scholarly journals EFFECT OF GROWTH HORMONE ON THE METABOLISM OF THYMUS AND ON THE IMMUNE RESPONSE AGAINST SHEEP ERYTHROCYTES

1971 ◽  
Vol 134 (5) ◽  
pp. 1095-1113 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Pandian ◽  
G. P. Talwar

The effect of pituitary growth hormone on the biosynthesis of DNA in the thymus and other lymphoid organs, as well as the ability of the rat to respond immunologically to sheep red blood cells, has been evaluated. There is a marked reduction in plaque-forming cells, hemagglutination titers, and DNA synthesis in animals when examined at 15 wk after hypophysectomy. Administration of bovine growth hormone (BGH) leads to the enhancement of DNA synthesis in lymphoid organs and recovery of the immune response. Similar effects of the hormone are observed in plateaued rats. Injection of rabbit anti-BGH globulins, in contrast to normal rabbit globulins, over 5 days causes a drop in the weight of the thymus and in the rate of DNA synthesis in this organ. The thymus is also the organ in which stimulation of DNA synthesis is observed at a time period earlier than the spleen and lymph nodes after a single injection of BGH. The hormone stimulates not only the incorporation of thymidine-3H into DNA in the cortical cells, but also the incorporation of sodium sulfate-35S into TCA-insoluble biopolymers reported to be elaborated in the medullary area of the thymus. An in vitro system for the action of BGH on the thymus has been described. There is an obligatory requirement for calcium, but not for fetal calf serum in the medium for the hormone effect. An early action of the hormone is the enhanced incorporation of uridine-G-3H into RNA in thymocytes which is followed by a stimulation of the synthesis of proteins and DNA. The stimulatory action of growth hormone on RNA synthesis is not because of a facilitated uptake of the radioactive uridine by the cells under hormonal influence, a mechanism by which insulin is observed to increase RNA synthesis in thymocytes in vitro. The action of growth hormone on thymocytes is specific, since thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), and heat-inactivated growth hormone are not effective. BGH has also a beneficial action on the regeneration of the thymus and spleen in starved rats.

1973 ◽  
Vol 134 (4) ◽  
pp. 1103-1113 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Betteridge ◽  
M. Wallis

The effect of insulin on the incorporation of radioactive leucine into growth hormone was investigated by using rat anterior pituitary glands incubated in vitro. A 50% stimulation over control values was observed at insulin concentrations above 2μm (280munits/ml). The effect was specific for growth hormone biosynthesis, over the range 1–5μm-insulin (140–700munits/ml). Lower more physiological concentrations had no significant effect in this system. Above 10μm (1.4 units/ml) total protein synthesis was also increased. The stimulation of growth hormone synthesis could be partially blocked by the addition of actinomycin D, suggesting that RNA synthesis was involved. Insulin was found to stimulate the rate of glucose utilization in a similar way to growth hormone synthesis. 2-Deoxyglucose and phloridzin, which both prevented insulin from stimulating glucose utilization, also prevented the effect of insulin on growth hormone synthesis. If glucose was replaced by fructose in the medium, the effect of insulin on growth hormone synthesis was decreased. We conclude that the rate of utilization of glucose may be an important step in mediating the effect of insulin on growth hormone synthesis.


1977 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosanna Supino ◽  
Anna M. Casazza ◽  
Aurelio Di Marco

This paper reports the effects of daunorubicin and adriamycin on DNA and RNA synthesis of in vitro cultured mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEF) stimulated by fetal calf serum (FCS). The addition of FCS to quiescent MEF cultures brings about a wave of RNA synthesis, followed by DNA synthesis which starts between 8 and 12 h after change of medium and proceed for up to 24 h. These cells are therefore partially synchronized. The level of DNA synthesis depends on the amount of FCS added. Daunorubicin and adriamycin are almost equally effective in inhibiting DNA synthesis, as well as cell proliferation, which takes place later. Adriamycin is more active than daunorubicin on RNA synthesis. In cultures treated for an 8 h period starting at different times after FCS addition, the highest DNA synthesis inhibition is achieved by treatment during the first 8 h, when DNA synthesis has not yet started. The cellular uptake of daunorubicin is constantly higher than that of adriamycin, in any experimental condition tested. The results show that FCS-stimulated MEF can provide a simple method for studying the effects of anthracycline antibiotics on partially synchronized cells.


