Lactate dehydrogenase functional properties

Historically, measurements of the isozymes of creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LD) have been used for the detection of myocardial injury. These are enzymes of intermediary metabolism found in both cardiac and skeletal muscle, although in different forms reflecting the different metabolic and functional properties of these tissues. There are also significant amounts of CK in nervous tissue and smooth muscle, whereas LD is expressed in most tissues (Aktas et al. 1993). 

A fold also can be formed by one domain. In the example of secondary structures provided by lactate dehydrogenase (see Fig. 7.8), domain 1 alone forms the nucleotide binding fold. This fold is a binding site for NAD or, in other proteins, molecules with a generally similar structure (e.g., riboflavin). However, many proteins that bind NAD or NADP contain a very different fold from a separate fold family. These two different NAD binding folds arise from different ancestral lines and have different structures, but have similar properties and function. They are believed to be the product of convergent evolution. 

Since mitochondrial cytochrome c was available commercially (horse heart muscle being the most common source) and could readily be purified to a high level, it formed the basic subject for most of the pioneering studies. Many ideas concerning the electrochemical mechanism, in particular, the mode of interaction with the electrode, have developed around the considerable wealth of information that is available [14, 18] on the structure and properties of the protein molecule. The extent to which the metal centre is buried is illustrated well in Fig. 1 which shows the 3D structure [19] of yeast (iso-1) cytochrome c and a view of the exposed active site. The major function of cytochrome c is as electron donor to cytochrome c oxidase (Complex IV), the membrane-bound enzyme that is the terminus of the aerobic respiratory chain and a site for proton translocation. Another physiological oxidant of cytochrome c (in yeasts) is cytochrome c peroxidase, a soluble enzyme whose crystal structure is known (see Sect. 7). The most important reduc-tant of cytochrome c is the cytochrome Cj component of the membrane-bound hcj complex (Complex III), but others (see Sect. 6, Scheme 5) include cytochrome b, sulfite oxidase, and flavocytochrome (lactate dehydrogenase, found in yeasts). 

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