The synthesis of a new substrate, p-N,N-dimethylamino-β-phenethylamine (DAPA)3 (Fig. 1) (1,2), and the testing of it as a possible substrate for tissue amine oxidase activity have resulted in the ultracytochemical localization of enzyme oxidase activity referred to as DAPA oxidase (DAPAO). DAPA was designed with the goal of providing an amine that would yield on oxidation a stronger reducing aldehyde than does tryptamine in the histochemical demonstration of monoamine oxidase (MAO) with tetrazolium salts.Ultracytochemical preparations of guinea pig heart, liver and kidney and rat heart and liver were studied. Guinea pig kidney, known to exhibit high levels of MAO, appeared the most reactive of the tissues studied. DAPAO reaction product appears primarily in mitochondrial outer compartments and cristae (Figs. 2-4). Reaction product is also localized in endoplasmic reticulum, cytoplasmic vacuoles and nuclear envelopes (Figs. 2 and 3) and in the sarcoplasmic reticulum of heart.
The influence of oxidation-reduction state on the kinetic stability of pig kidney general acyl-CoA dehydrogenase and other flavoproteins