In vitro synthesis of polypeptides of moderately large size by poly(A)-containing messenger RNA from postmortem human brain and mouse brain.

Studies were undertaken to optimize the conditions for isolation and in vitro translation of poly(A)-containing mRNA from human postmortem brain. The comparison of several methods for preparation of mRNA from frozen mouse brain indicated that although the yield of mRNA was increased using polysomes prepared in the presence of ribonucleoside vanadyl complexes and subsequently extracted with guanidinium thiocyanate, the translation products were indistinguishable from those synthesized by total cellular RNA directly extracted from tissue with guanidinium thiocyanate. The oligo d(T)-cellulose-purified poly(A)-containing mRNA preparations were translated in vitro in a rabbit reticulocyte lysate in the presence of L-[35S]methionine. Messenger RNA from frozen mouse brain stimulated protein synthesis from 9- to 20-fold over endogenous mRNA. Over 450 polypeptides were reproducibly synthesized and separated by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE); size classes up to 130,000 daltons were present. Direct extraction of RNA from frozen human cerebral cortex and cerebellum with guanidinium thiocyanate followed by oligo d(T)-cellulose chromatography yielded 1.8 micrograms/g and 2.0 micrograms/g, respectively, of poly(A)-containing mRNA; this represents a two- to fourfold increase over our earlier results. In the rabbit reticulocyte translation system human brain mRNA stimulated protein synthesis nearly threefold over endogenous mRNA. Compared with earlier studies, the number of newly synthesized polypeptides was increased by 30%. Over 300 species were separated by two-dimensional PAGE, and size classes up to 130,000 daltons were present, as compared to 70,000 in an earlier report. The polypeptides synthesized by human cerebral cortex and cerebellum were indistinguishable. However, several appeared to be uniquely human when compared with the products synthesized by mouse brain mRNA. The method described for the preparation of postmortem human brain mRNA eliminates the need to prepare polysomes, which are recovered in variable and low yield from the postmortem human brain. The procedure appears applicable to studies on the synthesis of moderately large human brain polypeptides and for investigations of brain protein polymorphism when relatively large numbers of products are required for analysis.