Trans-amination of l- and d-Amino Acids in Normal Muscle and in Malignant Tumours

Abstract

As stated in a previous paper¹, glutamic aminopherase from muscle tissue is absolutely specific for amino acids of the l-series. Slight trans-amination effects with the artificial d-amino acids (optically pure) in the presence of native muscle pulp, then considered as requiring additional proof, have since been observed almost regularly in some twenty-five experiments with d-glutamic acid and pyruvate or with d-alanine, d-valine, d-leucine and d-isoleucine and α-ketoglutarate. The mean ratio of the trans-amination values of the optical antipodes (l/d), computed from the experiments with glutamic acid and with alanine, amounts to 7·3 (Table 1).