| Abstract: | —The distribution of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase (EC 1.1.1.34) relative to that of several biochemical markers has been studied in subcellular fractions prepared from the brains of rats, aged 4 days to adult, by differential centrifugation. In the brains of 10-day-old animals fractions which sedimented at 800 g (P1 and 9000 g (P2) contained 28% and 65% respectively of the total reductase activity. A similar distribulion of the microsomal marker, NADPH-cytochrome c reductase, suggested that the HMG-CoA reductase activity in the low-speed pellets was due to substantial contamination of these fractions with endoplasmic reticulum. When P2 was fractionated on a discontinuous sucrose gradient, the distributions of protein, RNA and NADPH-cytochrome c reductase paralleled that of HMG-CoA reductase, indicaling a non-specific association of endoplasmic reliculum and HMG-CoA reductase with all of the structures sedimenting in P2. As brain maturation proceeded and a greater percentage of total brain protein (primarily associated with myelin) sedimenled in P1, the subcellular distributions of HMG-CoA reductase and the microsomal marker changed in a parallel way. By 21 days P1 contained nearly all of the reductase activity. Because the specific activity of HMG-CoA reductase in P1 decreased steadily between 4 and 21 days, while the specific activity of 2′:3′-cyclic nucleotide 3′-phosphohydrolase in this fraction increased in a coordinate fashion, we conclude that the reductase is not an integral component of myelin, and probably is associated exclusively with the endoplasmic reticulum included in P1. In view of the developmental changes in the distribution of HMG-CoA reductase among subcellular fraclions, we suggest that whole homogenates (or comparable tissue extracts) should be utilized to evaluate reductase activity in the developing brain. |
