Turnover rates of acid-soluble nucleotides in hind leg muscles of dystrophic mice

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

The turnover rates of the acid-soluble nucleotides in skeletal muscle were compared in mice with dystrophic muscularis and in normal mice. At various time intervals after a subcutaneous injection of radioactive phosphate, both dystrophic mice and their normal littermates were sacrificed. The nucleotides were extracted from the hind limb musculature, chromatographically resolved, and determined quantitatively. Specific activities were calculated from the radioactivity measurements made on the separated acid-soluble nucleotides. The turnover rates for the ADP, DPN, and GTP fraction (absolute or fractional) were significantly higher in the muscle of the dystrophic mice than those obtained for normal mouse muscle. Little or no differences were found in the fractional turnover rates of the AMP, ATP, and GDP components derived from both types of tissue. Studies dealing with the rate of absorption of radioactive phosphate, as well as the phosphate levels in the plasma and whole blood of these animals, were included.