Abstract
THE observation of von Mutzenbecher1 that traces of thyroxine are formed on incubation of an alkaline solution of diiodotyrosine was developed by Harington and Pitt Rivers2. These authors showed that the course of the reaction was greatly influenced by pH ; the largest yield of thyroxine, amounting to 2.7 per cent calculated on the diiodotyrosine not recoverable at the end of the oxidation, was obtained at pH 10; at this pH the acidic groups of diiodotyrosine are 95 per cent neutralized. In highly alkaline solution, there was little destruction of diiodotyrosine and no thyroxine formation : at lower alkalinity (pH 8–9) the destruction of diiodotyrosine was very extensive and the formation of thyroxine was minute. In all experiments in which diiodotyrosine was oxidatively destroyed, tarry by-products appeared and the liberation of ammonia was evident.
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References
von Mutzenbecher, P., Z. Physiol. Chem., 261, 253 (1939).
Harington, C. R., and Pitt Rivers, R. V., Biochem. J., 39, 157 (1945).
Ashley, J. N., and Harington, C. R., Biochem. J., 23, 1178 (1929).
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RIVERS, R. Formation of Derivatives of Thyroxine from Derivatives of Diiodotyrosine. Nature 161, 308 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/161308a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/161308a0
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