Malate Dehydrogenase in post Mortem Perilymph

Abstract

Factors affecting the determination of malate dehydrogenase (MDH) activity in post-mortem serum, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and perilymph were studied using reactions from malate ⇒ oxalacetate in both directions. The former reaction order gave stable data which were much lower than those obtained with the reverse order; this was thought to be mainly due to different enzyme kinetics. The activity in serum was about double that in CSF and perilymph in malate → oxalacetate reaction. In reverse reaction perilymph MDH values were generally much higher than those of serum or CSF. Since these fluids contain several enzymes utilizing the same coenzymes only data obtained in exactly same experimental conditions can be compared with each other.