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Regulation of Urea Cycle Enzymes in Transplantable Hepatomas and in the Livers of Tumor-bearing Rats and Humans¹

Department of Biochemistry, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2001, South Africa

The levels of the five enzymes of the urea cycle were measured in normal 5-week-old rats, in a transplantable hepatoma, and in the livers of tumor-bearing rats (host livers). The levels of all five enzymes were much lower in the hepatoma, although there was no exact correlation of the decrease in levels. In host livers, the levels were higher than in the tumors, but lower than in normal liver. The levels of all five urea cycle enzymes were positively correlated with dietary protein content in normal livers, in hepatomas, and in host livers. In fact, the hepatomas showed the greatest changes in response to diet. On all diets, the levels in host liver remained below those in normal liver, indicating that the decreased level was probably not due to preferential utilization of nutrients by the tumor.

The levels of urea cycle enzymes in normal liver were not altered by a single injection of glucocorticoid, glucagon, or dibutyryl cyclic adenosine 3':5'-monophosphate. By contrast, in hepatoma, the levels were usually significantly elevated by the same treatment. In addition, the levels in host livers were always significantly elevated and were usually above those in normal animals, whether the latter were hormone treated or not.

Injection of plasma from tumor-bearing rats into normal animals produced a decrease in the levels of all five enzymes; if glucagon was injected together with the plasma, large increases in levels were observed. This result supports the concept of a humoral factor produced by the tumor which affects the levels and the inducibility of urea cycle enzymes in host livers.

Autopsied human primary hepatomas also showed levels of urea cycle enzymes below those in normal livers with host livers having intermediate values. A cell line derived from a human hepatoma showed induction of arginase by glucocorticoid in culture; in this, it resembled a cell line of the rat hepatoma. Tyrosine aminotransferase in human hepatoma cells was not induced by glucocorticoid; in this, it differed from the rat hepatoma cells where induction of this enzyme was observed.

¹ This investigation was supported in part by a grant from the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Most of the work is taken from the Ph.D. Dissertation of Linda D. Brebnor.

² Present address: Department of Zoology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011. To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.

Received 8/ 4/80. Accepted 4/ 7/81.