title: Insulin stimulates protein synthesis in compacted mouse embryos.
abstract: Preliminary work suggested that insulin affects preimplantation mouse embryos. We investigated the effects of insulin on incorporation of [3H]-leucine by embryos cultured for long (greater than 24 h) or short (4 h) terms with insulin. Insulin stimulated incorporation by compacted 8-cell embryos, blastocysts and expanded blastocysts. The stimulation in blastocysts had an EC50 of 0.5 pM in the presence of 1 g/L BSA and was blocked by anti-human insulin anti-serum. Inclusion of insulin in the medium elevated the levels of incorporation towards those of embryos developing in vivo. The stimulation was not observed in uncompacted 8-cell embryos. The ontogeny of stimulation at compaction coincides with a switch in energy dependence from lactate and pyruvate to glucose and an increase in protein synthetic activity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Australia.
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Harvey
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Kaye
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D046508:Culture Techniques; D007106:Immune Sera / Q000494:pharmacology; D007328:Insulin / Q000276:immunology / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051379:Mice; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis
chemical_list: D007106:Immune Sera; D007328:Insulin