A new radiochemical method for determination of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex and acetyl-coenzyme A synthetase

A radiochemical method for assaying pyruvate dehydrogenase complex and acetyl-coenzyme A synthetase is described, using [2-14C]pyruvate and [1-14C]acetate, respectively, as radiolabeled precursors. The assay is based on nonenzymatic O-acylation of excess dithioerythritol (DTE) by enzymatically formed acetyl-coenzyme A. [1-14C]Acetyl-DTE is easily extracted from the incubation mixture by organic solvents and separated from the unreacted labeled substrates.