scholarly journals PROTEIN METABOLISM IN TUMOR CELLS AT VARIOUS STAGES OF GROWTH IN VIVO

1974 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 585-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Olivotto ◽  
Francesco Paoletti

Protein metabolism of Yoshida ascites hepatoma cells was studied in the early phase of logarithmic proliferation and in the following stage in which cell mass remains constant (resting phase). The rate of protein synthesis was measured by a short-time incorporation of [8H]lysine, while degradation was concurrently assessed by following the decrease of specific activity of [14C]lysine-labeled proteins. Most of the labeled amino acid injected intraperitoneally into the animal was immediately available for the tumor cells, with only a minor loss towards the extra-ascitic compartment. It was thus possible to calculate the dilution of the isotope in the ascitic pool of the lysine, which increased concurrently with the ascitic plasma volume. Amino acid transport capacity did not change in the log vs. the resting cells. This fact permitted the correction of the specific activity of the proteins synthesized by tumors in the two phases, taking into account the dilution effect. Protein synthesis was found to proceed at a constant rate throughout each of the two phases, although it was 30% lower during the resting as compared to the log phase. When cell mass attained the steady-state, protein degradation occurred at such a level as to balance the synthesis. Throughout the resting phase the amount of lysine taken up by the cells and renewed from the blood remained unchanged. Protein turnover, as studied in subcellular fractions, exhibited a similar rate in nuclei and microsomes, where it proceeded at a higher level than in mitochondria. On the whole, the results encourage the use of the Yoshida ascites hepatoma as a suitable model for studying protein turnover in relation to cell growth in vivo.

1985 ◽  
Vol 40 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 427-437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus-Joachim Schott ◽  
Jochen Gehrmann ◽  
Ulla Potter ◽  
Volker Neuhoff

Abstract 1. The effect of ʟ-norleucine, an isomer of leucine, on protein metabolism in vivo was studied in suckling rats. Rats were injected subcutaneously with various doses of ʟ-norleucine (0.5 and 5.0 μmol/g body wt.) every 12 h from 3 to 15 days post partum. Protein concentration, amino acid concentrations, and incorporation of [3H]tyrosine into protein were analyzed in liver, muscles of thigh and small intestine. Amino acid concentrations and insulin levels in serum were also measured. 2. At 5 days of age, norleucine induced an increase in protein concentration of skeletal muscle with an increased incorporation of [3H]tyrosine into protein indicating an accelerated protein synthesis. Changes in protein metabolism were paralleled by alterations in the amino acid pattern of this tissue. 3. When protein concentration and protein synthesis were increased in skeletal muscle, protein concentration of small intestine was decreased, accompanied by elevated levels of amino acids in tissue. Protein synthesis of small intestine was not altered by the norleucine treatment. The results suggest a close interrelationship between skeletal muscle and small intestine with respect to protein turnover. 4. The effects of norleucine were less pronounced at 10 and 15 days of age, which indicates a metabolic adaptation to the treatment. 5. Alterations in amino acid concentrations of tissue due to changes in protein metabolism were not uniform but tissue-specific. 6. Current concepts for explaining the effects of branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) on protein turnover in skeletal muscle are based on the assumption that the BCAA or leucine alone might become rate-limiting for protein synthesis in muscle under catabolic conditions. The amino acid analogue norleucine, however, cannot replace any of the BCAA in protein. Additionally, norleucine affected protein metabolism in highly anabolic organisms. Therefore, the present thoughts on this issue appear to be incomplete.


Author(s):  
Jorn Trommelen ◽  
Andrew M. Holwerda ◽  
Philippe J. M. Pinckaers ◽  
Luc J. C. van Loon

All human tissues are in a constant state of remodelling, regulated by the balance between tissue protein synthesis and breakdown rates. It has been well-established that protein ingestion stimulates skeletal muscle and whole-body protein synthesis. Stable isotope-labelled amino acid methodologies are commonly applied to assess the various aspects of protein metabolism in vivo in human subjects. However, to achieve a more comprehensive assessment of post-prandial protein handling in vivo in human subjects, intravenous stable isotope-labelled amino acid infusions can be combined with the ingestion of intrinsically labelled protein and the collection of blood and muscle tissue samples. The combined application of ingesting intrinsically labelled protein with continuous intravenous stable isotope-labelled amino acid infusion allows the simultaneous assessment of protein digestion and amino acid absorption kinetics (e.g. release of dietary protein-derived amino acids into the circulation), whole-body protein metabolism (whole-body protein synthesis, breakdown and oxidation rates and net protein balance) and skeletal muscle metabolism (muscle protein fractional synthesis rates and dietary protein-derived amino acid incorporation into muscle protein). The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the various aspects of post-prandial protein handling and metabolism with a focus on insights obtained from studies that have applied intrinsically labelled protein under a variety of conditions in different populations.


