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Coenzyme Q. LX. Vitamin-Like Activity of Coenzyme Q.

1965; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 118; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3181/00379727-118-29969

1535-3702

Jack L. Smith, Harold W. Moore, Karl Folkers,

Biochemical effects in animals

Vitamin-like activity for hexahydrocoenzyme Q4 in the dystrophic rabbit is demonstrated. This activity for a quinone member of the CoQ group is comparable to the activity of α-tocopherol and CoQ4-chromanol which has previously been demonstrated. By contrast, a sample of 2,3,5-trimethyl-6-phytylbenzoquinone, which was free of contamination with α-tocopherol, exhibited only a low order of activity in the dystrophic rabbit. The dystrophic rabbit failed to recover when coenzyme Q10 was administered orally; it is apparent that the administered CoQ10 failed to reach its mitochondrial and microsomal sites since a lower homolog, hexahydrocoenzyme Q4, exhibits activity in the dystrophic rabbit. It is considered that CoQ10, which is normally present in rabbit tissue, does inherently have this vitamin-like activity.