SPECIFIC AND GENERAL ASPECTS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENZYMES AND METABOLIC PATHWAYS

BIOSYNTHESIS OF COLLAGEN AND NON-COLLAGEN PROTEIN DURING DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHICK CORNEA

The relationship between the rates of increase of corneal protein fractions and incorporation of labeled precursors has been examined during embryonic and early posthatching development of the chick corneal stroma. Non-collagen protein increased gradually from 9 through 20 days of incubation. Collagen accumulated approximately logarithmically through the 19th day, the most rapid rate occurring between 13 and 20 days of incubation. The rates at which labeled amino acids are incorporated into collagen in vivo and in vitro undergo marked changes during the last week of embryonic development, corresponding closely to the rate of collagen accumulation in vivo; whereas incorporation into non-collagen protein changes much less markedly. Changes in the rate of incorporation of precursors into collagen are not due to changes in the rate of conversion of collagen from the soluble to insoluble form, or to changes in the endogenous amino acid pool size. Chick embryo corneal stroma collagen turns over very slowly, if at all. Non-collagen protein turns over more rapidly. An increase in cell number, as indicated by DNA content, does not account for the increased rate of collagen synthesis between the 9th and 16th day of incubation. It is concluded that the observed changes in collagen synthesis reflect changing activities in the individual cornea fibroblasts. These activities are comparable in the intact tissue in vivo and in isolated corneas in vitro.

RESPIRATORY ENZYMES IN THE HEART AND LIVER OF THE PRENATAL AND POSTNATAL RAT

1. Heart and liver tissue samples were obtained from rats in various developmental stages from the 12-day-old embryo to the 120-day-old postnatal animal. 2. The body, heart and liver weights and percentage protein in the liver and heart of the prenatal and postnatal rat were determined. 3. The activities of NADH-, NADPH- and succinate-cytochrome c reductases and cytochrome oxidase were determined also. 4. The specific activities of all the enzymes increased in both heart and liver during late foetal development (16 days to term). The NADH- and succinate-cytochrome c-reductase activities in the heart increased threefold during the neonatal period (0 to 25 days post partum) and then remained constant to 120 days. All reductase activities increased in the liver three- to six-fold during the neonatal period. Cytochrome-oxidase activity in both tissues increased sixfold during this time but plateaued in the liver at 12 days rather than 25 days. 5. A sex difference was observed in NADH-cytochrome c-reductase activity in the liver. Up to 25 days post partum the activity was the same in both sexes, but from that time on the activity continued to increase in the female but remained unchanged in the male. 6. NADPH-cytochrome c-reductase activity increased only in the liver. 7. These results indicate that different electron-transport pathways predominate according to the tissue, developmental stage and sex of the animal.

Human cytochrome c oxidase during cardiac growth and development

Human heart mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase specific content and specific activity was measured in five fetuses 15-21 weeks gestational age and in five patients whose age ranged from 6 days to 22 years. None had evidence of cardiac pathology. An increase in cytochrome c oxidase specific content and specific activity was observed in the fetal heart with increasing gestational age (0.13-0.38 nmol heme a/mg protein and 67-295 nmol O2 utilized/min/mg protein) and from the neonatal period (0.35 nmol heme a/mg protein and 140 nmol O2/min/mg protein) to adulthood (1.2 nmol heme a/mg protein and 1104 nmol O2/min/mg protein). A marked increase was observed postnatally between 4 and 19 months.

Hormonal induction of glutamate dehydrogenase in rat liver

Glutamate dehydrogenase rapidly increases in microsomes and appears in the cytoplasm after administration of cortisone, cAMP, hydrocortisone-acetate. Prolonged administration of ACTH maintains high level of enzyme in the mitochondria and microsomes. Hydrocortisone-acetate, insulin and cortisone decrease drastically enzyme in mitochondria.

