The behavior of (14C)-D-penicillamine in collagen metabolism.

The most important effect of penicillamine on collagen metabolism is the reduction of collagen crosslinking. However, even after long time application of penicillamine, collagen is crosslinked to a certain degree. After intravenous injection of a trace dose of (14C) labelled D-penicillamine it can be determined that this substance is rapidly bound to neutral salt soluble, acetic acid soluble and urea soluble collagen fractions and to a lesser extent to insoluble collagen as well. The amount of penicillamine which binds to any of the collagen fractions depends on the turnover rate. When different tissues are compared, penicillamine seems to have the greatest affinity to tissues with a high collagen turnover. Further studies of neutral salt soluble collagen by CM-cellulose chromatography revealed a stable linkage of penicillamine to collagen alpha chains.