scholarly journals The ornithine requirement of urea synthesis. Formation of ornithine from glutamine in hepatocytes

1986 ◽  
Vol 239 (3) ◽  
pp. 773-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Lund ◽  
D Wiggins

In hepatocytes, urea synthesis from glutamine is independent of added ornithine, even when rates are high after stimulation of glutamine metabolism by dibutyryl cyclic AMP, phenylephrine or vasopressin. Incubation with glutamine increases tissue [ornithine]. The increases parallel those of [N-acetylglutamate] under different conditions. The ornithine requirement of urea synthesis increases with increasing supply of ammonia. A function of the unique, highly regulated, glutaminase of liver may be to regulate ornithine synthesis.

1983 ◽  
Vol 245 (6) ◽  
pp. E555-E559 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Szillat ◽  
L. J. Bukowiecki

Adenosine competitively inhibited the stimulatory effects of (-)-isoproterenol on lipolysis and respiration in hamster brown adipocytes. The low value of the apparent ki for respiratory inhibition by adenosine (7 nM) indicated that the nucleoside may control brown adipocyte function under physiological concentrations. Significantly, the dose-response curves for isoproterenol stimulation of lipolysis and respiration were both shifted by adenosine to higher agonist concentrations by the same order of magnitude, providing additional evidence for a tight coupling between lipolysis and respiration. The inhibitory effects of adenosine were rapidly reversed by a) adenosine deaminase, b) agents known to increase intracellular cyclic AMP levels (isoproterenol, isobutylmethylxanthine, dibutyryl cyclic AMP), and c) direct stimulation of respiration with palmitic acid. These results, combined with the fact that adenosine failed to affect respiration evoked either by dibutyryl cyclic AMP or by palmitic acid, strongly indicate that adenosine regulates brown adipose tissue respiration at an early metabolic step of the stimulus-thermogenesis sequence, most probably at the level of the adenylate cyclase complex.


1981 ◽  
Vol 196 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
M F Hopgood ◽  
M G Clark ◽  
F J Ballard

1. Protein degradation in rat hepatocytes in stationary monolayer culture was measured as release of radioactive trichloroacetic acid-soluble material from intracellular proteins labelled with [3H]leucine. 2. Glucocorticoids, but not other steroids, stimulated protein breakdown in the hepatocyte monolayers. The effects observed were greater when the cells were preincubated with the hormones, indicating that the stimulation was not immediate. In addition, the stimulation by glucocorticoids persisted for up to 4 h after hormone removal. 3. Cycloheximide and the lysosomotropic agents leupeptin and ammonia effectively blocked glucocorticoid stimulation of protein degradation. 4. Insulin blocked dexamethasone stimulation when added at the same time as the steroid, but not when added 3 h later. 5. Stimulation of protein breakdown by dexamethasone was additive with that by glucagon or dibutyryl cyclic AMP, suggesting that its mechanism of action is different from that of the latter two agents. 6. Total activities of several lysosomal enzymes were unaffected under conditions where protein breakdown was stimulated by either glucagon or dexamethasone. 7. It is suggested that, whereas glucagon, dibutyryl cyclic AMP and insulin modulate protein breakdown in these cells via changes in autophagocytosis, the stimulation by glucocorticoids is exerted independently, perhaps by stimulating the synthesis of membrane proteins essential to the autophagic process.


1977 ◽  
Vol 233 (2) ◽  
pp. F102-F117
Author(s):  
I. Ichikawa ◽  
B. M. Brenner

