Protein synthesis in rat brain following neonatal exposure to lead.

(1) Suckling rats were exposed to lead through the milk of their dams who received a diet of 4% lead carbonate and weanling rats were exposed to 2 injections of 5.0 mg Pb2+/100 g body weight. The brains were used to prepare the following homogenate fractions: postmitochondrial supernatant, postmicrosomal supernatant, ribosomes, initiation factors. (2) The postmitochondrial supernatant fractions were tested in vitro for protein synthesizing activity using the incorporation of labelled phenylalanine, and phenylalanyl-tRNA into peptide. The preparations from the lead-exposed rats had a significant reduction in activity. (3) Peptide formation with the brain ribosomes was not changed in the lead-exposed rats. (4) The aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase reaction was significantly reduced and accounted for most of the reduced peptide formation with brain homogenates from lead-exposed rats. (5) The binding of methionyl-tRNAfMet to ribosomes was increased using initiation factor preparations from the brain of lead-exposed rats.