Abstract
SINCE the demonstration that squalene might be an important precursor to cholesterol in endogenous synthesis1–3, it was felt that it would be useful to have available an adequate supply of carbon-14-labelled squalene. It has been shown that synthetic squalene does not act as a precursor for cholesterol, whereas the biological squalene does2,4. The difference is apparently due to the high degree of stereo -specificity. It was decided, therefore, to attempt to obtain carbon-14-labelled squalene by biological synthesis. The only known adequate biological producer of squalene in the northern hemisphere is the basking shark, and since the adults are large, some being well over 30 ft. long, the difficulty of injecting carbon-14-labelled acetate in such an animal and maintaining the animal alive for three days for adequate synthesis of squalene is obvious.
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References
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HELLER, J., HELLER, M., SPRINGER, S. et al. Squalene Content of Various Shark Livers. Nature 179, 919–920 (1957). https://doi.org/10.1038/179919b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/179919b0
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