Experiments were performed on 54 chronically water diuretic Munich-Wistar rats to investigate the effects of various antidiuretic peptides on the determinants of glomerular ultrafiltration. Transition from water diuresis to antidiuresis, induced either by intravenous infusion of 1) exogenous peptides (Pitressin, synthetic arginine vasopressin, or synthetic [1-deamino,4-valine]-8-D-arginine vasopressin) or 2) dibutyryl cyclic AMP, or by stimulation of endogenous ADH release by acute, mild arterial hemorrhage, was associated with near-constant or decreased values for single nephron (SN) and total kidney GFR. Nevertheless, the glomerular transcapillary hydraulic pressure difference (deltaP) uniformly increased with antidiuresis, due to consistent reductions in Bowman's space hydraulic pressure rather than to increases in glomerular capillary hydraulic pressure, the former a consequence of the fall in urine flow rate. In all antidiuretic states, the rats were uniformly observed to be at filtration pressure disequilibrium, permitting calculation of unique values of the glomerular ultrafiltration coefficient (Kf). These values of Kf in antidiuresis were invariably lower than the values obtained during water diuresis. Whether these effects of ADH and DBcAMP on deltaP and Kf represent physiological influences in the control of GFR remains uncertain; their offsetting effects in the present studies usually failed to alter GFR appreciably.


1988 ◽  
Vol 118 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.-P. Weniger ◽  
A. Zeis

ABSTRACT The effect of dibutyryl cyclic AMP and FSH on oestrogen biosynthesis was investigated in testes from 18- to 21-day-old fetal rats cultured in vitro in the presence of tritiated testosterone. Oestrone and oestradiol concentrations were measured by determination of constant specific activity after isotopic dilution. Dibutyryl cyclic AMP and FSH markedly stimulated the conversion of testosterone into both oestrone and oestradiol at all stages studied. Oestradiol synthesis was stimulated by two- to sevenfold, while stimulation of oestrone synthesis was even greater. The results demonstrate that the aromatase enzyme system of the fetal rat testis responds to cyclic AMP and FSH. J. Endocr. (1988) 118, 485–489


1993 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Soultanas ◽  
P D Andrews ◽  
D R Burton ◽  
D P Hornby

ABSTRACT The regulation of DNA (cytosine-5) methyltransferase (DNA MeTase) enzyme activity and gene expression was examined in the monoblastoid U937 cell line induced to differentiate with either dibutyryl cyclic AMP (dbcAMP) or phorbol ester. dbcAMP treatment was found to cause the rapid (<4 h) suppression of DNA MeTase specific activity, with no DNA MeTase activity detectable after 10 h. Equally, no DNA MeTase activity was detectable in nuclear extracts of fresh peripheral blood monocytes. Using both a U937 DNA MeTase cDNA and a mouse DNA MeTase cDNA as probes, steady-state levels of DNA MeTase mRNA were found to decline sharply between 4 and 15 h after dbcAMP treatment. No DNA MeTase mRNA was detectable after 20 h of dbcAMP treatment. Nuclear run-on analysis showed there to be only a small (40%) suppression of DNA MeTase gene transcription in cells treated with dbcAMP for 24 h, implying a role for post-transcriptional processes in the regulation of DNA MeTase mRNA levels. The observed decline in DNA MeTase activity/mRNA levels appeared to precede the dbcAMP-induced arrest in DNA replication, as judged by the incorporation of tritiated thymidine into DNA. In contrast to the effect of dbcAMP, treatment of U937 cells with the phorbol ester 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol-13-acetate (TPA) led to an overall stimulation of DNA MeTase specific activity. The TPA response was found to be complex and broadly consisted of an early (0–15 h) burst of DNA MeTase activity followed by a more gradual sustained increase in DNA MeTase activity after prolonged (16–40 h) TPA treatment. The early phase of high DNA MeTase activity was not mirrored by an increase in steady-state levels of DNA MeTase mRNA, as judged by Northern blot analysis. However, a substantial induction of DNA MeTase mRNA levels was observed after 20–24 h of TPA treatment. Nuclear run-on analysis showed this not to be due to any significant increase in DNA MeTase gene transcription. The observed increases in DNA MeTase activity/mRNA levels were observed whilst cells were undergoing deproliferation. Interestingly, the addition of TPA and more physiological protein kinase C (PKC) activators, such as diacylglycerol and phosphatidylserine, to DNA MeTase-enriched nuclear extracts generated a 4·5-fold and a 1·5-fold increase in DNA MeTase specific activity respectively. The TPA-induced stimulation of DNA MeTase activity could be inhibited by the PKC inhibitor H-9, implicating a role for PKC in the regulation of DNA MeTase activity in vivo.


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