| Abstract: | Primary avian tendon (PAT) cells increase the production of procollagen from 10-12% to 40-50% of total protein synthesis in response to the addition of ascorbate and an increasing cell density. We now show that prolyl hydroxylase (PH) also increases its activity by greater than five-fold in response to increasing cell density; but unlike procollagen production, this is independent of the presence of ascorbate. The increased activity is a result of greater enzyme production and not a shift in the ratio of inactive to active forms which remains constant at about 10% of the total enzyme proteins. We present the possibility that at low cell density the levels of PH activity could limit production of collagen. |
