Distribution of acid-soluble nucleotides in hind leg muscles of mice with ‘dystrophia muscularis’

¹ Isaac Albert Research Institute of the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital, Brooklyn, New York

Qualitative and quantitative distribution of acid-soluble nucleotides in muscle from mice with dystrophia muscularis was compared to normal mouse muscle using filter paper chromatography followed by elution and U.V. spectrophotometry. Qualitatively, no apparent differences were found in the number and types of nucleotides present in both tissues. Similar results were obtained using radioautography with P³². Significant amounts of AMP, ADP, ATP, DPN, GTP, GDP were found, while smaller amounts of components tentatively identified as UDP, UTP, CTP and IDP were also observed. The concentrations of AMP, GTP (including UTP), and GDP (including UDP, CTP, and IDP) were significantly higher in the hind limb muscles of dystrophic mice than those obtained for normal mouse muscles, while for ATP the reverse was found. Slight or no significant differences were found in the acid-soluble nucleotides of animals with experimentally induced atrophy of the hind leg when compared to the normal group, while histologically there was a significant decrease of the individual muscle fiber diameter in the atrophic muscle.