Effects of tertiary amine local anesthetics on the assembly and disassembly of brain microtubules in vitro.

From kinetic and electron microscopy studies on the effects of procaine, tetracaine and dibucaine on the polymerization and depolymerization of the microtubules isolated from pig and rat brains the following results were obtained. 1. Procaine or tetracaine, at the concentration range of 0.5--20 mM and of 0.5--5 mM respectively, increases the rate of tubulin polymerization (24 degrees C or 37 degrees C) and of microtubule depolymerization (4 degrees C) as a linear function of the concentration of the anesthetics, while identical amounts of microtubules are formed. In the absence of microtubule-associated proteins the polymerization of tubulin is not induced by 10 mM procaine, furthermore, the critical concentration of microtubule proteins necessary for assembly into microtubules is not affected at this concentration level of the anesthetic. This suggests that procaine affects not the nucleation, but rather the elongation process. 2. Dibucaine, from 0.5 mM to 3 mM increases the lag time of the polymerization reaction, while from 0.5 mM to 2 mM it linearly decreases both tubulin polymerization (24 degrees C) and microtubule depolymerization (4 degrees C) rates. Dibucaine, up to mM concentration, does not affect the extent of tubulin polymerization; however, above this concentration it induces the formation of amorphous aggregates. 3. Procaine or tetracaine enhances the depolymerizing effect of calcium on microtubules. The half-maximal values for the depolymerizing effect of calcium were 0.96, 0.71 and 0.51 mM for the control, in the presence of 10 mM procaine and 5 mM tetracaine respectively.