Published in Volume
50, Issue 3 (March 1971)
J Clin Invest. 1971;50(3):543–551.
doi:10.1172/JCI106523.
Copyright ©
1971, The American Society for
Clinical Investigation.
Articles
Kinetics of RNA synthesis in toad bladder epithelium: action of aldosterone during the latent period
Pavel Van̆cra, Geoffrey W. G. Sharp and Ronald A. Malt
Surgical and Medical Services, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114Department of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114
Published March 1971
Processing of RNA in the toad bladder was analyzed by polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis to determine whether aldosterone causes any changes in the 1 hr before it potentiates transport of sodium ion. No change was found in the quantity or in the specific activity of bulk RNA labeled with uridine-5-3H. In vivo and in vitro with either uridine-5-3H or with methionine-(methyl)-3H as precursors, processing of RNA was extremely slow. Heterodisperse RNA was obvious after 30 min of continuous labeling, but labeling of the 40S precursor of ribosomal RNA was not apparent for 60 min. Labeling of mature 28S and 18S RNA first became apparent after 8 hr. ∼7S RNA was the principal fastmigrating species labeled at 30 min, and 4S RNA was not heavily labeled until 1 hr. Aldosterone (5 × 10-7 mole/liter) produced no changes. If care were not taken to inhibit metabolism of native bacteria colonizing the bladder, bacterial RNA of high specific activity predominated. We conclude that RNA metabolism in the toad bladder is extraordinarily slow, that a major acceleration of de novo synthesis in response to physiologic doses of aldosterone was not demonstrable, and that some reports to the contrary may have been influenced by artifacts from bacterial RNA metabolism. Earlier evidence for obligatory alterations in RNA metabolism during the latent period is not strong.
Browse pages
Click on an image below to see the page. View
PDF of the complete article