Studies on the biosynthesis of blood pigments. 3. Haem and porphyrin formation from δ-aminolaevulic acid and from porphobilinogen in haemolysed chicken erythrocytes

Abstract

The significance of 8-aminolaevulic acid (ALA) and porphobilinogen (PBG) as specific haem and por- phyrin precursors has been outlined in the pre- ceding paper (Dresel & Falk, 1956a); in experiments with intact chicken erythrocytes ALA and PBG behaved very differently, because of the almost complete impermeability of the intact cells to PBG. In the present paper we describe the behaviour of these two precursors in our chicken erythrocyte haemolysate (cf. Dresel & Falk, 1954); in this system the two substrates behave similarly with respect to haem and porphyrin formation, both quantitatively and qualitatively.