Formation of formylkynurenine by the action of X-rays on tryptophan in aqueous solution

Abstract

rigidity as observed by touch was recorded. In most of the animals, death was preceded by a spasmodic stretching of the limbs, and it was thought that a nervous mechanism might play some part in the rigidity, but the experiments on the rats with one denervated limb and on other rats without Myanesin showed that rigor was delayed for only a minute or two. It follows that a fall in ATP concentration is not necessarily a concomitant of the stiffening which immediately follows death by DNOC poisoning. This being so, the physical change observed in skeletal muscle may be paralleled by a similar change in the muscle of the heart and diaphragm. In this connexion it is interesting to note that kymograph recordings of movements of the diaphragm and of the blood pressure of DNOCpoisoned rabbits indicate that respiration and the heart stop almost simultaneously (J. M. Barnes, personal communication). SUMMARY 1. After lethal doses of 3:5-dinitro-ortho-cresol (DNOC), depletion of energy-rich phosphate com- pounds occurs in skeletal muscle, brain, heart and diaphragm.