Collagen Synthesis by Cells Synchronously Replicating DNA

Long acting cAMP analogues enhance sulfate incorporation into matrix proteoglycans and suppress cell division of fetal rat chondrocytes in monolayer culture

The relationship between replication and the synthesis of matrix sulfated proteoglycans was investigated with fetal rat chondrocytes grown in monolayer culture. The effect of N6 O2' dibutyryl adenosine 3', 5' cyclic monophosphate (DBcAMP), adenosine 3', 5' cyclic monophosphate (cAMP), 8 Bromo adenosine 3', 5' cyclic monophosphate (8 Br-cAMP), sodium butyrate and hydroxyurea was examined. Between 0.05 and 0.5 mM DBcAMP, a dose related inhibition of cell division and stimulation of [35SO=/4] incorporation into matrix proteoglycans was demonstrated. At the higher concentrations of DBcAMP, cell division was completely inhibited and the enhancement of [35SO=/4] incorporation into matrix proteoglycans ranged between 40 and 120% (P less than 0.01). Utilizing 14C-glucosamine and photometric determination of proteoglycans with Alcian Blue, it was demonstrated that the increase in sulfate incorporation reflected enhanced accumulation of extracellular matrix. The effects of DBcAMP were mimicked by 8 Br-cAMP, suggesting they were mediated by the adenylyl cyclase system. cAMP (0.05-0.5 mM), sodium butyrate (0.1-0.5 mM) and hydroxyurea (0.5-5 mM) partially or fully inhibited cell division, but either failed or only slightly enhanced sulfate incorporation. The enhanced sulfated proteoglycan deposition promoted by DBcAMP began 8 to 12 hours after serum stimulation, its onset occurred prior to thymidine incorporation and the effect persisted for 28 hours. Determination of cell volume demonstrated an increase in size of DBcAMP treated chondrocytes between 8 to 12 hours, coincident with the onset of increased sulfate incorporation. These results are consistent with a model where matrix sulfated proteoglycan deposition by chondrocytes is mediated by intracellular cAMP levels and occurs in the G1 phase of the cell cycle.

Coordinate control of collagen synthesis and cell growth in chick embryo fibroblasts and the effect of viral transformation on collagen synthesis

Using collagenase digestion as an assay for collagen in partially synchronized secondary cultures of chick embryo fibroblasts, we find that the rate of collagen synthesis remains at a constant fraction of overall protein synthesis (5%) regardless of the growth rate of the cells even when the rate of protein synthesis is accelerated 5-fold by adding serum and altering the pH of the culture medium. However, in cells oncogenically transformed by Rous sarcoma virus, the relative rate of collagen synthesis was decreased by 50% 24 hours after infection and was 10% of the initial rate after 5 days. This selective decrease in rate of collagen synthesis could be reversed in cells infected with an RSV temperature-sensitive transformation-defective mutant at the non-permissive temperature, indicating that the decrease in the rate of collagen synthesis was not merely the result of viral infection but was a direct consequence of oncogenic transformation.

Cell proliferation and cell differentiation in tissue cultures of adult muco-cilliary epithelia

Explants and monolayers from a variety of muco-ciliary epithelia were cultivated in vitro and the kinetics of their proliferation and differentiation described. New epithelial lining and epithelial-like monolayer sheets of cells formed in which the migration cells were all originally undifferentiated cycling stem cells. The divided and differentiated in ML growth into cell types characteristic of the tissue source: however, the control mechanisms which regulate cell division and cell differentiation in the tissues were lost outside the tissue framework. Cell division and cyto-differentiation in ML growths both in ciliated and in mucus-producing cells, were not always mutually exclusive.

Reversible alterations in the mitotic cycle of chick embryo cells in various states of growth regulation

Chick embryo cells which have been kept overnight at pH 6.8 in the absence of serum multiply very slowly. Only a small fraction of cells is in the S period at any given time, and the rate of uptake of 2-deoxy-D-glucose is very low. Upon raising the pH to 7.4 and adding serum ("turn-on") the uptake of 2-deoxy-D-glucose increases immediately; the rate of DNA synthesis increases after a lag of about 4 hours, and represents an increase in the fraction of cells synthesizing DNA. the uptake of 2-deoxy-D-glucose is rapidly returned to its original low rate at any time by again lowering the pH and removing serum ("turn-off"). The synthesis of DNA in the culture remains constant or continues to rise at a markedly reduced rate following the same treatment. Lowering pH or removing serum independently of each other is less efficient at inhibiting the increase in DNA synthesis than the combined treatment but each accomplishes a similar result. Cultures which have been "turned-off" during the early stages of the rapid increase in DNA synthesis, resume their prior rate of increase immediately if "turned-on" again within 2.5 hours. If the cultures have been "turned-off" for 5.5 hours before restoring the "turn-on", there is a 2 hour delay before they resume an increased rate of DNA synthesis. The results until shortly before, or at the time of the onset of the S period. Up to 96% of the cells in post-confluent cultures growing in conventional medium become labeled upon continuous, prolonged exposure to 3H-thymidine. Seventy-eight percent of the cells in serum-deprived cultures growing at a very low rate become labeled. These and other considerations suggest that the inhibition of cell multiplication by high population density or serum deprivation is caused by a lengthening of the time cells remain in the prereplicative G1 period rather than by shifting cells into a qualitatively distinct G0 period. There may, however, be a period common to all cells regardless of growth rate, in which cells are not progressing toward the S period. The length of this variable period would then determine the growth rate of a population of cells.

Protein synthesis: its control in erythropoiesis

Erythropoiesis in the fetal mouse provides a model to study several important aspects of the regulation of cell differentiation and differentiated protein synthesis. Changes in the patterns of hemoglobins formed during fetal and postfetal development are shown to be associated with the substitution of the liver erythroid cell line. In the course of differentiation of yolk sac erythroid cells there are at least two classes of proteins distinguishable with respect to dependence on continued RNA formatoin. The bulk of nuclear proteins, "nondifferentiated" proteins, appear to be dependent on relatively short-lived messenger RNA while synthesis of differentiated proteins, the hemoglobins, proceeds on relatively stable molecules of messenger RNA. Hemoglobin formation occurs in those cells which are actively synthesizing DNA and dividing. On the average, two to three cell divisions may occur after the formation and stabilization of the messenger RNA for globin. Yolk sac erythropoiesis, at least from day 10 of gestation, is unresponsive to erythropoietin. By comparison, in fetal liver erythropoiesis, the hormone, erythropoietin, acts selectively on the most immature erythroid cell precursor to induce differentiation, cell replication, and hemoglobin formation. The erythropoietin responsive cell in the liver is apparently differentiated from the progenitor, pluripotential stem cell and committed to erythroblast formation and hemoglobin synthesis on exposure to the hormone. The initial effects of erythropoietin on macromolecular synthesis are to stimulate RNA synthesis, which temporally is followed by cell replication and the increase in hemoglobin formation. During liver erythropoiesis, there appears to be a transition from hemoglobin synthesis dependent on RNA formation to hemoglobin synthesis directed by relatively stable messenger RNA.