Purification and partial characterization of rat liver pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase activator protein (free pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase).

Rat liver pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) kinase activator protein (KAP), a free PDH kinase readily separable from PDH complex and its intrinsic kinase, has been purified to apparent homogeneity from liver mitochondria of fed and 48-h starved rats. On SDS-PAGE an apparently single band of M(r) 45 kDa was obtained. N-Terminal amino acid sequence analyses (8-10 cycles) confirmed the presence of a single peptide in each case. The specific activity of the purified KAP from 48-h starved rats (14,413 U/mg protein) was 4.5-fold greater than that from fed rats.