Impact of starvation on hormone binding and hormonal imprinting in Tetrahymena.

Tetrahymena cells maintained (starved) in a physiological salt solution showed a considerable decrease in insulin binding capacity. The cells previously imprinted with insulin showed a comparable relative binding decrease after a similar exposure. This change was reversible by prolonged maintenance in plain nutrient medium after which the binding capacity of the imprinted cells increased appreciably over the control. The cells maintained (starved) in salt solution for 2 h were no longer imprintable with insulin; it follows that prolonged starvation not only reduced the recognition potential, but also extinguished the imprintability of Tetrahymena cells.