1971 ◽  
Vol 122 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Farber ◽  
Giovanni Rovera ◽  
Renato Baserga

1. Contact-inhibited confluent monolayers of WI-38 human diploid fibroblasts can be stimulated to divide by replacing the medium with fresh medium containing 30′ foetal calf serum. 2. Of the cells 40–75′ are stimulated to divide with a peak DNA synthesis between 15 and 21h and a peak mitotic index between 28 and 30h after stimulation. 3. In the first 12h before the initiation of DNA synthesis there is a biphasic increase in the incorporation of [3H]uridine into RNA of whole cells. 4. This is paralleled by a similar biphasic stimulation of chromatin template activity measured in vitro in a system in which purified cell chromatin is incubated with an exogenous RNA polymerase isolated from Escherichia coli. 5. The changes in chromatin template activity are believed to represent activation of the genome, with more sites available for RNA synthesis, and to account almost entirely for the changes in RNA synthesis occurring in the whole cell.


1986 ◽  
Vol 237 (3) ◽  
pp. 741-747 ◽  
Author(s):  
D J McQuillan ◽  
C J Handley ◽  
H C Robinson

Proteoglycan synthesis in explant cultures of adult bovine articular cartilage is stimulated in a dose-dependent manner when the tissue is cultured in the presence of foetal-calf serum. The stimulation of proteoglycan synthesis is paralleled by a similar increase in DNA synthesis; however, when DNA synthesis is inhibited by hydroxyurea the stimulation of proteoglycan synthesis by serum remains essentially the same. The apparent half-life of the pool of proteoglycan core protein precursor was measured in freshly isolated tissue as well as in tissue cultured for 7 days in the presence and in the absence of foetal-calf serum; under all conditions the half-life was the same, suggesting that this value is independent of the net rate of proteoglycan synthesis. In the presence of actinomycin D, an inhibitor of RNA synthesis, there was a difference in the apparent half-life of the available pool of mRNA coding for proteoglycan core protein: 8.5 h for tissue maintained in the presence of serum and 3.8 h for tissue cultured in the absence of serum. It is suggested that proteoglycan synthesis is stimulated by serum factors at the level of DNA-dependent RNA synthesis. Concomitant with an increase in the rate of proteoglycan synthesis induced by the presence of serum in the culture medium, an increase in the concentrations of several glycosyltransferases involved in chondroitin sulphate synthesis was also observed.


1979 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. L. Kellar ◽  
B. L. Evatt ◽  
C. R. McGrath ◽  
R. B. Ramsey

Liquid cultures of bone marrow cells enriched for megakaryocytes were assayed for incorporation of 3H-thymidine (3H-TdR) into acid-precipitable cell digests to determine the effect of thrombopoietin on DNA synthesis. As previously described, thrombopoietin was prepared by ammonium sulfate fractionation of pooled plasma obtained from thrombocytopenic rabbits. A control fraction was prepared from normal rabbit plasma. The thrombopoietic activity of these fractions was determined in vivo with normal rabbits as assay animals and the rate of incorporation of 75Se-selenomethionine into newly formed platelets as an index of thrombopoietic activity of the infused material. Guinea pig megakaryocytes were purified using bovine serum albumin gradients. Bone marrow cultures containing 1.5-3.0x104 cells and 31%-71% megakaryocytes were incubated 18 h in modified Dulbecco’s MEM containing 10% of the concentrated plasma fractions from either thrombocytopenic or normal rabbits. In other control cultures, 0.9% NaCl was substituted for the plasma fractions. 3H-TdR incorporation was measured after cells were incubated for 3 h with 1 μCi/ml. The protein fraction containing thrombopoietin-stimulating activity caused a 25%-31% increase in 3H-TdR incorporation over that in cultures which were incubated with the similar fraction from normal plasma and a 29% increase over the activity in control cultures to which 0.9% NaCl had been added. These data suggest that thrombopoietin stimulates DNA synthesis in megakaryocytes and that this tecnique may be useful in assaying thrombopoietin in vitro.


