Thiamine pyrophosphokinase activity in liver, heart and brain crude extracts of control and thiamine deficient rats.

The activity of thiamine pyrophosphokinase has been measured in liver, heart muscle and brain of normal and thiamine deficient rats. The activity measurement has been performed by use of thiamine-35S as substrate and separation of the reaction products by high voltage electrophoresis. KM has been determined as 7.1.10(-6) mol/l. The activity of thiamine pyrophosphokinase is reduced in liver and heart muscle of thiamine deficient rats significantly, whereas no decrease of the enzyme activity has been found in the brain. The content of thiamine pyrophosphate has been measured in the liver of normal and thiamine deficient rats. Injection of thiamine to deficient rats normalized the content of thiamine pyrophosphate in the liver within 6 hours. Our data suggest that thiamine pyrophosphokinase is an adaptive enzyme, the activity of which depends on the thiamine content of the cells.