Effect of metal-complexing agents on the oxygenase activity of sheep vesicular glands.

A variety of agents that are known to complex copper can reversibly inhibit the oxygenation of unsaturated fatty acids by particulate preparations from sheep vesicular glands. The time-dependent activation of the oxygenase preparation by phenol, on the other hand, was not affected by the copper chelator, diethyldithiocarbamate. The results suggest that protein-bound copper could play a role in the interaction of the oxygenase enzyme with oxygen and the fatty acid substrates. Other findings indicate that phenanthroline type compounds may inhibit both the oxygenation reaction and phenol activation by binding to an hydrophobic site on the oxygenase. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work was supported in part by a grant (GB-28663X) from the National Science Foundation. William L. Smith was supported by a United States Public Health Service Health Science doctoral traineeship. We thank Dr. D. Wallach of The Upjohn Company for the samples of acetone powder preparation from sheep vesicular glands. Accepted September 27, 1973 P R O S T A G L A N D I N S D E C E M B E R 1973 VOL. 4 NO. 6 837