Lecitin synthesis in liver.

Within the past few years considerable progress has been made in regard to the possible pathways of phospholipide synthesis in the liver. Kornberg and Pricer (1) have reported that in microsomal fractions of guinea pig liver ar-glycerophosphate is a precursor of phosphatidic acid, which is formed by an acylation of glycerophosphate by coenzyme A derivatives of fatty acid. In a similar manner, Kennedy (2) has found that a-glycerophosphate in rat liver mitochondria fortified with the supernatant fraction is converted to a phosphatidic acid-like compound, which may then combine with choline to form a lecithin (3). In a preliminary report, Kornberg and Pricer (4) have indicated that phosphorylcholine can be incorporated as an intact unit into an unknown lipide fraction in guinea pig liver. In the preceding paper (5), the stimulatory effect of certain lecithin derivatives, and in particular phosphorylcholine, on oxygen uptake in mitochondria was reported. The present work is a description of the results of an investigation on the incorporation of phosphorylcholine into the lipides of guinea pig liver.