Studies on the toxicity and binding kinetics of abrin in normal and Epstein-Barr virus-transformed lymphocyte culture-I. Experimental results - 4.

The effects of treatment with varying doses of abrin, a D-galactose binding lectin, on DNA and protein synthesis of normal and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-transformed lymphocytes have been previously investigated. Using data on EBV-transformed lymphocyte cell density as a function of both time and dose of abrin, the authors introduced the concept of self- and cross-coupling metabolic variables as a means of understanding how abrin affected DNA and protein uptake. In this paper, the self-coupling constant is studied in more detail and the relationship between DNA and protein synthesis is further expanded. We find that there is a significant linear relationship between DNA and protein synthesis in normal lymphocyte culture as measured by abrin interaction in the culture. We further find that there is a much stronger relationship between these variables in EBV-transformed lymphocyte culture. This relationship is further examined, and possible analytic equations are expressed.