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1. The stoicheiometries and affinities of ligand binding to isocitrate dehydrogenase were studied at pH 7.0, mainly by measuring changes in NADPH and protein fluorescence. 2. The affinity of the enzyme for NADPH is about 100-fold greater than it is for NADP+ in various buffer/salt solutions, and the affinities for both coenzymes are decreased by Mg2+, phosphate and increase in ionic strength. 3. The maximum binding capacity of the dimeric enzyme for NADPH, from coenzyme fluorescence and protein-fluorescence measurements, and also for NADP+, by ultrafiltration, is 2 mol/mol of enzyme. Protein-fluorescence titrations of the enzyme with NADP+ are apparently inconsistent with this conclusion, indicating that the increase in protein fluorescence caused by NADP+ binding is not proportional to fractional saturation of the binding sites. 4. Changes in protein fluorescence caused by changes in ionic strength and by the binding of substrates, Mg2+ or NADP+ (but not NADPH) are relatively slow, suggesting conformation changes. 5. In the presence of Mg2+, the enzyme binds isocitrate very strongly, and 2-oxoglutarate rather weakly. 6. Evidence is presented for the formation of an abortive complex of enzyme-Mg2+-isocitrate-NADPH in which isocitrate and NADPH are bound much more weakly than in their complexes with enzyme and Mg2+ alone. 7. The results are discussed in relation to the interpretation of the kinetic properties of the enzyme and its behaviour in the mitochondrion.

A new method for studying membrane transport is presented. High resolution n.m.r. is used to measure the distribution of small molecules between the intracellular and extracellular compartments. The method uses spin-echo techniques and relies on a difference in the magnetic susceptibility of the media inside and outside of cells. It also provides simultaneous information on the metabolic status of the cell. The method is illustrated by a study of alanine and lactate transport in the human erythrocyte.

Spin-exchange NMR techniques enable the measurement of the rates of exchange of solutes between chemically or physically distinct sites in reactions taking place at chemical equilibrium. The time scale of the events that are able to be investigated lies in the neighbourhood of 1 s. The earliest studies in this area of NMR spectroscopy involved chemical reactions in vitro but the procedures have been adapted to the study of enzyme-catalysed reactions both in vitro and in vivo, and more recently to transmembrane exchange processes. The emphasis in this review is on the various types of spin-exchange experiments, the analysis of data derived from them, estimates of uncertainty in measured rate constants, and their shortcomings. Those methods given special attention are saturation transfer, two-dimensional exchange spectroscopy (2D EXSY), the 'accordion' experiment and 'overdetermined' one-dimensional exchange spectroscopy.

'H NMR was used with methylglyoxal, purified by an HPLC technique, to study the kinetics of the human erythrocyte glyoxalase system. 'H NMR enabled the direct measurement of the time-dependent changes in concentrations of the two hydrates of methylglyoxal, which have not previously been directly measurable, as well as measurement of substrates and products of the glyoxalase enzyme system in the human red blood cell. A computer model of the reaction scheme was developed and NMR data numerically analyzed, thus allowing a complete kinetic description of the reactions. The rate constants describing the chemical equilibria between the hydrated species of methylglyoxal were determined by this numerical analysis or by a saturation-transfer technique, and found to be much slower (by several orders of magnitude) than previously determined by other methods. The kinetic parameters describing the enzyme-catalyzed reactions were also determined from experiments using a dilute haemolysate that was added to solutions of methylglyoxal and reduced glutathione (GSH). The maximal velocity of glyoxalase 1 is threefold greater (V,,, = 70.4 f 4.7 mmol . min-' . 1 packed cells-') than glyoxalase 2 (V,,,,, = 24 -t 5 mmol . min-' . l packed cells-') and it exhibits threefold-greater affinity for its substrate (K, = 0.46 _+ 0.04 mM) than the second enzyme (K, =