Some enzyme activities were measured with homogenates of livers from normal rats and from ones bearing Rhodamine sarcoma on the back. In addition, attempts were made to prepare, from the tumor tissue, substance capable of influencing the enzyme activities of mouse liver
in vivo.
When rat livers were homogenized in a buffer containing Triton X-100, the catalase activity by the homogenates increased with increasing concentrations of the detergent; the activity increased by approximately 40% at 0.1% Triton X-100 but not further at higher concentrations. Both catalase activities, with and without Triton, decreased as the wet weight of tumor/body ratio increased, and were insignificant at the ratio of approximately 40%. The ratios in activity rate of the + Triton to +none were in most cases higher with tumor-bearing rats than with normal ones. The tryptophan pyrrolase activity was in most cases lower while the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity was in some cases higher with tumorbearing rats than with normal ones. The cytochrome oxidase activity was hardly affected by the tumor/body ratio.
The precipitate obtained by centrifugation of the homogenate of the tumor, if injected into mice, influenced the levels of enzyme activities of the liver; the catalase and tryptophan pyrrolase activities decreased and the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase activity increased, while the cytochrome oxidase activity was hardly affected. By injecting the precipitates obtained from the dorsal muscles and from the liver of normal rats, the catalase activity significantly decreased with the former but not with the latter. On the basis of minimum effective dose to influence liver catalase activity
in vivo, the precipitate obtained from the muscles was approximately one-tenth as active as that from the tumor.
The precipitate from the tumor, if heated in a boiling water bath for 1 hour, still maintained
in vivo-liver catalase-depressing activity but lost
in vivo-tryptophan pyrrolase-depressing activity. Substance(s) capable of showing
in vivo-liver enzyme-influencing activity were extractable with water from the precipitate from the tumor that had been washed with acetone and then with a mixture of chloroformmethanol (2:1 in v/v). When the extract was subjected to molecular sieve fractionation on a Sephadex G-25 column, the effluent fraction showed
in vivo catalasedepressing and
in vivo glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase-stimulating activities and the fraction eluted after inorganic salts present in the extract showed
in vivo-tryptophan pyrrolase-depressing activity. When stored in a frozen state, the former fraction could maintain the activities without notable loss for months, whereas the latter fraction completely lost the activity within 1 week. The former fraction, if heated in a boiling water bath for one hour, completely lost the activities.
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