The influence of postnatal development on drug-induced hepatic porphyria and the synthesis of cytochrome P-450. A biochemical and morphological study

The mitochondrial enzyme delta-aminolevulinate synthetase (ALAS) controls the rate-limiting step in the synthesis of porphyrins and heme. An experimental form of hepatic porphyria can be readily elicited in laboratory animals, such as the rat, by drugs and foreign chemicals which are known to enhance the de novo formation of this enzyme in the liver. The present study shows that there is a striking refractoriness to the induction of ALAS during the perinatal period in the rat. Chemicals which have potent porphyria-inducing activity in adult animals have no significant inducing effect on hepatic ALAS in neonates. The ultrastructural changes which accompany the induction of ALAS by drugs and chemicals in adult liver also fail to take place in the livers of neonates. A progressive capacity for responding to the action of chemical inducers of hepatic ALAS does, however, develop in neonatal animals so that by approximately 5-6 wk of age experimental porphyria can be elicited as effectively in them as in adults. The reasons for the refractoriness of hepatic ALAS to induction in the perinatal period are not known; but the findings of this study make it clear that ALAS belongs to that increasingly large group of liver enzymes in mammals whose appearance, increase of activity, or inducibility is developmentally determined. The occurrence of developmental changes in the indicibility of ALAS in the liver of neonates also provided an opportunity to study the relationship of this enzyme activity to the drug-mediated induction of the hepatic hemoprotein cytochrome P-450. This inducible hemoprotein serves as the terminal oxygenase in the microsomal mixed-function oxidase system in the liver. The results of this study indicate that, in contrast to the refractoriness of ALAS to induction, significant drug-induced changes of hepatic P-450 content and of hemeprecursor incorporation into this cytochrome do take place in neonates. The synthesis of P-450 thus appears to be under a regulatory control different from that of ALAS in neonates, and the relation between ALAS activity and P-450 formation is not therefore a direct one.

Changes in activity of some enzymes involved in glucose utilization and formation in developing rat liver

1. The activities of some enzymes involved in both the utilization of glucose (pyruvate kinase, ATP citrate lyase, NADP-specific malate dehydrogenase, glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase and NADP-specific isocitrate dehydrogenase, all present in the supernatant fraction of liver homogenates) and the formation of glucose by gluconeogenesis (glucose 6-phosphatase in the whole homogenate and fructose 1,6-diphosphatase, phosphopyruvate carboxylase, NAD-specific malate dehydrogenase and fumarase in the supernatant fraction) have been determined in rat liver around birth and in the postnatal period until the end of weaning. 2. The activities of those enzymes involved in the conversion of glucose into lipid are low during the neonatal period and increase with weaning. NADP-specific malate dehydrogenase first appears and develops at the beginning of the weaning period. 3. The marked increase in cytoplasmic phosphopyruvate carboxylase activity at birth is probably the major factor initiating gluconeogenesis at that time. 4. The results are discussed against the known changes in dietary supplies and the known metabolic patterns during the period of development.

Adaptive behaviour of some enzymes involved in glucose utilization and formation in rat liver during the weaning period

1. The effects of premature weaning on to normal and high-glucose diets and of normal weaning on to high-protein and high-fat diets on the activities of hepatic enzymes involved in both the utilization of glucose and the formation of glucose by gluconeogenesis in rats during the weaning period were investigated. 2. The effects of weaning and high-glucose diets were, in general, to bring about increases in the activities of enzymes involved in glucose utilization and a more rapid decrease of the activities of the gluconeogenic enzymes towards normal adult values. 3. The effects of weaning on to high-fat and high-protein diets were, in general, to lower the rate of increase in activities of the enzymes involved in glucose utilization, and to prevent the decrease in activity of the gluconeogenic enzymes that occurs during normal weaning. 4. The changes in the activity of cytoplasmic phosphopyruvate carboxylase appear to be of special significance; this and other results are in keeping with current theories about the pathways and control of gluconeogenesis. 5. The activity of ATP citrate lyase appears to be particularly important in lipid formation. 6. The results are interpreted in terms of the known adaptive behaviour of these enzymes in the adult rat. The roles of enzyme development and of enzyme adaptation in the elaboration of metabolic homoeostasis in the weanling rat are discussed.