Absence of albumin mRNA in the liver of analbuminemic rats.

Albumin synthesis in the liver of analbuminemic rats, established as a strain from a stock of Sprague-Dawley rats, was examined in vivo by labeling protein by intraperitoneal injection of L-[3H]leucine. Albumin was not synthesized in the liver of analbuminemic rats, whereas its synthesis amounted to about 14% of the total protein synthesis in the liver of normal rats. The RNA content and size distribution of the total polysomes in the liver of analbuminemic rats were not significantly different from those of normal rats. However, no functional mRNA coding for albumin was found in poly(A)-containing RNA from the liver of analbuminemic rats when tested with a cell-free translation system derived from rabbit reticulocytes. Moreover, the amount of the RNA sequence that could hybridize to purified albumin cDNA was more than 750 times greater in the liver of normal rats than in that of analbuminemic rats.