scholarly journals Immunocytochemical identification of phenylalanine hydroxylase and albumin in cultured hepatoma cells and isolated rat hepatocytes.

1981 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
R E Baker ◽  
L S Jefferson ◽  
R Shiman

Rhodamine-conjugated antibodies specific for phenylalanine hydroxylase and serum albumin were employed as cytochemical probes to identify these two proteins in H4 hepatoma cells and in isolated rat hepatocytes. Each fluorescent antibody stained the cells specifically and in a distinctive manner. In both cell types, albumin staining was discretely localized in cytoplasmic and in H4 cultures varied somewhat from cell to cell. Evidence from cultures of REB15 cells, a strain derived by cloning H4 cells in tyrosine-free medium, suggested that the staining variability of H4 cells could reflect a variability in phenylalanine hydroxylase content. Hydrocortisone-treated H4 cells and REB15 cultures contain increased amounts of phenylalanine hydroxylase; and all cells in the culture appear to be induced by the hormone. Evidence was presented to show that the albumin visualized within the isolated hepatocytes had been synthesized by these cells, and, furthermore, that quantitatively nearly all intracellular albumin in the isolated rat hepatocytes appeared to be entrained in the secretion pathway (analogous data already exist for H4 cells [Baker, R.E., and R. Shiman. 1979. J. Biol. Chem. 254:9633-9639]). By scoring specific fluorescence, 86 and 98% of the H4 cells and 89 and 98% of the isolated hepatocytes were found to contain phenylalanine hydroxylase and albumin, respectively. Therefore, almost all cells in each population appeared to synthesize both proteins. An implication of these findings is that in rat virtually all liver parenchymal cells must synthesize both phenylalanine hydroxylase and albumin.

1990 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 657-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Gariepy ◽  
Daphna Fenyves ◽  
Jean-Luc Petit ◽  
Ginette Raymond ◽  
Jean-Pierre Villeneuve

Several recent reports have shown that the hepatic uptake and subsequent elimination of some substrates is faster in the presence of albumin than in its absence, as if some of the substrate bound to albumin was also available for uptake. In the present study, we examined the effect of albumin on the clearance of propranolol by isolated rat hepatocyte suspensions. The clearance of total drug decreased progressively as albumin concentration increased. There was also a progressive decrease in the free fraction of propranolol and the net result was an increase in the clearance of unbound drug (+50% at 40 g/L albumin). This increase was not due to an oncotic pressure effect of albumin, nor to the presence of fatty acids bound to albumin. The clearance of propranolol by isolated hepatocytes from cirrhotic rats was decreased compared with controls (−50%), and albumin also increased propranolol free clearance, albeit to a lesser extent than in control animals. Our results indicate that albumin facilitates the elimination of propranolol by hepatocytes, possibly because of surface-mediated catalysis of the albumin–propranolol complexes.Key words: propranolol clearance, albumin, isolated rat hepatocytes, cirrhosis.


1979 ◽  
Vol 236 (1) ◽  
pp. C9-C14 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Iga ◽  
D. L. Eaton ◽  
C. D. Klaassen

The mechanism responsible for the hepatic uptake of unconjugated bilirubin was examined in isolated rat hepatocytes from control and phenobartital-pretreated rats. The uptake was extremely rapid and the equilibrium between cell and medium was attained within 60 s with a 100-fold higher concentration in the cell than the medium. The initial velocity of uptake (Vo) exhibited a linear relationship to the bilirubin concentration in the medium. Pretreatment of cells with various metabolic inhibitors had no effect on the uptake of unconjugated bilirubin. Ouabain did significantly decrease Vo, but replacement of sodium ion with choline or lithium had no effect on bilirubin uptake. The organic acids sulfobromophthalein (112 muM) and taurocholic acid (50 (muM) and two steroidal compounds, diethylstilbestrol (50 muM) and spironolactone (50 muM), had no effect on the uptake of bilirubin. It is suggested that bilirubin gains access to the hepatocyte interior by passive diffusion into and through the lipid membrane and that intracellular binding may explain the high degree of bilirubin accumulation associated with the isolated hepatocytes.