1993 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1719-1727
Author(s):  
C S Suen ◽  
W W Chin

The expression of the rat growth hormone (rGH) gene in the anterior pituitary gland is modulated by Pit-1/GHF-1, a pituitary-specific transcription factor, and by other more widely distributed factors, such as the thyroid hormone receptors (TRs), Sp1, and the glucocorticoid receptor. Thyroid hormone (T3)-mediated transcriptional stimulation of rGH gene expression has been extensively studied in vivo and in vitro including the measurements of (i) rGH mRNA by blot hybridization, (ii) transcriptional rate of rGH gene by nuclear run-on, and (iii) reporter gene expression in which a chimeric plasmid containing 5'-flanking sequences of the rGH gene linked to a reporter gene has been transfected either stably or transiently into pituitary and/or nonpituitary cells. From these studies, it has been suggested that the Pit-1/GHF-1 binding site is necessary for full T3 action. We developed a cell-free in vitro transcription system to examine further the roles of the TRs and Pit-1/GHF-1 in rGH gene activation. Using GH3 nuclear extract as a source of TRs and Pit-1/GHF-1, this in vitro transcription assay showed that T3 stimulation of rGH promoter activity is dependent on the addition of T3 to the GH3 nuclear extract. This transcriptional stimulation was augmented with increasing concentrations of ligand and was T3, but not T4 or reverse T3, specific. T3-mediated stimulation of rGH promoter activity was completely abolished by preincubation of the nuclear extract with rGH-thyroid hormone response element (-200 to -160) but not with Pit-1/GHF-1 (-137 to -65) oligonucleotides. Further, neither deletion of both Pit-1/GHF-1 binding sites nor mutation of the proximal Pit-1/GHF-1 binding site from the rGH promoter abrogated the T3 effect. These results provide evidence that T3-stimulated rGH promoter activity is independent of Pit-1/GHF-1 and raise the possibility that the stimulation of rGH gene expression by T3 might involve direct interaction of TRs with the general transcriptional apparatus.


1979 ◽  
Vol 150 (1) ◽  
pp. 196-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
H R MacDonald ◽  
R K Less

The requirement for DNA synthesis during the primary differentiation of cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTL) had been investigated. CTL were induced polyclonally in vitro by stimulation of normal C57BL/6 spleen cells with concanavalin A (Con A)and their cytolytic activity was tested against 51Cr-labeled target cells in the presence of Bacto Phytohemagglutinin M. With this system, CTL activity could first be detected 48 h after exposure of spleen cells to Con A. Addition of cytosine arabinoside at concentrations sufficient to reduce DNA synthesis by 95-98% in Con A-stimulated cultures did not significantly inhibit the generation of cytolytic activity on a cell-to-cell basis. These results demonstrate that derepression of the genetic information required for the expression of CTL function can occur in the absence of detectable DNA synthesis.


Blood ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 851-856 ◽  
Author(s):  
SA Burstein ◽  
SK Erb ◽  
JW Adamson ◽  
LA Harker

Abstract Mice injected chronically with antiplatelet serum develop an increase in the number of megakaryocytic progenitor cells compared to animals given normal rabbit serum. To examine the specificity of this response, progenitor cells giving rise to megakaryocyte, granulocyte-macrophage, erythroid, and mixed-cell colonies were assayed after injection of various heterosera or saline. All four colony types increased in the serum-treated groups. Since the in vitro proliferation of hematopoietic progenitor cells is promoted by supernatants of mitogen-stimulated spleen cells, we hypothesized that the immune response following antiserum administration resulted in the in vivo activation of T lymphocytes which produced or led to the production of colony stimulating activities. To test this hypothesis, cyclosporin A, a preferential inhibitor of T lymphocyte function, was given to mice concurrently with antiserum and also added to spleen cell cultures in the presence of pokeweed mitogen. Cyclosporin A abrogated the antiserum- related increases in progenitor cell numbers in vivo and the production of colony stimulating activity in vitro. The results suggest that the immune response related to antiserum administration results in the in vivo production of hematopoietic colony stimulating activities that may be identical to those produced in vitro by mitogen-stimulation of spleen cells.


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