Immunoelectrophoretic identification of catalase subcomponents in the homogenates of rat tissues.

Immunoelectrophoretic analyses of catalase in a variety of tissues from normal Sprague-Davvley rats were made with rab bit anti-rat hepatic catalase serum. Several distinctive patterns of the enzyme were identified by this means. A pattern previ ously described for purified hepatic catalase with 6 immunologically independent subcomponents was again recognized in one of the chromatographically separated catalase fractions of the liver (RHC-A).3 Crude homogenates of the liver also were shown to contain the 6 subcomponents of the enzyme. Various combinations of the enzyme subcomponents were observed in different tissues, while the central nervous system and the ova ries revealed no catalatic activity or precipitin reaction by immunoelectrophoresis. These observations support the belief that catalase exists in multiple molecular forms and is, to some extent, characteristic of the tissue from which it is obtained.