Separation of rat lactate dehydrogenase isoenzyme C4 from other isoenzymes by affinity and ion-exchange chromatography.

Lactate dehydrogenase C, an isoenzyme composed of C polypeptide subunits and found only in mature testes and spermatozoa, differs kinetically, chemically and immunologically from the five common isoenzymes of lactate dehydrogenase, each of which is a tetramer of A and/or B subunits. In the rat lactate dehydrogenase C exists in two molecular forms, isoenzymes C4 and A1C3. In addition to these two forms of lactate dehydrogenase C, rat testicular homogenate contains all the five isoenzymes of A and B type. Purification of isoenzyme C4 requires its separation from the other six isoenzymes, of which isoenzymes A1C3 and A3B1 are the most difficult ones to separate. In the present study isoenzyme A3B1, along with other enzymes, was separated from isoenzyme C4 by AMP-Sepharose chromatography by using a gradient of increasing concentration of NAD+-pyruvate adduct. In the next step, isoenzyme A1C3 was separated from isoenzyme C4 by DEAD-cellulose chromatography, resulting in a pure lactate dehydrogenase isoenzyme C4 preparation.