1982 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-142
Author(s):  
Nila Oza ◽  
Sarah J. Meanock ◽  
A. G. Davies

Abstract. Groups of immature mice were injected sc with radiocarbon-labelled alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (AIB) after being given a single sc injection of hFSH or of 0.9% saline. As an index of the transport of AIB, the specific activity of isotope was measured in homogenates of testis and of liver. FSH treatment caused statistically significant increases in the specific activity of isotope in the testes and in the ratio of testicular to liver specific activity. The effect was greatest in 9-day-old mice injected with FSH 16 h before removal of the testes. Uptake of labelled AIB was not stimulated after administration of hCG or testosterone. Doses of cycloheximide sufficient to reduce the rate of protein synthesis by over 99% did not impair testicular uptake of labelled AIB or the influence of FSH on AIB uptake. These results suggest that FSH stimulates amino acid transport into cells of the immature testis and that this action is independent of the stimulatory effect of FSH on testicular protein synthesis.


1990 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine M. Hargreaves-Wall ◽  
Jody L. Buciak ◽  
William M. Pardridge

Brain protein synthesis was measured in anesthetized adult, male Sprague–Dawley rats by an in situ internal carotid arterial perfusion technique using [3H]leucine. The specific activity of free intracellular leucine and of tRNA leucine were determined by HPLC separation of phenylisothiocyanate (PITC) derivatives of amino acids. The specific activity of the leucyl-tRNA pool rapidly equilibrated with the free intracellular leucine pool within 2 min. The specific activity of the tRNA and free leucine pools in brain reached equilibrium by 10 min. Plasma amino acid specific activity, however, remained threefold higher than the specific activity of tRNA and free leucine pools. Estimates of protein synthesis were 0.62 ± 0.06 nmol/min/g and were constant between 10 and 30 min of perfusion. The in situ perfusion model for protein synthesis described is a controlled system suited to measurements of protein synthesis in brain that can be applied to the study of brain metabolism under changing physiological conditions.


1994 ◽  
Vol 92 (4) ◽  
pp. 585-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. J. Bouma ◽  
R. De Visser ◽  
J. H. J. A. Janssen ◽  
M. J. De Kock ◽  
P H. Van Leeuwen ◽  
...  

1972 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Shephard ◽  
Wendy B. Levin

The ability of chloroplasts isolated from Acetabulana mediterranea to synthesize the protein amino acids has been investigated. When this chloroplast isolate was presented with 14CO2 for periods of 6–8 hr, tracer was found in essentially all amino acid species of their hydrolyzed protein Phenylalanine labeling was not detected, probably due to technical problems, and hydroxyproline labeling was not tested for The incorporation of 14CO2 into the amino acids is driven by light and, as indicated by the amount of radioactivity lost during ninhydrin decarboxylation on the chromatograms, the amino acids appear to be uniformly labeled. The amino acid labeling pattern of the isolate is similar to that found in plastids labeled with 14CO2 in vivo. The chloroplast isolate did not utilize detectable amounts of externally supplied amino acids in light or, with added adenosine triphosphate (ATP), in darkness. It is concluded that these chloroplasts are a tight cytoplasmic compartment that is independent in supplying the amino acids used for its own protein synthesis. These results are discussed in terms of the role of contaminants in the observed synthesis, the "normalcy" of Acetabularia chloroplasts, the synthetic pathways for amino acids in plastids, and the implications of these observations for cell compartmentation and chloroplast autonomy.


1973 ◽  
Vol 51 (12) ◽  
pp. 933-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Njanoor Narayanan ◽  
Jacob Eapen

The effect of cycloheximide in vitro and in vivo on the incorporation of labelled amino acids into protein by muscles, liver, kidneys, and brain of rats and pigeons was studied. In vitro incorporation of amino acids into protein by muscle microsomes, myofibrils, and myofibrillar ribosomes was not affected by cycloheximide. In contrast, administration of the antibiotic into intact animals at a concentration of 1 mg/kg body weight resulted in considerable inhibition of amino acid incorporation into protein by muscles, liver, kidneys, and brain. This inhibition was observed in all the subcellular fractions of these tissues during a period of 10–40 min after the administration of the precursor. Tissue homogenates derived from in vivo cycloheximide-treated animals did not show significant alteration in in vitro amino acid incorporation with the exception of brain, which showed a small but significant enhancement.


