Insulin synthesis in chick embryo retinas during development.
Retinas of chick embryos contain insulin and further, are capable of synthesizing it, as demonstrated by incubating retinas at different ages (7th-18th day) with [3H]leucine. The synthesized radioactive insulin was isolated and assayed by means of a HPLC procedure. The synthesis of insulin was found to be highest in the youngest retinas studied (day 7), afterwards it declined with age except for an increment found at 14-15 day. Explants of chick embryo retinas, cultured in vitro, rapidly degraded insulin. Nevertheless, the content of immunoreactive insulin in retinal explants diminished slowly with the age of culture, so that, after 8 days of incubation, it was about 60% of the content found in the retinas at the beginning of incubation. This was proof that cultured explants are capable of efficiently synthesizing insulin. The synthesized [3H]insulin was released from explants into the medium. This was evident also after 6-8 days in culture.
Istituto di Chimica Biologica, Università di Palermo, Italy.
G
G
Tesoriere
G
G
Calvaruso
R
R
Vento
M
M
Giuliano
M
M
Lauricella
M
M
Carabillò
D000818:Animals; D002642:Chick Embryo / Q000378:metabolism*; D046508:Culture Techniques; D007328:Insulin / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D012160:Retina / Q000196:embryology / Q000378:metabolism*
D007328:Insulin