Transamination in the muscles of animals deprived of vitamin E.

Since the dicarboxylic acid system holds a central position in tissue metabolism, the study of possible alterations in this system in the muscles of vitamin E-deficient animals was continued. Transamination between aspartic and a-ketoglutaric acids was investigated because of the many functions which it appears to perform in carbohydrate, fat, and particularly protein metabolism, and in the regulation of cellular respiration. Transamination first claimed attention through the work of Braunstein and Kritsman (1). The limitations and specificity of transaminases were revealed by Cohen (2), the two known transaminases were isolated in reasonable purity by Green, Leloir, and Nocito (3), and the conclusion of several investigators that pyridoxal phosphate is the coenzyme has been widely confirmed.