Rat Duodenal Mucosa Inositol Monophosphatase; Novel Enzyme of Which Properties are Distinct from Brain Enzyme

An inositol monophosphatase (IMPase) was purified to homogeneity from rat duodenal mucosa for the first time and its enzymatic properties were investigated. Rat duodenal mucosa peculiarly exhibited the highest IMPase activity among various rat tissues examined. By means of ammonium sulfate precipitation, followed by Q-Sepharose, polylysine agarose, reactive-red agarose column chromatography, Uno-Q FPLC, and Bio-Silect FPLC, duodenal IMPase was purified 223-fold to a specific activity of 13.6 U/mg protein. The molecular mass of the native enzyme was estimated to be 48,000 Da on gel filtration. The subunit molecular mass was determined by SDS-PAGE to be 24,000 Da. These results indicate that duodenal IMPase is a dime ric protein made up of identical subunits. Rat duodenal IMPase has distinct properties from brain IMPase. It has a broad spectrum of substrate specificity and is insensitive to $Li^+$. Duodenal IMPase does not absolutely require $Mg^{2+}$ for its catalytic activity. Furthermore, duodenal IMPase is less stable to heat than brain enzyme. It is suggested that the rat duodenal mucosa needs a large amount of IMPase whose properties are quite different from that of the brain enzyme.