Stability of an Azoprotein Hapten in the Organism.

Abstract

Summary S³⁵-sulfanilic acid was diazotized, coupled to beef serum γ-globulin and injected into rabbits. Four weeks after injection the animals were sacrificed. The liver protein, containing approximately 0.9% of the injected radioactivity, was hydrolyzed; cystine and methionine were isolated and found to contain only about 3% of the total radioactivity. Most of the activity was associated with a fraction which on chromatography behaved like an azo dye prepared from tyrosine and diazotized sulfanilic acid. It is concluded that azophenylsulfonate groups persist either unchanged or as slightly changed derivatives in the tissues over periods of more than one month.