1989 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter J. Garlick ◽  
Jan Wernerman ◽  
Margaret A. McNurlan ◽  
Pia Essen ◽  
Gerald E. Lobley ◽  
...  

1. The ‘flooding dose’ technique for measuring the rate of protein synthesis in tissues in vivo involves the injection of a large amount of unlabelled amino acid together with the tracer to minimize differences in isotopic enrichment of the free amino acid in plasma and tissue compartments. This approach has been investigated in human muscle by taking biopsies from postabsorptive male volunteers given [1-13C]leucine. 2. Intravenous injection of 4 g of unlabelled leucine resulted in a rapid rise in free leucine concentration of seven- to eleven-fold in plasma and five-fold in muscle. Values were still elevated by two-fold after 2 h. 3. Five minutes after injection of [1-13C]leucine (0.05 g/kg) the isotopic enrichment of plasma leucine was 82% that of the injected material, falling to 44% at 120 min. The enrichment of free leucine in sequential muscle biopsies was close to that in plasma and almost identical to that for plasma α-ketoisocaproate. 4. The rate of protein synthesis was determined from the increase in leucine enrichment in protein of muscle biopsies taken before and 90 min after injection of [1-13C]leucine (0.05 g/kg; 19 or 39 atom% excess) and the average plasma α-ketoisocaproate enrichment over this period (taken to represent muscle free leucine). The mean rate of muscle protein synthesis in 10 subjects was 1.95 (sem 0.12)%/day. Rates of protein synthesis calculated from plasma leucine as precursor enrichment were only 5% lower than those calculated from plasma α-ketoisocaproate. 5. It is concluded that a ‘flooding dose’ of 13C-labelled amino acid is a useful and convenient technique for determining the rate of protein synthesis in tissues of human volunteers and patients.


1981 ◽  
Vol 194 (3) ◽  
pp. 811-819 ◽  
Author(s):  
M L MacDonald ◽  
R W Swick

Rates of growth and protein turnover in the breast muscle of young chicks were measured in order to assess the roles of protein synthesis and degradation in the regulation of muscle mass. Rates of protein synthesis were measured in vivo by injecting a massive dose of L-[1-14C]valine, and rates of protein degradation were estimated as the difference between the synthesis rate and the growth rate of muscle protein. In chicks fed on a control diet for up to 7 weeks of age, the fractional rate of synthesis decreased from 1 to 2 weeks of age and then changed insignificantly from 2 to 7 weeks of age, whereas DNA activity was constant for 1 to 7 weeks. When 4-week-old chicks were fed on a protein-free diet for 17 days, the total amount of breast-muscle protein synthesized and degraded per day and the amount of protein synthesized per unit of DNA decreased. Protein was lost owing to a greater decrease in the rate of protein synthesis, as a result of the loss of RNA and a lowered RNA activity. When depleted chicks were re-fed the control diet, rapid growth was achieved by a doubling of the fractional synthesis rate by 2 days. Initially, this was a result of increased RNA activity; by 5 days, the RNA/DNA ratio also increased. There was no evidence of a decrease in the fractional degradation rate during re-feeding. These results indicate that dietary-protein depletion and repletion cause changes in breast-muscle protein mass primarily through changes in the rate of protein synthesis.


1989 ◽  
Vol 257 (6) ◽  
pp. E828-E832 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Garlick ◽  
C. A. Maltin ◽  
A. G. Baillie ◽  
M. I. Delday ◽  
D. A. Grubb

Rates of protein synthesis in vivo and fiber-type composition were measured in nine limb muscles of female rats at ages ranging from weaning to 1 yr. In all muscles, there was a decline in protein synthesis with increasing age, mostly as a result of a fall in the RNA content. Rates of protein breakdown and growth were determined in six muscles and these also declined with age. Regression analysis of the data for all ages showed that protein synthesis was correlated with the content of slow oxidative fibers but not with the relative proportions of fast glycolytic to fast oxidative glycolytic fibers.


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