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Biomedical subjects

H E Morgan

Publications and source records attributed to H E Morgan.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Aortic pressure as a determinant of cardiac protein degradation.

Mechanical parameters and intracellular mediators that may control protein degradation were studied in isolated rat hearts subjected to increased aortic pressure. Elevation of aortic pressure from 60 to 120 mmHg in Langendorff preparations provided glucose or pyruvate as substrate decreased the rate of protein degradation during the second hour of perfusion. Intracellular contents of ATP or creatine phosphate or the creatine phosphate/creatine ratio did not indicate that energy depletion accounted for these effects. When ventricular pressure development was prevented by ventricular draining, and hearts were arrested with tetrodotoxin, protein degradation still decreased as aortic pressure was raised. The effect of elevated aortic pressure on proteolysis was unchanged when perfusate calcium concentrations were 0.6, 3.0, or 5.1 mM, or when indomethacin or meclofenamate was added to the perfusion buffer. These results provided no evidence to indicate that intraventricular pressure development or cardiac contraction was responsible for the inhibitory effect of increased aortic pressure on protein degradation. Instead, they suggested that stretch of the ventricular wall, as a consequence of increased aortic pressure, could be the mechanical parameter most closely related to the restraint on proteolysis. No evidence was obtained that the lower rate of degradation depended on energy or calcium availability or prostaglandin synthesis.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗

Effect of intraventricular pressure on protein synthesis in arrested rat hearts.

A modification of the Langendorff technique for perfusion of rat hearts was developed to allow a constant intraventricular pressure to be imposed on the left ventricle of arrested-catheterized hearts. This model was used to assess effects of increased aortic (60 and 120 mmHg) and intraventricular (0 and 25 mmHg) pressures on the rate of protein synthesis between 70 and 130 min of perfusion and on contents of ATP and creatine phosphate (creatine-P) in ventricles. Rates of protein synthesis in atria also were measured. Increased intraventricular or aortic pressure elevated the rate of protein synthesis (41%) compared with hearts supplied an aortic pressure of 60 mmHg and an intraventricular pressure of 0 mmHg. Higher intraventricular pressure also decreased the ribosomal subunit content. No change in the rate of protein synthesis was observed when intraventricular pressure was raised in hearts supplied an aortic pressure of 120 mmHg. Rates of atrial protein synthesis and contents of ATP and creatine-P were unchanged by elevations of either intraventricular or aortic pressure. These experiments indicate that stretch of the ventricular wall due to higher intraventricular or aortic pressure accelerated protein synthesis by maintaining the in vivo balance between rates of peptide chain initiation and elongation.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗

Mechanical factors affecting protein turnover in isolated rat hearts.

Induction of cardiac work increased protein synthesis in hearts supplied glucose or a mixture simulating normal plasma levels of glucose, insulin, glucagon, lactate, and beta-hydroxybutyrate. During 2 h of perfusion, cardiac work did not accelerate protein synthesis in hearts supplied a mixture of glucose, lactate, and higher concentrations of insulin. Protein degradation was decreased by work in hearts supplied glucose. Nitrogen balance was negative in Langendorff-perfused hearts provided glucose, but was less so in working preparations. Nitrogen balance was zero or positive in working hearts provided the mixture simulating plasma or the mixture of glucose, lactate, and insulin. In Langendorff preparations, increased aortic pressure accelerated protein synthesis during the second hour of perfusion in hearts supplied glucose, glucose plus insulin, or pyruvate. When ventricular pressure development was prevented by ventricular draining or when drained hearts were arrested with tetrodotoxin, protein synthesis still increased as perfusion pressure was raised from 60 to 120 mm Hg. Oxygen consumption increased as aortic pressure was increased in drained, beating hearts, but was unaffected in arrested, drained hearts. These studies indicated that increased aortic pressure and its attendant stretch of the ventricular wall were the mechanical parameter most closely associated with faster rates of protein synthesis.

Animals↗

Dependence of protein synthesis on aortic pressure and calcium availability.

Increased aortic pressure accelerated protein synthesis in control-beating and arrested-drained hearts supplied with either glucose or pyruvate. Elevation of perfusion pressure from 60 to 120 mm Hg increased oxygen consumption in control-beating but not in arrested-drained preparations. Energy availability, as assessed by adenylate energy charge or creatine phosphate/creatine ratio, or both, was increased in arrested-drained hearts supplied with glucose and perfused at 60 and 120 mm Hg aortic pressure. In control-beating or arrested-drained hearts supplied with pyruvate, energy availability was not improved by elevation of aortic pressure from 60 to 120 mm Hg. An increase of perfusate calcium concentration from 0.5 to 5.0 mM in control-beating Langendorff preparations supplied with glucose and perfused at an aortic pressure of 90 mm Hg doubled oxygen consumption and decreased energy availability, but had no effect on the rate of protein synthesis. In arrested-drained hearts supplied with either glucose or pyruvate and calcium concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 5.0 mM, the rates at 120 mm Hg aortic pressure were 11-25% higher than at 60 mm Hg. These findings provide no evidence to implicate increased oxidative metabolism, energy availability, or extracellular calcium concentration as important factors in the mechanism that accounts for the effects of increased aortic pressure on protein synthesis.

