Elastin biosynthesis by smooth muscle cells cultured under scorbutic conditions

The proliferation of rat heart smooth muscle cells is unaffected by supplementation of the culture medium with ascorbic acid. The presence or absence of the vitamin has a pronounced effect, however, on the amount of alastin which is produced. Scorbutic cultures incorporate significantly more radioactive valine (an amino acid prevalent in elastin) into proteins present in the extracellular matrix than do supplemented controls, while there was no difference between the systems in the incorporation of labelled methionine (absent from elastin). Deficiency of ascorbic acid appears to result in an enhancement of the biosynthesis and extracellular processing of elastin in this culture system.