Abstract
IT was considered that the correlation shown to exist between the β-glucuronidase activity of a tissue and the amount of cell proliferation in progress1 could explain the rise in uterine glucuronidase found by Fishman and Fishman2 to follow æstrogen administration to ovariectomized mice. In a preliminary kinetic study of the enzyme in mouse uterus, the pH-activity curve for the hydrolysis of phenol β-d-glucuronide was found to be almost symmetrical about pH 4·5. This is in contrast to the curves previously found for liver and spleen glucuronidase in the normal mouse3, With peaks at pH. 5·2 as well as at 4·5. Mills4 has shown that beef spleen glucuronidase can be separated into two fractions, A and B, with slightly different pH. optima for the hydrolysis of menthol glucuronide. Since it seemed probable that mouse uterus lacked a glucuronidase fraction present in liver and spleen, it was considered necessary to investigate the possibility that differences between A and B in distribution and response to extrinsic agents might in some way explain the selective actions of such substances as carbon tetrachloride and æstrone on liver and uterine tissue respectively.
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References
Kerr, L. M. H., Levvy, G. A., and Campbell, J. G., Nature, 160, 572 (1947).
Fishman, W. H., and Fishman, L. W., J. Biol. Chem., 152, 487 (1944).
Kerr, L. M. H., Graham, A. F., and Levvy, G. A., Biochem. J., 42, 191 (1948).
Mills, G. T., Nature, 160, 638 (1947).
Levvy, G. A., Kerr, L. M. H., and Campbell, J. G., Biochem. J., 42, 462 (1948).
Eschenbrenner, A. B., and Miller, E., Science, 102, 302 (1945).
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KERR, L., LEVVY, G. Sex and Organ Specificity in the Response of β-Glucuronidase to Extrinsic Agents. Nature 162, 219–220 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162219b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162219b0
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