The dynamic state of body constituents / by Rudolf Schoenheimer.

  • Rudolph Schoenheimer
Date:
1942
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The dynamic state of body constituents / by Rudolf Schoenheimer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    portant finding that in the normal mammalian organism choles- terol is continually and extensively synthesized and degraded in the tissues. The Department of Biochemistry of Columbia University was fortunate in being able to provide facilities for Schoen- heimer’s subsequent researches. The first report published by him from this laboratory, recording the normal occurrence of cetyl alcohol in intestinal contents, has a peculiar significance in its bearing on his subsequent work on the intermediary metab- olism of fatty acids. In collaboration with W. M. Sperry, he developed a valuable method for the precise determination of minute quantities of free and combined cholesterol and applied this technique to a comparative study of serum and plasma. In 1934 Schoenheimer made a new contact which proved to exert a fundamental influence on the nature of his work. In order to exploit the availability of deuterium, discovered by Urey in 1932, for the development of biological research, the Rockefeller Foundation established a fund to enable chemists trained in deuterium techniques to apply their special knowledge to biochemical and allied problems. Under these auspices David Rittenberg came from Urey’s group to the laboratory in which Schoenheimer had been working for a year. From their asso- ciation there developed the idea of employing a stable isotope as a label in organic compounds, destined for experiments in intermediary metabolism, which should be biochemical^ in- distinguishable from their natural analogues. Justification for this scheme was found in the established fact that the hydrogen in organic matter displays the same isotope abundance as that in common water. Exploratory experiments soon showed that the feeding of 4,5-deuteriocoprostanone led to the presence of deuteriocoprosterol in the feces and that the ingestion of fat containing combined deuteriostearic acid was, surprisingly, followed by the rapid deposition of a large proportion of it in the body fats. A similar effect was then observed to occur in animals the
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