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AN IMPROVED SULPHUR ASSAY APPLIED TO A PROBLEM OF ISETHIONATE METABOLISM IN SQUID AXON AND OTHER NERVES 1
Author(s) -
Hoskin F. C. G.,
Brande M.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
journal of neurochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.75
H-Index - 229
eISSN - 1471-4159
pISSN - 0022-3042
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-4159.1973.tb00243.x
Subject(s) - hypotaurine , squid , biochemistry , cephalopod , chemistry , cuttlefish , taurine , axon , biophysics , biology , anatomy , ecology , food science , amino acid
An assay has ken developed for total sulphur which is based on a wet oxidation and measurement with a spectrophotofluorometer of light scattering by barium sulphate. The method has been adapted to the measurement of isethionate in squid nerve and blood, in other cephalopod nerve, and in the nerve tissue of other species including mammals. A correlation has been found between isethionate contents and the activity in the same tissues of one kind of DFP‐hydrolysing enzyme, the highest levels of both being in squid nerve. Squid nerve also took up cysteine rapidly and metabolized it predominantly to hypotaurine but not to isethionate. We speculate that a hypotaurine derivative is a reserve form of isethionate, and that the so‐called DFPase is involved in the release of hypotaurine and its metabolism to isethionate as needed.