Abstract
PHOSPHORUS enters as phosphate in the numerous compounds in which it is to be found in the animal body ; in connexion with the investigations carried out in recent years concerning the fate of ingested phosphorus atoms in the organism, it seemed to be of interest to determine whether or not, in the course of the numerous metabolic processes in which phosphorus is involved, the phosphate radical exchanges its oxygen content with other oxygen atoms present in the body. This question could be answered by injecting into an animal sodium phosphate which contained heavy oxygen (18O) as an indicator and then determining if the phosphate recovered in the urine, for example, contained more than the normal amount of 18O.
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ATEN, A., HEVESY, G. Fate of the Sulphate Radical in the Animal Body. Nature 142, 952 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142952b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142952b0
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