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Quantitative Aspects of the Re-utilization of Protein-bound Amino-acids in vivo

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Abstract

THE extent of the re-utilization of protein-bound amino-acids in the formation of new protein has been a subject of interest for many years1–3. The main difficulty with some of the work reported in the literature has been that the half-life of the protein into which the re-utilized amino-acid residue was traced was short. Thus, when one injects a labelled soluble protein and determines the uptake of the label into liver or serum proteins (the half-lives of which are a few days in extent) one deals with a situation in which the uptake, transfer and loss of label is rapid and, furthermore, where the ‘recipient’ protein continually recirculates some of the amino-acid to itself. In these circumstances one is unable to assess reliably the significance or extent of the re-utilization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Radioisotope Service, Veterans Administration Hospital, Brooklyn, New York

    H. WALTER & H. ZIPPER

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  1. H. WALTER
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  2. H. ZIPPER
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WALTER, H., ZIPPER, H. Quantitative Aspects of the Re-utilization of Protein-bound Amino-acids in vivo. Nature 192, 1292–1293 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/1921292a0

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