F. Eisenberg, J. Field
Sep 1, 1956
Citations
0
Influential Citations
23
Citations
Journal
The Journal of biological chemistry
Abstract
Studies over the past 20 years on the metabolism of carbohydrates have implicated glucuronolactone as a precursor of several compounds of physiological interest; namely, L-xylulose (1, 2), ascorbic acid (3, 4), and furan2,5-dicarboxylic acid (5). Studies in viva from two laboratories, demonstrating that mammalian tissues can oxidize glucuronolactone to CO2 (6) but fail to oxidize glucuronic acid (7), have led to the belief that these two closely related compounds are metabolically distinct. Recent studies in vitro (8), however, have shown that both the lactone and the acid are at least in part oxidized to coz. In the present communication evidence will be adduced for the presence of an enzyme system in rat liver that readily hydrolyzes glucurono-y-lactone to glucuronate.