Synthesis and renewal of proteins in duck anterior hypophysis in organ culture.

In cultures of duck anterior pituitaries, the synthesis and renewal of the specific secretory protein prolactin and of total newly synthesized tissue proteins were studied. As concerns prolactin, assay of the tissue and culture media hormone content demonstrates de novo synthesis of prolactin in vitro at a constant rate during at least 2 wk. The prolactin content after 1 wk and after 2 wk of culture is the same and is similar to the initial content. The renewal time of this prolactin can be estimated at 28 or 48 hr. As concerns total proteins, the use of a chase after a short pulse of 5 min in the presence of tritiated L-leucine demonstrated that newly synthesized proteins are excreted into the culture medium from 30 min to 1 hr after the beginning of the chase. Therefore, the synthesis and excretion of proteins are two discontinuous phenomena. The migration rate of the total proteins was slower than that of prolactin, indicating that this hormone does not represent more than about half of the newly synthesized proteins. These conclusions are in good agreement with those based on high resolution radioautographic data previously obtained on the same material.