Enzymatic synthesis of radioactive (−)-carnitine from γ-butyrobetaine prepared by the methylation of γ-aminobutyric acid

✍ Scribed by Albert Daveluy; Rehana Parvin; Shri V. Pande

• Book ID: 102985896
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 630 KB
• Volume: 119
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-2697
• DOI: 10.1016/0003-2697(82)90587-5

✦ Synopsis

Radioactive y-butyrobetaine was prepared by quaternization of y-aminobutyric acid with tritiated methyl iodide under conditions giving high yields with respect to both the above precursors. Part of the product was passed through a column of ion-retardation resin and gave radioactive y-butyrobetaine of good purity. The remainder was converted to (-)-carnitine stoichiometrically by employing a 50-60'5 ammonium sulfate fraction of rat liver supernatant as the source of y-butyrobetaine hydroxylase (EC 1.14.11.1). Successive column chromatographies on a cation exchanger and ion-retardation resins then gave radioactive (-)-carnitine of good purity in high yield.