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Effect of glycine on the induction of orotic aciduria and urinary bladder tumorigenesis in the rat.

The mechanism by which amino acids increase the cellular levels of orotic acid (OA) was investigated. Administration of glycine (2.5 mmoles/100 g) to rats resulted in a 100-fold increase in urinary OA excretion, which was inhibited by pretreatment with cycloheximide or actinomycin D. The induction of OA synthesis from NH4Cl but not from carbamoylaspartate (CA) was inhibited by cycloheximide, indicating that the cycloheximide sensitive step was after the formation of ammonia and before the formation of CA. The glycine-stimulated OA synthesis was not inhibited by acivicin, a potent inhibitor of the cytosolic carbamoylphosphate (CP) synthetase, implicating the mitochondrial CP synthetase in supplying the CP for OA synthesis. Preliminary results indicated that cycloheximide did not inhibit glycine-induced urea synthesis to any significant extent. The results thus suggest that (i) the increased OA synthesis induced by glycine requires a transcription-translation dependent step and (ii) the regulatory step may be the transport of mitochondrial CP to cytosol and/or the synthesis of cytosolic CA. Attempts to determine whether increased exposure of urinary bladder to high concentrations of OA will influence bladder tumorigenesis revealed that chronic administration of glycine (2.5 mmoles/100 g, ip, daily, 5 days a week for 20 weeks) resulted in a 44% increased incidence of hyperplastic, preneoplastic, and neoplastic lesions. Some of these rats also exhibited stones in urinary bladders. The mechanism by which glycine induces tumorigenesis in the urinary bladder is currently being explored.

Ammonium Chloride↗

On the role of dihydroorotate dehydrogenase in growth cessation of Ehrlich ascites tumor cells cultured under oxygen deficiency.

In pyrimidine biosynthesis the oxidation of dihydroorotate is catalyzed by dihydroorotate dehydrogenase, which is linked to the mitochondrial electron transport chain in vertebrates. In order to elucidate the role of this oxygen-dependent anabolic process in the arrest of cell proliferation under anaerobic culture conditions, the effect of the antimetabolite dihydro-5-azaorotic acid on growth, metabolism and cell cycle distribution of Ehrlich ascites tumor cells was studied and compared with the effect of oxygen-free culture conditions. Experiments with cell homogenates confirmed that the dehydrogenation of dihydroorotate is blocked by the inhibitor. In intact cells 2 mM dihydro-5-azaorotic acid inhibited incorporation of dihydro[6-14C]orotate into nucleic acids, and no further increase in RNA and DNA content was observed in its presence for several hours. The cells remained viable; glycolytic activity was normal; respiration was reduced; growth cessation occurred within a few hours. DNA histograms obtained by flow cytometry revealed an accumulation of cells in the G1 phase, which was also observed with anaerobically cultured cells. Substitution of cultures with pyrimidine nucleosides completely sustained cell proliferation in the presence of the inhibitor but not in an anoxic atmosphere. It is concluded that in the absence of oxygen cell proliferation may be arrested by inhibition of the dihydroorotate dehydrogenase alone. However, additional impairments of cell metabolism must play an important role.

Animals↗

On the mechanism of inhibition of gluconeogenesis and ureagenesis by sodium benzoate.

Synthesis of glucose from lactate and generation of urea from ammonia were inhibited when sodium benzoate was added to suspensions of rat hepatocytes. Assays with isolated mitochondria suggested pyruvate carboxylase and the N-acetyl-L-glutamate (NAG)-dependent carbamoylphosphate synthetase (CPS-I) as potential sites of inhibition for both pathways, owing to a shared dependency on aspartate efflux from the mitochondria and its subsequent conversion to oxaloacetate in the cytosol. Assays with isolated hepatocytes indicated inhibition to be initiated by accumulation of benzoyl CoA with a resultant depletion of free CoA and acetyl CoA. Measurements of adenine nucleotides showed that benzoate metabolism did not sufficiently alter energy status to account for the observed inhibition. Consistent with these interpretations, acceleration of the conversion of benzoyl CoA to hippurate by the addition of glycine restored the levels of free CoA and acetyl CoA and the rates of gluconeogenesis and ureagenesis. Reduction of the levels of aspartate and glutamate, presumably by interference with the anapleurotic function of pyruvate carboxylase, most likely accounted for inhibition of gluconeogenesis by benzoate. Whether reduced flux through the urea cycle also contributed to inhibition of gluconeogenesis (by diminishing cytosolic conversion of aspartate to oxaloacetate) requires further study. Depression of glutamate and acetyl CoA to levels at or below the Km for NAG synthetase probably accounted for the observed inhibition of ureagenesis. Rates of urea production were observed to vary with changes in the levels of NAG, suggesting NAG-dependent CPS-I to be the primary site of inhibition of ureagenesis by benzoate.

Acetyl Coenzyme A↗