鶏および豚骨格筋ミトコンドリアのα-トコフェロール含量

抄録

Qur previous work has demonstrated that red muscle with relatively high levels of myoglobin and phospholipids tended to contain a higher amount of α-tocopherol than white one with relatively low levels of those, but a cause for this difference in α-tocopherol content remains to be elucidated. On the other hand, it has been considered that α-tocopherol in tissues is located in the membranous structure of the cell and subcellular particles, especially concentrated in the mitochondria and microsomes. Therefore, in order to find out one of the reasons for the difference in α-tocopherol content between the white and red muscles, the respective concentrations of α-tocopherol in mitochondrial fraction from the white and red muscles of fowl and swine were determined. The white and red muscles used were M. pectoralie profundus and thigh muscle for fowl, and M. longissimus dorsi and M. biceps femoris for swine, respectively.
The respective concentrations of α-tocopherol in mitochondrial fraction from the fowl white and red muscles gave 0.113μmole and 0.175μmole per gram of protein. Corresponding figures for the swine muscles were 0.080μmole and 0.148μmole. These findings indicated that in both fowl and swine the concentration of α-tocopherol in mitochondrial fraction was significantly higher in the red muscle than in the white one. The swine red muscle also contained a significantly higher amount of mitochondria than the white one. Judging from the above results, the existence of numerous subcellular particles such as mitochondria and the significantly high level of α-tocopherol of the subcellular particles in the red muscle as compared with the white one seemed to be a reason for the difference in α-tocopherol content between the white and red muscles.