Adaptation of the rat liver tyrosine-alpha-ketoglutarate transaminase

Expression of differentiated functions in hepatoma cell hybrids. I. Tyrosine aminotransferase in hepatoma-fibroblast hybrids

The inducible enzyme tyrosine aminotransferase (TAT) has been investigated in hybrids between rat hepatoma cells and mouse fibroblasts. In the latter the TAT baseline activity is low, and in the presence of steroids does not change. By contrast, the hepatoma cells have high TAT activity, and this activity increases by a factor of 4-6 in the presence of steroids. The hybrid cells, like the fibroblasts, have low TAT activity and are not inducible. Heat inactivation curves demonstrate that the hybrid cells contain both parental forms of TAT, and therefore contain the parental genes specifying the enzyme. The presence in the hybrids of detectable rat TAT and the total absence of its inducibility suggest that a second gene is involved in the regulation of TAT inducibility, and that this gene is not expressed in the hybrids.

Tyrosine transaminase induction by dexamethasone in a new rat liver cell line

A cell line derived from normal, adult rat liver has been established; the cells are similar to hepatocytes, as shown by electron microscopy. The addition of dexamethasone to the culture medium induced a three- to sixfold increase in the specific activity of tyrosine alpha-ketoglutarate transaminase; this increase was inhibited by the simultaneous addition of cycloheximide or actinomycin D. The latter, when added to cells given prior treatment with dexamethasone, further enhanced the transaminase activity. Contact-inhibited cells showed a lower response to dexamethasone than exponentially growing cells.

Amino acid transport in hepatoma cell cultures during tyrosine aminotransferase induction

Alpha-aminoisobutyric acid transport in hepatoma cells in culture was increased by insulin but not by hydrocortisone. Both of these agents induce tyrosine aminotransferase activity in this system. The apparent increase in alpha-aminoisobutyric acid transport and tyrosine aminotransferase activity produced by glucagon is probably caused by insulin contamination. Insulin did not increase transport in this system until after tyrosine aminotransferase activity had reached maximum levels. The mechanisms underlying increased alpha-aminoisobutyric acid transport appear to differ from those for tyrosine aminotransferase induction with hydrocortisone despite their close association in previous whole animal experiments.

Posttranscriptional control in the steroid-mediated induction of hepatic tyrosine transaminase

The purine analog azaguanine does not inhibit the initial induction of hepatic tyrosine transaminase by hydrocortisone. However, the continued induced synthesis of tyrosine transaminase, elicited by repeated doses of hydro-cortisone, is inhibited approximately 64 percent in the presence of the analog after 7 to 8 hours and appears to be almost completely inhibited by 9 to 10 hours; this suggests that the induction cycle involves the activation and renewal of a pool of preexisting messenger RNA.

Regulation of liver tyrosine aminotransferase by endogenous factors in the mouse

The levels of mouse liver tyrosine aminotransferase (TAT) are shown to increase rapidly and transiently during and after various challenges (e.g., exposure to cold or shaking) to the homeostatic machinery of the fasted mouse. The increase of TAT is dependent on gene activity. Recent feeding and adrenalectomy are shown to inhibit the induction of TAT during the challenge of cold.

Ageing and the regulation of cell activities during exposure to cold

The inability to maintain body temperature and a selective pattern of changes in the regulation of cell activities were revealed by briefly exposing ageing C57B1/6J male mice to cold (10 degrees C). The induction of liver tyrosine aminotransferase (TAT) during exposure to cold (a gene-dependent process) was markedly delayed in senescent mice (26 months old) as compared with younger mice (3-16 months old); after the delay, the rate of increase of TAT was similar to that prevailing in younger mice. Direct challenge of the liver with injections of corticosterone or insulin elicited the induction of TAT on an identical time course in young and senescent mice. These experiments provide an example of an age change in a gene-dependent cell process (the delayed induction of TAT in senescent mice during exposure to cold) which is not due to a change in the potential of the genome for responding when exogenous stimulae are supplied (injection of hormones). In contrast to the age-related change in liver cell activities, no significant changes were found in the secretion of corticosterone during exposure to cold. Although the seat of these selective age-related changes in the regulation of cell activities remains unclear, it is argued that generalized damage to the genome of cells throughout the body is not involved. The results of this and other studies showing the selective effect of age on cell activities are considered in terms of the concept that many cellular age changes represent the response of cells to primary age-related changes in humoral factors in the internal environment of the body.

Regulation of the secondary antibody response in vitro. Enhancement by actinomycin D and inhibition by a macromolecular product of stimulated lymph node cultures

Two opposite effects of actinomycin D on antibody synthesis have been studied in organ cultures of rabbit lymph node fragments. These cultures were prepared from previously primed rabbits and stimulated with antigen(s) on day 0 to yield a secondary response, whose inductive phase extended to about day 9 and whose productive phase may last for several months in the serum-free medium described here. Concentrations of actinomycin D above 0.01 microM (0.012 microg/ml) produce inhibition of antibody synthesis during both phases of the response. However, antibody synthesis is about 10 times more sensitive to inhibition by this drug when it is added during the inductive phase than during the productive phase. During the latter phase, synthesis is more rapidly terminated as the drug level approaches 10 /microM (12.5 microg/ml). At this level the 50% synthesis time is about 2.8 hr, which is identical with that found when 5-10 microM puromycin is added to the medium of parallel cultures. Transient enhancement of antibody synthesis is frequently produced by a brief exposure to low levels of actinomycin D (generally less than 0.01 microM). Enhancement appears in precise temporal association with actinomycin pulses added for 2 days or less only between days 6 and 16. This apparent enhancement of antibody synthesis resembles the increased enzyme synthesis described by Garren et al. (6) and led to a search for an antibody-inhibitory material (AIM) whose synthesis might be stopped preferentially by low levels of the drug. Stimulated lymph node cultures produce between days 6 and 15 a nondialyzable material which inhibits antibody synthesis during the productive phase of heterologous antigen-antibody culture systems. Just as enhancement with low levels of actinomycin D appears within 2 hr after the drug has been added to cultures, so inhibition occurs within 4 hr of adding AIM to cultures during their productive phase. These observations suggest that AIM is analogous to the translational "repressor" postulated by Garren et al. (6). AIM has relevance in two areas of immunology: (a) it may be the explanation for many examples of antigenic competition, and (b) it may represent a normal control mechanism for the productive phase.