Testicular protein synthesis during the response to subtoxic levels of cadmium.
Male rats received one injection of a 'subtoxic' amount of Cd2+ (9.2 mumol/kg body weight) as cadmium chloride and the testes were removed 24 h later. Homogenate fractions of tests that had been freed of ribosomes were tested for their activity in cell-free protein-synthesizing systems using excess exogenous rat liver ribosomes and mRNA. A marked decrease in the incorporation of free  [14C]-phenylalanine into peptide was observed with the testes preparations from the cadmium-treated rats. The results indicated that about half of the effect of cadmium was due to decreased aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase activity and the other half was due to decreased binding of [14C]-phenylalanyl-tRNA to ribosomes. The results are discussed relative to the contrasting results obtained in kidney and liver preparations.
D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D002104:Cadmium / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008297:Male; D010649:Phenylalanine / Q000378:metabolism; D010652:Phenylalanine-tRNA Ligase / Q000378:metabolism; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D051381:Rats; D012270:Ribosomes / Q000187:drug effects; D013737:Testis / Q000187:drug effects*
D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D002104:Cadmium; D010649:Phenylalanine; D000604:Amino Acyl-tRNA Synthetases; D010652:Phenylalanine-tRNA Ligase