scholarly journals Molecular specificity associated with alleviation of actinomycin D inhibition of protein synthesis

1971 ◽  
Vol 123 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-292
Author(s):  
N N Durham ◽  
D V Ferguson
1971 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 746-761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley G. Sawicki ◽  
Gabriel C. Godman

Actinomycin D (AMD) at concentrations that inhibit cellular RNA synthesis by 85% or more causes an acute phase of lethal cell degeneration in HeLa cultures beginning as early as 3 hr after drug exposure, resulting in the nearly complete loss of viable cells by 12 hr. The loss of cells during this acute phase of lethality is closely dose dependent. Vero, WI38, or L cells are not susceptible to this early acute cyto-intoxication by AMD, and may begin to die only after 1–2 days. Differential susceptibility to acute cyto-intoxication by AMD, or other inhibitors of RNA synthesis (daunomycin or nogalamycin), among different types of cultured cells is analogous to that observed in vivo in certain tissues and tumors, and cannot be accounted for by differences in the effect of AMD on RNA, DNA, or protein syntheses, or by the over-all loss of preformed RNA. Actinomycin D in a dose that inhibits RNA synthesis causes an equivalent loss of the prelabeled RNA in all the cell types studied. Inhibition of protein synthesis with streptovitacin A or of DNA synthesis with hydroxyurea does not cause acute lethal injury in HeLa cells as does inhibition of RNA synthesis. Furthermore, since Vero or L cells divide at about the same rate as HeLa cells, no correlation can be drawn between the rate of cell proliferation and susceptibility to the cytotoxicity of AMD. Susceptibile cells are most vulnerable to intoxication by AMD in the G1-S interphase or early S phase. Inhibition of protein synthesis (which protects cells against damage by other agents affecting DNA) does not protect against AMD-induced injury. Although HeLa cells bind more AMD at a given dose than Vero or L cells, the latter cell types, given higher doses, can be made to bind proportionally more AMD without succumbing to acute cyto-intoxication. It is suggested that the differential susceptibility of these cell types to acute poisoning by AMD may reflect differences among various cells in the function or stability of certain RNA species not directly involved in translation whose presence is vital to cells. In HeLa cells, these critical species of RNA are presumed to have a short half-life.


1969 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 280-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hisashi Shinozuka ◽  
Emmanuel Farber

The rat liver nucleolus, after fragmentation induced by ethionine treatment, has been found to undergo complete reformation by adenine in the presence of a dose of cycloheximide sufficient to cause inhibition of protein synthesis by 90–95%. In contrast, actinomycin D given along with adenine was followed by the appearance of a small compact mass containing only the fibrillar component with no evident granules. This structure resembled pseudonucleoli seen in the anucleolate mutant of Xenopus laevis or in certain early stages of amphibian oocytes. Actinomycin D administered 2 hr after adenine induced a segregation of the fibrillar and granular components of nucleoli similar to that induced in the normal nucleolus. The implications of these findings in relation to nucleolar organization are briefly discussed.


1974 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustav Wägar

ABSTRACT Whether the short-term regulation of thyroidal protein synthesis by TSH occurs at the transcriptional or the translational level was tested by measuring the effect of actinomycin D (act D) on the TSH-induced stimulation of L-14C-leucine incorporation into the thyroidal proteins of rats. TSH was injected 6 h before the rats were killed. The thyroid glands were then removed and incubated in vitro in the presence of L-14C-leucine for 2 h. The pronounced stimulation of leucine incorporation in the TSH-treated animals was depressed as compared with controls but still significant even when the animals had been pre-treated with 100 μg act D 24 and 7 h before sacrifice. On the other hand, act D strongly decreased incorporation of 3H-uridine into RNA. Short-term regulation of thyroidal protein synthesis by TSH appears to be partly but not wholly dependent on neosynthesis of RNA. Hence regulation may partly occur at the translation level of protein synthesis.


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