Effect of chloramphenicol on ribonucleic acid synthesis in liver cells in suspension

Abstract

1. Chloramphenicol has a stimulatory effect on the incorporation of radioactive phosphate into the RNA of perfused rat-liver slices, whole liver homogenates or the liver-cell suspensions, and no effect on the incorporation of [(14)C]adenine and [(14)C]uracil into the RNA of the tissue slices. 2. Chloramphenicol completely inhibits the incorporation of labelled adenine and uracil into the RNA of the cell suspensions, or into the RNA of homogenates derived from the whole liver tissues. 3. Chloramphenicol has at most a slight inhibitory effect on the transport of labelled adenine or uracil in the hepatic cells in suspension; in the slices, the transport of these bases is not inhibited at all. 4. The above observations indicate that: (a) unlike the tissue slices, hepatic cells in suspension are permeable to chloramphenicol; (b) in the presence of chloramphenicol, for reasons that are not clear, the conversion of the base into the appropriate nucleotide does not proceed.

High-Yield Preparation of Isolated Rat Liver Parenchymal Cells

“…Berry and Simpson (6) showed that cells prepared by perfusion of the liver under pressure followed by mechanical dispersion had disrupted cell membranes and grossly-distorted fine structure . In spite of this, several groups of workers have used such cells to perform studies including those on the effects of hormones on cell permeability (40,41) and the uptake of chylomicrons (42) . When in the present study trypan blue was used to stain cells prepared by high-pressure perfusion, 100% of the isolated cells took up the stain.…”