Evaluation of anorexia as the cause of altered protein synthesis in skeletal muscles from nongrowing mice with sarcoma.

The importance of decreased food intake as the mechanism behind altered protein metabolism in skeletal muscle in cancer was evaluated. A methylcholanthrene-induced sarcoma (MCG 101) transplanted in weight-stable and nongrowing mice (C57BL/6J) was used as the tumor-animal model. Three study groups with appropriate control groups were used: sarcoma-bearing mice; pair-fed mice; and starved mice. The synthesis of myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic proteins was decreased in sarcoma-bearing mice. This was correlated to decreased content of RNA in the muscles and caused a net loss of muscle tissue was measured by dry weight of skeletal muscles. The incorporation rate of amino acids into myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic proteins was decreased to the same extent in the pair-fed mice as that in the sarcoma-bearing mice. This probably reflected decreased protein synthesis, since the radioactivity (dpm/mg) did not differ significantly in the crude transfer RNA fraction between the groups. Separation of soluble proteins from muscle tissue by means of ion-exchange chromatography showed that the pattern of decreased protein synthesis was not tumor specific when compared to muscle affected by starvation. The decrease in protein synthesis was more or less selective, since the synthesis of basic proteins was considerably decreased and was influenced more than were neutral and acidic proteins in both cancer and starvation. Anorexia of a tumor-bearing host is a sufficient trigger to induce decreased protein synthesis in skeletal muscles, but other factors may also be of quantitative importance.