Comparative studies on tryptophan binding to hepatic nuclear envelopes in Sprague-Dawley and Lewis rats.

Since Lewis rats are susceptible to many inflammatory diseases and have been used in an experimental model of the eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome, we investigated whether Lewis rats would respond to L-tryptophan as have Sprague-Dawley rats reported earlier. In this comparative study using females of both strains, we observed a decrease in the affinity of in vitro L-tryptophan binding to hepatic nuclei and nuclear envelopes of Lewis rats compared with Sprague-Dawley rats. However, in vivo stimulatory effects of administering L-tryptophan on hepatic polyribosomal aggregation, protein synthesis, and nuclear RNA release were similar in both strains. In vitro [3H]tryptophan binding to hepatic nuclear envelopes, using L-tryptophan implicated in cases of the eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome, revealed less specific binding than when using nonimplicated L-tryptophan in both strains. The possible significance of the quantitative difference in the binding affinity of L-tryptophan to hepatic nuclei of Lewis rats compared with those of Sprague-Dawley rats is as yet undetermined.