[Acyl-CoA synthetase activity of long-chain mono and dicarboxylic acid in beef liver preparations (author's transl)].

Higher omega-oxidation activities in the diabetic mammal and the starved one suggest that omega-oxidation mechanism plays an important role under these conditions. Dicarboxylic acid that is the final product of omega-oxidation can be metabolized further by beta-oxidation, subsequently, formation of succinyl-CoA and short-chain dicarboxylic acid might be increased in the liver. The physiological significance of omega-oxidation might consist in supplying the substrate of TCA cycle for utilization of acetyl-CoA and excreting the short-chain dicarboxylate in urine resulting in the decrease of ketone bodies in the blood, especially in diabetes and starvation. On the bases of these information, it is important to investigate the metabolism of dicarboxylic acids. Generally, fatty acids must be activated before they enter the metabolic pathway. By in vitro studies with rat liver homogenate, we have recently demonstrated that octadecaned-ioic acid must be activated by ATP-Mg2+ and CoA as monocarboxylic acid is. However, it has not been studied to compare the activity of acyl-CoA synthetase on mono and dicarboxylic acid. So, in this report, we assayed the activity of acyl-CoA synthetase in beef liver preparations using palmitic or hexadecanedioic acid (C1;16) as substrate. The results are as follows 1) Activation capacity of the supernatant of sonicated mitochondria was less than that of sonicated microsome for either palmitate or hexadecanedioate. 2) Activation capacity for hexadecanedioate was less than that for palmitate in both supernatant of sonicated mitochondria and that of sonicated microsome. 3) In our experiment, it might be suggested that the subcellular distribution of hexadecanedioate activation is almost identical with that of palmitate activation.