1987 ◽  
Vol 243 (3) ◽  
pp. 655-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
P B Gordon ◽  
H Høyvik ◽  
P O Seglen

Measurements of sugar pinocytosis (fluid-phase endocytosis of radiolabelled sucrose, lactose and raffinose) in freshly isolated rat hepatocytes are disturbed by sugar diffusing into the cells through plasma-membrane blebs. Non-pinocytic entry may be even more pronounced at 0 degrees C, and is a major contributor to ‘background’ radioactivity. By electrodisruption of the plasma membrane, a distinction can be made between pinocytotically sequestered sugar and free sugar that has entered the cytosol by diffusion. Pinocytosis proceeds at a rate of 2%/h (relative to the intracellular fluid volume), whereas the rate of sucrose entry by diffusion is more than twice as high. Three pinocytotic compartments are distinguishable in isolated hepatocytes: (1) a rapidly recycling compartment, which is completely destroyed by electrodisruption, and which may represent pinocytic channels continuous with the plasma membrane; (2) a non-recycling (or very slowly recycling) electrodisruption-resistant compartment, which allows accumulation of the lysosomally hydrolysable sugar lactose, and which therefore must represent non-lysosomal vacuoles (endosomes?); (3) a lysosomal compartment (non-recycling, electrodisruption-resistant), which accumulates raffinose and sucrose, but which hydrolyses lactose. The last two compartments can be partially resolved in metrizamide/sucrose density gradients by the use of different sugar probes.


1995 ◽  
Vol 310 (3) ◽  
pp. 893-896 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Tinton ◽  
P Buc-Calderon

Previous work has shown that extracellular adenosine inhibits the incorporation of radiolabelled leucine into proteins in isolated rat hepatocytes [Tinton, Lefebvre, Cousin and Buc Calderon (1993) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1176, 1-6]. In this study, we investigated whether its metabolism into adenine nucleotides, inosine or S-adenosylhomocysteine (AdoHcy) is required to induce such an impairment. Incubation of isolated hepatocytes in the presence of adenosine at 0.5 or 1 mM reduces the synthesis of proteins by about 45% after 120 min of incubation. Such an inhibition occurred without cell lysis and was not modified by adding the adenosine kinase inhibitor 5-iodotubercidin (15 microM) or the adenosine deaminase inhibitor coformycin (0.1 microM). It is therefore unlikely that the anabolic and catabolic pathways of adenosine are involved in the inhibition of protein synthesis. Adenosine (1 mM) increased the level of AdoHcy and S-adenosylmethionine by 20- and 5-fold respectively after 60 min of incubation and reduced the methylation index. These events as well as the inhibition of protein synthesis were strongly enhanced in the presence of L-homocysteine (2 mM). It is therefore concluded that the metabolism of adenosine into AdoHcy, which is known to be a potent inhibitor of cellular methylation reactions, may play an important role in the control of translation.


1986 ◽  
Vol 238 (1) ◽  
pp. 263-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
F De Matteis ◽  
C Harvey ◽  
S R Martin

Isolated rat hepatocytes incubated with two suicide substrates of cytochrome P-450, 2-allyl-2-isopropylacetamide and 3,5-diethoxycarbonyl-4-ethyl-1,4-dihydro-2,6-dimethylpyridine(4-ethyl-DD C), convert exogenous mesohaem and deuterohaem into N-alkylated mesoporphyrins and deuteroporphyrins respectively. The N-alkylated mesoporphyrins can be separated by h.p.l.c. from the corresponding N-alkylated protoporphyrins originating from endogenous haem; in this way the contribution of both endogenous and exogenous pools of haem can be studied in the same experiment. N-Alkylated mesoporphyrin exhibits chiral properties, and its isomeric composition and/or amount are dependent on the particular cytochrome P-450 enzyme predominating in the cell. These findings provide additional and more direct evidence that exchangeable haem is taken up by cytochrome P-450 before being N-alkylated.


1980 ◽  
Vol 190 (3) ◽  
pp. 615-619 ◽  
Author(s):  
R L Clark ◽  
R J Hansen

The incorporation of [3H]leucine into soluble cellular protein was measured in isolated hepatocytes at extracellular leucine concentrations ranging from 0.15 to 20.0 mM. Insulin caused a 12—15% stimulation of [3H]leucine incorporation in the presence of high extracellular leucine concentrations. It is concluded that insulin causes a small but significant increase in the rate of hepatic protein synthesis.


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