[Organ and subcellular distribution of transmidinase in man and rats]

The transamidinase capacity of human organs is consistently higher than those of rats. Both species show the highest activity in pancreas and slightly smaller in kidneys. The human liver is less active while the enzyme is not present at all in rat liver. Very low enzyme activities have been found in spleen, heart and skeleton muscle. During cell fractionation of kidney and pancreas a remarkable loss of enzyme activity occurs. Thus the transamidinase in man and rat is equally found in cytosol, mitochondria and nuclei. In the native cell the enzyme is probably localized mainly in the mitochondria.