Stability of isolated hepatic aldehyde dehydrogenases from rats in vitro

Aldehyde dehydrogenases (ALDH) isolated from livers of adult female SPF Sprague-Dawley rats were rapidly (within hours) inactivated by oxygen (7.8 ppm, from air) and simultaneous exposure to light energy (subdued daylight, 5000 lx; direct sunlight, 66,000 lx) at 22 degrees C. Oxygen withdrawal (e.g. by treatment with nitrogen) and darkness prevented the inactivation. An addition of glutathione, dithiothreitol, nicotinic acid-amide-adenine-dinucleotide (NAD) or its reduced form (NADH) to the ALDH preparations preserved the enzyme activity; the above SH-reagents regenerated an already occurred loss of activity rapidly (within minutes) and almost completely. It is concluded that the hepatic ALDH from rats posses in the active centre two SH-groups in close vicinity which can be oxidized slightly to the intramolecular disulfide and reduced again. The protection against inactivation by NAD (oxidized or reduced) may be afforded by occupation of the cosubstrate binding site of the enzyme.