Developmental changes in aldehyde dehydrogenases from mouse tissues

The postnatal development of aldehyde dehydrogenase (AHD) isozymes from C57BL/6J mouse tissues was examined using agarose-IEF zymogram methods. Mitochondrial isozymes (AHD-1 and AHD-5) were present throughout, increasing to high levels in liver, kidney and stomach by weaning (3 weeks). These activities remained high subsequently, except for kidney AHD-5, which decreased significantly after week 4. The appearance of the cytosolic isozymes was tissue specific and time dependent: liver AHD-2 was undetected until day 21, and increased subsequently; stomach AHD-4 was first observed at day 5, increasing to adult levels by day 21; AHD-6 was active in neonatal kidney and stomach extracts, but was undetected after day 8; and AHD-7 was observed in liver and kidney extracts from day 16. These results supported previous proposals for multiple genes encoding aldehyde dehydrogenases in the mouse, based upon the distinct developmental profiles for the liver, kidney and stomach isozymes.