The formation of glycocyamine in animal tissues

Abstract

It was shown in preceding communications that glycocyamine is converted into creatine by surviving liver slices (1). Our findings indicated that the methylating agent is methionine or a derivative of methionine. Liver slices can methylate glycocyamine rapidly enough to permit assignment to the liver alone, if necessary, of the task of making good the loss of creatine and creatinine in the urine. This holds for the livers of all mammals studied. We found no evidence of this methylating mechanism in any other tissues, except possibly slight activity in the kidney. In the pigeon the kidney is as effective in this respect as the liver.