THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AMINO ACID INCORPORATION INTO PROTEIN IN ISOLATED NEOCORTEX SLICES AND THE TISSUE CONTENT OF FREE AMINO ACID

Abstract— The uptake of radioactive leucine by incubated neocortex slices was found to be increased by electrical stimulation, yielding a higher content of radioactive amino acid per g fresh weight of tissue which was maintained for prolonged periods of stimulation. The increased tissue content may be associated with tissue swelling found on electrical stimulation, but the additional amino acid uptake was by an active process rather than by passive diffusion. Additions of valine (2.5–10 m m ) or tryptophan (1 m m ) to the incubation medium was found to depress the tissue leucine content. Decreasing the tissue free leucine content by incubating slices in medium containing 5 m m -valine was found to decrease the incorporation of leucine and lysine into tissue protein, indicating that under these conditions tissue free amino acid becomes rate limiting for amino acid incorporation into protein. By analogy with the properties of cerebral tissue in oitro it is suggested that electrical activity in vivo may cause localized increases in free amino acid concentration which may serve to regulate protein synthesis in conditions where the concentration of free amino acids are rate limiting.