In-Vivo Preferential Oxidation of Ureide Carbon No. 2 of Uric Acid by Periplaneta americana

Abstract

Both uric acid (UA) C14 no. 2 and UA C14 no. 8 were injected into the adult female cockroach (1.65 mg suspension in 16.5 μl vegetable oil) and the respiratory CO2 in the following 24 hr was precipitated as BaCO3, weighed, and counted at infinite thickness. American cockroaches, Periplaneta americana (L.), injected with UA C14 no. 2 and no. 8, produced an average of 5% of the injected activity in C14O2, and the UA C14 no. 2 cockroaches produced an average of 8% of the injected activity in respiratory C14O2. These results indicate a preferential oxidation of ureide carbon no. 2, assuming that equal amounts of UA were available for degradation. Paper chromatography of extracts of UA C14 no. 2-injected cockroaches (phenol, H2O saturated; tert-butanol formic acid, H2O:7:1:1) showed activity only in UA. These results are similar to xanthine degradation by Clostridium cylindrosporum where carbon no. 2 but not no. 8 came off as CO2 (Rabinowitz and Barker 1953).