Effect of convulsions of the synthesis of heterogeneous nuclear RNA associated with polyadenylate and oligoadenylate sequences from El mouse brain as a convulsive strain.

Animals from the El (susceptible to seizures) and ddy (nonsusceptible) mouse strains were subjected to vestibular stimulation by tossing. After convulsions in the El mice, both the stimulated El mice and ddY mice were intracranially injected with [14C]- and [3H]adenosine, respectively. In the control experiment, nonstimulated El and ddY mice received radioactive adenosines in the same manner. The rate of incorporation of adenosine into brain nuclear RNA, expressed as a percentage of the 3H; 14C ratio, was reduced to an average of 68% at 15 min after convulsions, then increased and reached a control value at 5 h. This reduction in nuclear RNA synthesis was not due to alteration of the adenosine triphosphate pool. Gel electrophoresis of RNA revealed no obvious differences in the labeling distribution between El and ddY mice, but the synthesis of RNA species larger than 35S in heterogeneous nuclear RNA (HnRNA) was impaired in convulsed El mice. Nuclear resistant segments of HnRNA with both T1 RNase and RNase A, were chromatographed with poly(U)-Sepharose followed by urea-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The ologo(A) and poly(A) segments consisted of 29, 19, and 11, and 203, 135, and 69 nucleotides, respectively. The convulsions of El mice reduced the incorporation of radioactive adenosines into oligo(A) and poly(A) segments, suggesting that they inhibited transcription as well as polyadenylation within HnRNA.