Animals↗

Faster protein and ribosome synthesis in thyroxine-induced hypertrophy of rat heart.

Rates of protein synthesis and degradation were measured in hearts from normal and thyroxine-injected rats that were perfused as working preparations with Krebs-Henseleit bicarbonate buffer containing 400 microU insulin/ml, 2 mM lactate, 10 mM glucose, and normal plasma concentrations of amino acids. Hearts were perfused after four daily injections (1 microgram/g body wt) of thyroxine. Protein synthesis was 24% greater in hypertrophying hearts compared with controls; ribosomal RNA content increased 25%. In addition, the proportion of total RNA in free ribosomal subunits in hypertrophying hearts was unchanged from perfused hearts of control rats and from unperfused normal hearts. These results indicated that increased protein synthetic machinery as monitored by content of ribosomes, rather than more efficient initiation or elongation of peptide chains, accounted for the faster rate of protein synthesis in hypertrophying hearts. Rates of protein degradation were the same in hearts from thyroxine-injected and control animals. When rates of ribosome production were measured in vitro at various times after a single injection of thyroxine in vivo, faster ribosome synthesis was detected within 8 h; no change in the rate of total protein synthesis occurred after a single injection of thyroxine. These studies indicated that accelerated ribosome formation was an early and quantitatively important factor in cardiac hypertrophy.

Adenine Nucleotides↗

Faster protein and ribosome synthesis in hypertrophying heart.

Faster rates of protein synthesis in hypertrophying rat heart were associated with a 25% greater content of ribosomal RNA, termed capacity for protein synthesis. Efficiency of synthesis, nmol phenylalanine/mg RNA X h, was unchanged in hypertrophy induced by aortic banding or thyrotoxicosis. The proportion of total RNA in free ribosomal subunits in hypertrophying hearts was unchanged from that observed in perfused hearts from control rats and from unperfused normal hearts. Accelerated synthesis of new ribosomes was observed within 8 h of the injection of a pharmacologic dose of thyroxine, well before an increase in whole heart protein synthesis was observed. These results indicated that increased protein synthetic machinery, as monitored by content of ribosomes, rather than more efficient initiation or elongation of peptide chains, accounted for the faster rate of protein synthesis and that accelerated ribosome formation was an early and quantitatively important factor in hypertrophy.

Animals↗

Effects of noncarbohydrate substrates on protein synthesis in hearts from fed and fasted rats.

An overnight fast reduced RNA content and resulted in lower rates and efficiency of protein synthesis when rat hearts were perfused in vitro and supplied glucose as oxidizable substrate. Decreased efficiency of synthesis was associated with development of a block in peptide chain initiation in hearts of both fed and fasted rats. Provision of pyruvate increased the rate and efficiency of protein synthesis in fasted but not fed tissue, and partially overcame the initiation block in both groups. A mixture of glucose, pyruvate and insulin increased the efficiency of protein synthesis and decreased ribosomal subunit content to similar values in both groups of hearts. Noncarbohydrate substrates, including pyruvate, lactate, acetoacetate and beta-hydroxybutyrate, supported higher rates of protein synthesis than glucose in hearts of fasted, but not fed rats. However, mixtures of glucose and either pyruvate, acetoacetate or beta-hydroxybutyrate increased the synthetic rate in fed tissue. Provision of noncarbohydrate substrates increased energy availability, as indicated by higher creatine-P/creatine ratios in both groups of hearts, but the synthetic rate increased as a function of creatine-P/creatine ratio only in the fasted tissue. Octanoate and leucine accelerated protein synthesis and increased energy availability in the fed tissue. The mixtures of glucose and noncarbohydrate substrates or octanoate elevated glucose-6-P content. These studies indicate that an overnight fast decreased the capacity for protein synthesis and modified the regulation of synthesis by noncarbohydrate substrates.

3-Hydroxybutyric Acid↗

Aortic pressure, substrate utilization and protein synthesis.

