[Forms of xanthine oxidoreductase in the tissues of Japanese quail]

The Japanese quail tissues--liver, kidney and pancreas were analysed for the presence of forms of xanthine oxidoreductase utilised cofactors NAD+, molecular oxygen or artificial acceptor--methylene blue, as well as for the validity of correlation between enzymatic activity and diet protein content. Four groups of animals with the experimental diets, the formulae of which are given in Tab. I, and control group with a commercial mash were fed for ten days. For enzyme preparation, the rough purification of cytoplasmic fraction with subsequent dialysis was used. The xanthine oxidoreductase utilised NAD+ (XOR-NAD) was detected in all examined tissues (Fig. 1), whereby the correlation of enzymatic activity with diet protein content was shown only in liver, according our previous findings (Jankela; 1978; Baranovská and Gazo, 1990). The values in liver and pancreas of animals fed a commercial mash were somewhat out of the range of linearity, probably because of the presence of nonprotein substances in mash, which affected the XOR activity in these organs (Jankela, 1992). The XOR utilised O2 (Fig. 2) was only detected in liver and kidney with certain activity in animals fed free protein diet. The percentage of this enzyme form was below 18% of the total activity (Fig. 5). The xanthine oxidoreductase utilised methylene blue (XOR-MM) was detected in liver, kidney and pancreas (Fig. 3). The correlation of enzymatic activity with diet protein content was linear in liver and kidney. The percentage of XOR-MM activity was very high, it amounted to 55% of the total activity (Fig. 4).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)