Altered amounts of hemoglobin synthesis in livers of dystrophic hamsters.

In liver supernatants similar amounts of leucine are incorporated into proteins of normal and dystrophic hamsters. However, using a dual labeling technique, a protein fraction is detected which shows different levels of leucine incorporation between normal and dystrophic animals in an age-dependent fashion. The major protein in this fraction comigrates with hemoglobin or its subunits under various conditions of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In animals younger than 3 days there is more synthesis of this protein fraction in dystrophic animals, while at 6 days there is considerably less synthesis of this protein. These changes are paralleled by differences in the number of erythroid foci in histological sections of the livers. There is no evidence for structurally altered hemoglobin in dystrophic hamsters. The significance of this finding and its possible relation to the dystrophy process are not known at present.