An increase in aortic pressure from 60 to 120 mmHg in Langendorff perfused hearts increased oxygen consumption, glucose utilization, pyruvate oxidation and protein synthesis. These changes were not prevented by insertion of a ventricular drain that prevented intraventricular pressure development. Arrest of the heart with tetrodotoxin markedly reduced oxygen consumption; under these conditions an elevation of aortic pressure did not increase oxygen consumption. Elevation of aortic pressure in arrested-drained preparations supplied either glucose or pyruvate as oxidizable substrate increased protein synthesis to a comparable extent. Energy availability, as assessed by measurements of the creatine-P/creatine ratio, increased as aortic pressure was raised in hearts provided glucose, but not pyruvate, suggesting that greater energy availability was not the factor linking higher aortic pressure to faster rates of synthesis. These results focus attention on stretch of the ventricular wall, as the mechanical factor responsible for the effects of aortic pressure on several metabolic activities of the heart.

Animals↗

Aortic perfusion pressure as a determinant of cardiac protein synthesis.

Mechanical parameters and intracellular mediators that may control protein synthesis have been studied in isolated rat hearts subjected to increased aortic pressure or induced to perform cardiac work. Elevation of aortic pressure from 60 to 120 mmHg in Langendorff preparations with glucose, glucose plus insulin, or pyruvate raised the rate of protein synthesis during the 2nd h of perfusion. These effects involved faster rates of both peptide chain initiation and elongation. In working hearts supplied glucose or glucose plus insulin, higher rate of synthesis were observed in both the 1st and 2nd h of perfusion, compared with Langendorff preparations perfused at 60 mmHg. Intracellular levels of glucose 6-phosphate, ATP/ADP ratio, adenylate energy charge, or creatine phosphate/creatine did not correlate with the rate of protein synthesis in beating control hearts. When ventricular pressure development was prevented by ventricular draining and hearts were arrested with tetrodotoxin, protein synthesis still increased as a function of perfusion pressure. Oxygen consumption increased as aortic pressure was raised in beating-drained hearts but was unaffected in arrested-drained hearts. These results indicate that intraventricular pressure development, cardiac contraction, oxygen consumption, glucose 6-phosphate, energy availability, and coronary flow could be dissociated from the stimulatory effect of higher aortic pressures on protein synthesis and suggested that stretch of the ventricular wall, as a consequence of increased aortic pressure, could be the mechanical parameter most closely related to the increase in protein synthesis.

Animals↗

Differential effects of cysteine on protein and coenzyme A synthesis in rat heart.

The effect of cysteine availability on protein and coenzyme A (CoA) synthesis in perfused rat heart was incompletely evaluated in earlier experiments because rapid conversion of cysteine to cystine occurred when the perfusion buffer was oxygenated. This conversion was minimized by addition of an excess of reducing agents such as dithiothreitol or mercaptodextran or by provision of bathocuproine disulfonate, a copper chelator. Dithiothreitol was not a suitable protective agent because it reduced ATP and creatine phosphate contents. Perfusion of hearts with [35S]cystine or [35S]cysteine in the presence of mercaptodextran resulted in a 22-fold or 5-fold increase, respectively, in incorporation of [35S] into protein and a 5-fold or 8-fold increase, respectively, in incorporation into CoA compared with hearts supplied [35S]cystine or [35S]cysteine without the reducing agent. When compared with hearts perfused at an aortic pressure of 90 mmHg with bicarbonate buffer that contained 15 mM glucose, 25 mU insulin/ml, 0.4 mM [14C]phenylalanine, no cysteine and plasma levels of other amino acids, provision of 0.09 or 0.2 mM cysteine alone or in the presence of mercaptodextran, or bathocuproine disulfonate enhanced rates of protein synthesis 16-35%. When 0.2 mM cysteine was added to bicarbonate buffer containing 7 microM pantothenic acid, supplementation with mercaptodextran or bathocuproine disulfonate was required to raise CoA content. These results indicated that an exogenous supply of cysteine was needed to maintain maximal rates of protein and CoA synthesis in the perfused rat heart. Protective compounds were required to obtain the cysteine effect on CoA but not on protein synthesis.

Animals↗

Energy dependence of RNA degradation in rabbit reticulocytes.

RNA degradation in rabbit reticulocytes was partially energy dependent. Reticulocytes were incubated for 10 h in Krebs-Henseleit bicarbonate buffer that was gassed with 95% O2-5% CO2 and contained glucose (30 mM) or 2-deoxyglucose (20 mM) and 2,4-dinitrophenol (0.2 mM). The rate of RNA degradation was reduced 41% in the presence of the metabolic inhibitors. When the buffer was gassed with 95% N2-5% CO2 and no substrate was added, the disappearance of RNA was decreased 55%. The cellular ATP content was depleted either by addition of the metabolic inhibitors or by incubation under anoxic conditions. ATP depletion did not modify the ratio of ribosomal subunits + monomers to polysomes. Puromycin and cycloheximide, which increased or decreased, respectively, the proportion of ribosomal RNA in subunits + monomers, blocked protein synthesis but did not alter the rate of RNA degradation. These experiments indicated that energy depletion inhibited RNA degradation by a mechanism that did not depend on the inhibition of protein synthesis. No evidence was obtained to indicate that the ratio of subunits + monomers to polysomes affected RNA degradation.

