Measurement of biosynthetic rates and intracellular transit times for a cell-surface membrane glycoprotein, alkaline phosphatase in HeLa cells.

The techniques for measurement of biosynthetic rates and intracellular transit times of an integral membrane protein isoenzyme have now been validated. Thus, induction of placental alkaline phosphatase in cultured HeLa cells by prednisolone and by butyrate is shown to result in its increased biosynthesis as measured by uptake of [35S]methionine into immunoprecipitated cell-surface placental alkaline phosphatase. The cell-surface placental alkaline phosphatase is liberated from the cells by proteolytic cleavage by bromelain, which results in a decrease of the placental alkaline phosphatase subunit mass from 64,000 to 62,000 daltons. The time of transit of new placental alkaline phosphatase molecules from their ribosomal site of synthesis to their terminal cell-surface, bromelain-sensitive site is approximately 55 min. This system may be useful in studies of regulation of intracellular protein processing and transport to the cell surface of proteins destined to become integral membrane proteins.