Protein synthesis in dystrophic muscle. Activity of the pH 5 supernatant fraction of muscle in dystrophic mice.

The pH 5 supernatant fractions prepared from homogenates of tissues of normal and dystrophic mice were used to study the incorporation of [14C]phenylalanyl-tRNA into peptide. The incorpoation was markedly reduced using the muscle pH 5 supernatant fraction from dystrophic animals but no reduction was seen with brain, liver or heart preparations from dystrophic mice. The lower incorporation with dystrophic muscle pH 5 supernatant was not due to altered activity of ribonuclease, elongation factors, proteolytic enzymes, GTP or sulfhydryl reagents, but was attributable to the presence of activity that was inhibitory to protein synthesis.