraction, be-tween normal, pair-fed, and thiamine-deficient rats.
2. The thiamine-deficient rats showed significant decrease in the turnover rate of the labile P of ATP and ADP compared with normal and pair-fed control rats, and this decrease was restored to the normal range in the recovered rats. Such remarkable changes of the rate of the renewal was not found in the other acid-soluble fractions; only some decrease was observed in the alcohol-fraction of thiamine-deficient and restored rats.
3. The rate of the renewal of lipid, RNA, and DNA phosphate in thiamine-deficient rats showed significant decrease and that of pair-fed control rats was found to be between the values of normal and thiamine-deficient rats. In the recovered animals these decreased values of thiamine-deficient rats were restored to some extent.
This work was supported by a Grant in Aid for Fundamental Scientific Research from the Department of Education. The authors express their gratitude to Prof. Norio Shimazono for his discussions and helpful suggestions
