The discovery of the enzymatic formation of lactic acid from methylglyoxal dates back to 1913 and was believed to be associated with one enzyme termed ketonaldehydemutase or glyoxalase, the latter designation prevailed. However, in 1951 it was shown that two enzymes were needed and that glutathione was the required catalytic co-factor. The concept of a metabolic pathway defined by two enzymes e...

Diabetes increases the percentage of circulating erythrocytes exposing phosphatidylserine (PS) at the cell surface. PS-exposing erythrocytes are recognized, bound, engulfed and degraded by macrophages. Thus, PS exposure, a feature of suicidal erythrocyte death or eryptosis, accelerates clearance of affected erythrocytes from circulating blood. Moreover, PS-exposing erythrocytes bind to the vasc...

The formation of alpha-dicarbonyl compounds seems to be an important step for cross-linking proteins in the glycation or Maillard reaction. To elucidate the mechanism for the cross-linking reaction, we studied the reaction between a three-carbon alpha-dicarbonyl compound, methylglyoxal, and amino acids. Our results showed that this reaction generated yellow fluorescent products as formed in som...

1. A micro-organism similar to Arthrobacter globiformis has been isolated from sewage by elective growth on a medium containing l-threonine as sole source of carbon and nitrogen. 2. Washed cell suspensions of the organism catalyse the complete disappearance of aminoacetone from the medium and its almost complete oxidation. 3. In the presence of iodoacetate, aminoacetone disappearance is accompa...

Steady-state conductivity measurements and dielectric measurements in the frequency range 10(-5) to 100 Hz are reported for samples of bovine serum albumin, casein, and lysozyme complexed with methylglyoxal. Compared with the untreated proteins, the brown complexed proteins exhibit an increased conductivity and free electron spin density, together with a low-frequency dielectric dispersion. The...

The gene responsible for the methylglyoxal resistance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was cloned, and its phenotypic characteristics were investigated. S. cerevisiae cells with the gene could accumulate large amounts of glutathione in the medium and should remarkably high resistance to various toxic compounds such as methylglyoxal, tetramethylthiuram disulfide, iodoacetamide, and heavy-metal ions. ...