The glyoxalase activity of tissues

THE authors have already investigated [Jowett and Quastel, 1933] the glyoxalase activity of red blood corpuscles.A study has now been made of the glyoxalase activity of tissues with the use of tissue-slices.An interesting finding, which former workers have not made clear, is that, owing to the high glyoxalase activity of tissues, diffusion of methylglyoxal sets a limit to the activity shown by tissue-slices of the usual thicknesses.The glyoxalase activity is proportional not to the weight of the tissue-slices, but to their surface areas.The observed activity depends on the diffusion coefficient of methylglyoxal in tissues as well as on the intrinsic activity of the cells.This additional variable makes the designing and interpretation of experiments more difficult.Nevertheless we have been able to obtain a little further information on the part played by methylglyoxal in glycolysis.