Abstract
RECENTLY the function of 2-dimethylaminoethanol (Deanol) in the biosynthesis of choline and its role as a possible precursor of cerebral acetylcholine1 has intensified interest in this substance. Levine and Chargaff2 could not find it in phospholipides. Artom and Crowder3 claimed the occasional occurrence of traces of it in rat liver. Recently Wolf and Nyc4 reported that they were able to isolate it from a mutant strain (47904) of Neurospora crassa, which accumulates this substance. In a preliminary paper, Venkataraman and Greenberg5 showed on the basis of chromatographic evidence, that incubation of a rat liver extract with aminoethanol and formaldehyde yielded methylated intermediates of choline. To clarify the question of the natural occurrence of 2-dimethylaminoethanol in animal tissue a method was developed for the isolation, characterization and quantitative determination of small amounts of this substance in the presence of other amines.
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References
Pfeiffer, C. C., Jenney, E. H., Gallagher, W., Smith, R. P., Bevan, W., Killam, K. F., Killam, E. K., and Blackmore, W., Science, 126, 610 (1957).
Levine, C., and Chargaff, E., J. Biol. Chem., 192, 465 (1951).
Artom, C., and Crowder, M., Fed. Proc., 8, 180 (1949).
Wolf, B., and Nyc, J., Biochim. et Biophys. Acta, 31, 208 (1959).
Venkataraman, R., and Greenberg, D. M., J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 80, 2025 (1958).
Cremer, E., and Muller, R., Z. Elektrochem., 55, 217 (1951).
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HONEGGER, C., HONEGGER, R. Occurrence and Quantitative Determination of 2-Dimethylaminoethanol in Animal Tissue Extracts. Nature 184, 550–552 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/184550a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/184550a0
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