Quantitative cryoimmunogold electron microscopic studies on induction of serine: pyruvate aminotransferase in rat liver mitochondria by administration of glucagon.

Induction of mitochondrial serine: pyruvate aminotransferase (SPT) in rat liver by administration of glucagon was studied quantitatively by immunoblot analysis and cryoimmunogold electron microscopy. Immunoblot analysis revealed that two daily injections of glucagon produced marked increase of SPT protein mass to a level as much as 18 times that of the untreated rat. Cryoimmunogold electron microscopic analysis showed that the labeling density of the mitochondria increased in a parallel manner. Thus the induction of SPT analyzed by two methods showed an excellent correlation with a relative correlation coefficient of 0.98, indicating that the induction of SPT can be analyzed quantitatively by immunogold electron microscopy on cryoultrathin sections.