Alterations in membrane permeability with trypsin treatment.

Trypsin treatment of Ehrlich cells reduced sodium-coupled amino acid transport, lowered ATP levels, and abolished cation gradients. The data suggest that the decrease in active amino acid transport results from an alteration in membrane permeability caused by DNA released from a fraction of the cells upon trypsin treatment. The reduced amino acid transport appears to be the result of an abolition of ion gradients required for transport since vesicles prepared from these cells show near normal transport activity. The altered permeability of the membrane can be restored by incubation of the cells with serum. Protein synthesis does not appear to play a role in the restoration of Na+-dependent amino acid transport since restoration is unaffected by the presence of cycloheximide. The recovery of activity does depend partly on the presence of Ca2+ in the incubation medium since reversal of the trypsin inhibition of glycine transport can be obtained on incubation with Ca2+ and glucose.