Incorporation of radioactive amino acids into protein in isolated rat hepatocytes.

The incorporation of radioactivity from a 14C-labelled amino acid mixture (algal protein hydrolysate) into protein in isolated rat hepatocytes has been studied. The incorporation rate declined with increasing cell concentration, an effect which could be explained partly by isotope consumption, partly (and largely) by isotope dilution due to the formation of non-labelled amino acids by the cells. At a high extracellular amino acid concentration, the rate of incorporation into protein became independent of cell concentration, because the isotope dilution effect was now quantitatively insignificant. The time course of protein labelling at various cells concentrations correlated better with the intracellular than with the extracellular amino acid specific activity, suggesting that amino acids for protein synthesis were taken from an intracellular pool. With increasing extracellular amino acid concentrations both the intracellular amino acid concentration, the intracellular radioactivity and the rate of incorporation into protein increased. Protein labelling exhibited a distinct time lag at high amino acid concentrations, presumably reflecting the time-dependent expansion of the intracellular amino acid pool. The gradual increase in the rate of protein labelling could be due either to an increased intracellular specific activity, or to a real stimulation of protein synthesis by amino acids, depending on whether the total intracellular amino acid pool or just the expandable compartment is the precursor pool for protein synthesis.