In vivo study of developmental changes in carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase I in rat liver. Repression of the enzyme synthesis immediately after birth.

The regulatory mechanism of the developmental increase of carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase I in fetal and neonatal rat liver was studied in vivo. The appearance and rapid increase of the enzyme in late fetal period were caused by de novo synthesis of the enzyme protein. The amount of the enzyme protein analyzed by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was proportional to the enzyme activity throughout the period of development. No indication was observed for preexisting protein which could be converted into the active protein. A novel system for the in vivo study of carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase I synthesis was developed. Hepatocytes, mechanically dispersed by repeated passage of the tissue through a pipet, incorporated [35S]methionine into the enzyme. Taking advantage of this system, the regulation of the enzyme synthesis was studied. In vivo synthesis of the enzyme was detected at 4 days before birth and rapidly increased until 1 day before birth. However, the enzyme synthesis was markedly repressed after birth, when the amount of carmamoyl-phosphate synthetase I itself reached the adult level. This result was in a clear contrast with the constant level of the translatable mRNA (Raymond, Y. and Shore, G.C. (1981) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 656, 111-119) and suggested that post-transcriptional regulation is important in addition to the level of mRNA for the regulation of the carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase I level.