Degradation of proteins synthesized in the presence of cycloheximide in normal and transformed fibroblasts.

Monolayer cultures of 3T3 and WI-38 fibroblasts were pulse labeled with radioactive leucine in the presence of cycloheximide. The rate of protein degradation was measured and compared with that of SV-40 virus transformed cells. The results clearly show that normal and transformed cells have essentially identical rates of degradation of proteins synthesized in the presence of cycloheximide. These findings indicate that the lower rates of protein degradation observed in some transformed cells is not a general rule.