Sidney Weinhouse and the Mechanism of Ketone Body Synthesis from Fatty Acids

Nicole Kresge,Richard W Hanson,Robert D Simoni,Robert L Hill

doi:10.1016/s0021-9258(20)69210-9

Abstract

Sidney Weinhouse and the Mechanism of Ketone Body Synthesis from Fatty Acids

Highlights

Sidney Weinhouse (1909 –2001) was born and educated in Chicago
This story starts with the work of Franz Knoop (1), who in 1904 demonstrated that when phenyl derivatives of even-chain fatty acids were fed to dogs, the product found in their urine was phenylacetate
Dakin (2), who published a similar finding in the Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) in 1909 and was the subject of a previous JBC Classic (3)

Summary

Introduction

Sidney Weinhouse (1909 –2001) was born and educated in Chicago. He received both his B.S. (1933) and his Ph.D. (1936) from the University of Chicago and remained at the University to do his postdoctoral work. This story starts with the work of Franz Knoop (1), who in 1904 demonstrated that when phenyl derivatives of even-chain fatty acids were fed to dogs, the product found in their urine was phenylacetate. The scheme proposed by Knoop was termed the ␤-oxidation theory and was later verified by H. This work led to the proposal by Gustav Embden that ketone bodies arise from the last four carbons that are generated during ␤-oxidation of an even-chain fatty acid.

Results

Conclusion