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In Vitro Studies on the Biosynthesis of Oxytocin

<p> In vivo and in vitro studies on the biosynthesis of
vasopressin in the supraoptic nuclei of the dog and guinea pig1 using
35s-cysteine and 3H-tyrosine have suggested that vasopressin could be
synthesized by wa;y of a precursor, which is modified to release active
hormone. In vivo injection of 3H-tyrosine into the cerebrospinal fluid
of rats2 had resulted in incorporation of the label into both oxytocin
and vasopressin.
In this work, an attempt was made to develop an in vitro
system for the biosynthesis of oxytocin. Incubations of either
3H-isoleucine or 14c-leucine with rat hypothalamic neuronal perikaya,
ribosomes and cell sap, cell sap, fractions of cell sap and homogenate,
and incubations of 3H-isoleucine and l4C-leucine with rat hypothalamic
tissue fragments were analyzed for the incorporation of label into
purified hormone. Gel filtration, partition chromatography, high
voltage electrophoresis, and thin layer chromatography were applied,
followed by measurement of radio-activity and biological activity.
It is concluded that in no reproducible case was either radioactive
isotope incorporated into material with the chromatographic and
biological properties of oxytocin. Other radioactive products of
incubation were detected in hypothalamic cell sap, ribosomes and cell
sap, and homogenate. In hypothalamic homogenate incubations,
considerable degradation of both oxytocin and other material absorbing at 280 nm was observed.
It is suggested that future investigations should attempt to
first develop isolation procedures for the labelled hormone produced in
vivo, and then reduce the complexity of the system in small stages,
through the cultured hypothalamic-neurohypophyseal system of Sachs3 to
simpler in vitro systems. </P> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/18511
Date11 1900
CreatorsLaw, Graham R.
ContributorsBranda, L. A., Biochemistry
Source SetsMcMaster University
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish

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