In vitro studies of histone glycation

Reductive amination of histone H1 by [U-14C]glucose was performed in the presence of sodium cyanoborohydride and was approximately proportional to the glucose concentration. Lysine was the principal amino acid substituted. Glycation also occurred in the absence of cyanoborohydride. Browning reactions of histones were monitored by delta A 325 whereby it was shown that glucose 6-phosphate was more reactive than glucose and that each of the histone fractions reacted with glucose 6-phosphate giving the browning reaction.