Abstract
Calcium chloride and formaldehyde inhibit the release of phospholipids from cryostat sections of rat hypothalamus into water. The effect of calcium chloride is thought to be due to the formation of complex coacervates between calcium and phospholipids. The inhibitory effect of formaldehyde may be caused by denaturation of proteins which are associated with phospholipids. Both calcium chloride and formaldehyde influence the composition of phospholipids remaining in the tissue and of those that are released into the medium. Calcium chloride and formaldehyde decrease the amount of phospholipids that can be extracted from the whole tissue by chloroform-methanol, 2:1.