Studies on Bone Marrow Lipid in Normal and Irradiated Rabbits

Abstract

Fatty acid peroxides are formed when liver, kidney, and brain homogenates or slices are incubated aerobically (1). The peroxides inhibit certain mitochondrial enzymes (2), and the inhibition is prevented by previous addition of glutathione but only partially reversed by it (unpublished). Peroxides react slowly with enzymes in vitro, and when small amounts are injected into animals death occurs in 20 to 40 hours, depending on the dosage (unpublished). Peroxides also inhibit the growth of certain bacteria (3) and cell division in marine worm eggs (4). Because of these effects the organism must have mechanisms to prevent accumulation of peroxides under normal conditions. It seemed likely that such mechanisms would be particularly effective in tissues where cell division is occurring, and it has already been shown (5) that Ehrlich tumor cells produce no peroxides on incubation. In the present study peroxide formation has been investigated in normal, actively dividing bone marrow and in the marrow of X-rayed animals. The peroxides were estimated by the thiobarbituric acid reagent (6).