Use of Desoxyribonucleic Acid as a Reference Standard in Metabolic Experiments

¹ From the Department of Biochemistry, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada

The metabolic activity (as gauged by glycogen synthesis, glucose uptake and oxygen consumption per gram of wet tissue) was found to be increased in diaphragms taken from rats maintained on a low-protein diet compared to normal controls. There was no significant difference in these indices of metabolic activity when they were expressed on a per cell basis (calculated on the content of desoxyribonucleic acid phosphorus). In protein deprivation, the mass of the diaphragm cell was dependent upon the protein intake rather than the total caloric intake but the metabolic activity of the cell was independent of its mass. These findings suggest that the metabolic activity of a tissue may, under certain experimental conditions, be more suitably expressed on a per cell basis than on the more usual basis of wet weight of tissue.

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