Apolipoprotein B messenger RNA editing in the rat liver. Modulation by fasting and refeeding a high carbohydrate diet.

Apolipoprotein B (apoB) mRNA is modified by a posttranscriptional editing reaction in which a single base (C to U) change in apoB100 mRNA modifies a glutamine (CAA) to a translational stop codon (UAA), producing apoB48 mRNA in mammalian intestine. Rat liver normally contains both edited and unedited apoB mRNAs and previous work (Davidson, N. O., Powell, L. M., Wallis, S. C., and Scott, J. (1988) J. Biol. Chem. 263, 13482-13485) has demonstrated that the introduction of a translational stop codon can be modulated by thyroid hormone. In the current study, hepatic lipogenesis was modulated in vivo by fasting and refeeding a high carbohydrate diet, a maneuver which produced a 30-fold increase in hepatic triglyceride content. In this setting, hepatic apoB100 synthesis became undetectable in animals subjected to 48 h fasting and subsequently refed a high carbohydrate diet for either 24 or 48 h. This change was accountable for by an increase in the proportion of edited apoB mRNA, as determined by primer extension analysis, from 37% UAA in fasted animals to 79 and 91% UAA at 24 and 48 h of refeeding, respectively. The effect of this regimen on the expression of other hepatic apolipoprotein genes was less dramatic. ApoA-I and apoA-IV gene expression was modulated over a 2-fold range, in contrast to the (6-14-fold) pretranslational changes induced by thyroid hormone administration. ApoCIII mRNA abundance was unaltered in the setting of either fasting and refeeding or thyroid hormone administration, while apoE gene expression demonstrated a pretranslational increase following prolonged fasting. Taken together the data provide evidence that apoB mRNA editing is modulated by alterations in hepatic lipogenesis which additionally produce effects on the expression of other hepatic apolipoprotein genes suggesting that they are not coordinately regulated in vivo.