The Use of Differential Centrifugation in the Study of Tissue Enzymes

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses a new technique of differential centrifugation in the study of cellular organization and the theoretical basis of the technique as well as the various factors of a practical nature. The limitations of differential centrifugation become particularly severe when the technique is applied to the study of tissue enzymes. The observed partitions provide only the roughest sort of information concerning the true intracellular distribution of enzymes. They can only be considered as clues, which have to be followed by many additional experiments to arrive at their real significance. A priori assumption that specific enzymes are entirely concentrated in a given cellular site has proved extremely profitable in guiding these additional experiments, even in those cases in which it is found not to hold true. The use of enzyme determinations to ascertain the composition of isolated fractions is also of great interest and deserves more frequent application. The main object of cellular physiology is to ascertain which of the many processes discovered by biochemists actually do take place within the cell.