Studies on Blood Glycolysis I. Effect of Arsenate

Meyerhof (8) has shown that arsenate stimulates the decomposition of carbohydrate and of hexosephosphate esters by the glycolytic enzyme of muscles. This observation brings muscle glycolysis into close relationship with fermentation of sugar by yeast or yeast products. Harden and Young (6) who discovered the stimulating action of the phosphate ion on the process of alcoholic fermentation were led to investigate the effect of the related arsenate ion and found that this exerted a similar stimulating action. Neuberg and Kobel (10) later demonstrated that vanadate likewise stimulates yeast fermentation, a fact which Braunstein (3) has recently shown to hold also for blood glycolysis. In the course of our studies on the effect of isotonic solutions of various salts on glycolysis of blood we found that NaCl, NaI, or NaBr either had no effect or caused only a slight decrease in the glycolytic activity, whereas an isotonic arsenate solution suppressed glycolysis almost as completely as does NaF. Inasmuch as we diluted blood with an equal volume of the salt solution, it means that ~/16 arsenate can bring about almost total cessation of glycolysis. Prompted by this observation we extended the investigation to various concentrations of arsenate, studying the changes in sugar, lactic acid, and inorganic phosphate by a procedure discussed elsewhere (9) and found that the arsenate produced a definite though small inhibition of glycolysis even in a concentration of ~/5120. The results of these experiments are recorded graphically in Figs. 1 and 2 which show the effect of different arsenate concentrations, made up in physiological saline, on the disappearance of