The sites of hydrolysis of dipeptides containing leucine and glycine by rat jejunum in vitro

Abstract

1. The effect of peptides containing leucine and glycine on accumulation of leucine and glycine by everted jejunal rings was studied. 2. It was shown that, on a molar basis, leucyl-leucine is a more effective inhibitor of uptake of [¹⁴C]leucine than is either leucylglycine or glycyl-leucine. These latter dipeptides behave alike. 3. The concentration of the dipeptides and their constituent amino acids in both the incubation medium and the tissue has been followed in these experiments by amino acid analysis. No leucine-containing peptides were observed in the tissue. 4. The inhibitory effects of the mixed dipeptides are altered by pH changes in an analogous way to the alterations in peptidase activity. 5. The experimental results indicate that leucine-containing peptides are hydrolysed before the transport step. 6. Glycylglycine, on the other hand, has only a small effect on the accumulation of glycine, although large amounts of the peptide accumulate unchanged in the tissue. This suggests that glycylglycine is taken up by a different mechanism to that for the leucine dipeptides.