Quantitative studies concerning the distribution of arginase in fishes and other animals

Abstract

The enzyme arginase, which hydrolyses arginine into ornithine and urea, was first discovered by Kossel and Dakin (1) in extracts and press-juice of mammalian liver. Concerning its further occurrence within the animal kingdom the following facts and beliefs have been recorded. Kossel and Dakin (2) themselves found that the mammalian kidney, thymus, lymph gland and intestinal mucosa gave evidence of an arginase activity definite enough, but considerably inferior to that of the liver; that blood and muscle were practically if not completely inactive; and that the spleen, the suprarenals and the pancreatic secretion yielded not even a trace of the enzyme.