MadSci Network: Biochemistry |
Catalse in the Kidney I confess I do not know this as a fact, but I am reasoning it out based on my knowledge of Biochemistry and Biology. The liver deals with "poisons" in the blood, and other waste products. So it makes sense that catalase is present in large amounts. Use the same reasoning with the rest of your liquidised tissues. What is the job of the kidneys? To deal with waste products filtered out of the blood - which I am sure contains a reasonably large amount of peroxides (which catalase is designed to break down into O2 and H2O). Therefore it is sensible that kidney tissue contains plenty of catalase. The other tissues you tested - muscle and heart (another muscle after all) are employed in using energy. Certainly, they will need to dispose of a small bit of local H2O2, but movement, not waste disposal is their job. The tissues mainly invoved in liquid waste processing (liver and kidneys) should have lots of catalase. I am not surprised all the info was on the liver... once a classic experiment gets around... it can take over. Hope this helps - Greta
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