Formation of Radio-Phospholipid by Isolated Tissues of the Rat

Abstract

IN a forthcoming paper¹ will be published the results of a study of phospholipid formation in the living rat by means of radioactive phosphorus. The content of labelled phospholipid sampled at various intervals suggested that certain tissues of this animal, namely, the liver, intestine and possibly kidney, engaged in synthesis. Similar observations have been reported by Artom et al.². The possibility, however, that one tissue carried on this synthesis while other tissues concentrated phospholipids could could not be ruled out. Warburg's method for the study of the metabolism of surviving tissues suggested a direct attack on the relative roles of the various tissues of the body in phospholipid formation. The experiments described below were performed to test the possibility of this synthesis by tissues surviving after excision from the body.