Abstract
Schmidt, Bessman and Thannhauser1 described a phospholipase in mitochondria of rat intestinal mucosa which is highly active towards cephalin but relatively inactive towards lecithin. A possible explanation of this lack of activity towards lecithin was found in our studies of a similar enzyme preparation from rat intestine. It was found that the breakdown of lecithin to glycerophosphorylcholine depends on the concentration of enzyme used (see Fig. 1, (I)–(III)). With low enzyme concentrations a considerable lag period was observed followed by an autocatalytic rate of reaction. The lag period could be abolished by the addition of degradation products of lecithin, fatty acids (palmitic, oleic, stearic) and lysolecithin.
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EPSTEIN, B., SHAPIRO, B. Intestinal Lecithinase. Nature 180, 387 (1957). https://doi.org/10.1038/180387a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/180387a0
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