Production of Uric Acid and Existence of Xanthine Oxidase in Rat Plasma

Abstract

The experiments, using rat blood, were carried out on increase of uric acid in plasma by preincubation of blood and degradation of adenine nucleotides in erythrocyte and in plasma, by chromatographic separation on a Sephadex G-10 column, and also on existence and characteristics of xanthine oxidase in plasma. A system for the production of uric acid from adenine nucleotides and the existence of xanthine oxidase were demonstrated in rat plasma from these experimental results. Xanthine oxidase found in plasma has different characteristics from the enzyme present in liver, and rather resembles the enzyme isolated from milk (EC 1.2.3.2).