2,4-Dinitrophenol↗

Effects of insulin on cardiac lysosomes and protein degradation.

Hearts perfused in the absence of added insulin had 1) accelerated rates of protein degradation, as assessed by release of phenylalanine and tyrosine; 2) increased rates of release of seven other amino acids; 3) decreased lysosomal latency and sedimentable lysosomal enzyme activity; 4) increased numbers of autophagic vacuoles in cardiac muscle cells; and 5) decreased activity of beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase in dense lysosomes (1.06-1.09 g/ml), as compared to hearts perfused in the presence of the hormone. After 3 h of perfusion in the absence of insulin, the changes that developed in protein degradation, lysosomal latency, and sedimentability, and in enzyme activity in dense lysosomes, were reversed by insulin addition during 90 min of subsequent perfusion. These studies suggest a role for insulin in controlling the activity of the lysosomal system and the involvement of this system in protein degradation, particularly in insulin-deprived tissue.

Acetylglucosaminidase↗

Aortic perfusion pressure and protein synthesis.

The effect of increased pressure load on cardiac protein synthesis has been studied in Langendorff preparations and working hearts supplied glucose as substrate. During the second hour of perfusion, elevation of perfusion pressure from 60 to 120 mmHg in Langendorff preparations accelerated protein synthesis by approximately 40% while induction of cardiac work and development of a systolic pressure of 145 mmHg increased synthesis by 22%, as compared to a Langendorff preparation perfused at 60 mmHg. In Langendorff preparations, increased perfusion pressure still accelerated protein synthesis when a drain was placed in the ventricle and intraventricular pressure development was prevented or when the heart was arrested with tetrodotoxin and the ventricle drained. These results suggest that the enhancement of protein synthesis with a pressure load may be induced by passive stretch of the cardiac muscle cell secondary to increased perfusion pressure.

Animals↗

Effects of cardiac work and leucine on protein turnover.

The purpose of these experiments was to assess effects of cardiac work and leucine in hearts supplied only glucose or substrate and hormone mixtures that simulated plasma. Rates of protein degradation greatly exceeded protein synthesis in Langendorff preparations supplied glucose. This severely negative nitrogen balance was brought closer to zero by provision of more complete substrate mixtures. Cardiac work further improved the nitrogen balance by stimulating protein synthesis in hearts supplied glucose (mixture 1), glucose-insulin-glucagon-lactate-beta-hydroxybutyrate (mixture 2), or palmitate-beta-hydroxybutyrate-glucose (mixture 3) and inhibiting protein degradation in hearts supplied glucose. Cardiac work did not affect the rates of either protein synthesis or degradation in hearts provided insulin-lactate-glucose (mixture 4). The increase in protein synthesis was associated with increased rates of peptide chain initiation. Addition of 1 mM leucine had an additional effect to restore nitrogen balance to zero or to achieve positive balance in working hearts supplied substrate and hormone mixture 2.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗

Effects of amino acid methyl esters on cardiac lysosomes and protein degradation.

Perfusion of rat hearts as Langendorff preparations for 20 min with buffer containing 15 mM glucose and either 10 mM methionine methyl ester or 10 mM leucine methyl ester decreased 1) latency of beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase, 2) buoyant density of cardiac lysosomes, 3) the rate of proteolysis, and 4) heart rate and coronary flow. A significant inhibitory effect on proteolysis was not observed during this brief exposure of insulin-treated hearts to the methyl esters. The effects of the methyl esters were reversible when they were washed away. Heart rate and coronary flow returned to control values within 5 min. After 90 min of recovery, lysosomes distributed on Percoll gradients in dense and buoyant bands that were indistinguishable from control hearts. The reversibility of these effects correlated with the net release of either methionine or leucine from hearts exposed to the corresponding methyl ester. During recovery, rates of proteolysis returned toward those observed in control hearts. In insulin-treated hearts, methionine methyl ester inhibited proteolysis during the recovery period, but leucine methyl ester had no effect. These results indicate that exposure to amino acid methyl esters led to swelling of cardiac lysosomes and inhibition of protein degradation. These effects appeared to be related to the amount of free amino acid that was retained.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