Purification and partial characterization of a rat retina alcohol dehydrogenase active with ethanol and retinol

Homogeneous alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) from rat retina was obtained by chromatography on DEAE-Sepharose and AMP-hexane-Sepharose. The enzyme is a dimer of Mr congruent to 80000 and oxidizes ethanol using NAD+ as a cofactor. Careful activity determinations demonstrate unambiguously that rat retina ADH is active with retinol as a substrate. This result opens the question about the role of retina ADH in the visual cycle.