Isolation of carcinogen-induced diploid rat hepatocytes by centrifugal elutriation.

The majority of hepatocytes isolated from rats treated with carcinogens (diethylnitrosamine plus 2-acetylaminofluorene) were found to be diploid, whereas most of the hepatocytes from normal rats are tetraploid. The carcinogen-induced diploid hepatocytes were only one-half the size (protein content) of the tetraploid hepatocytes, and could therefore be separated from the latter by centrifugal elutriation. The elutriation technique thus makes it possible to isolate a relatively pure fraction of carcinogen-induced cells. The diploid cells had the same liver-specific enzymatic and functional properties as the tetraploid cells and were thus undoubtedly of hepatocytic origin.

Intracellular segregation of asialo-transferrin and asialo-fetuin following uptake by the same receptor system in suspended hepatocytes.

Asialo-transferrin and asialo-fetuin are both taken up into suspended hepatocytes by the asialo-glycoprotein receptor and with similar kinetics (Tolleshaug, H., Chindemi, P. and Regoeczi, E. (1981) J. Biol. Chem. 265, 6526-6528). However, the intracellular fate of the two ligands differ. Asialo-fetuin is carried to the lysosomes and degraded. Internalized asialo-transferrin is recycled with the receptors back to the cell surface, from which it may be released by calcium chelators. In the current studies, we fractionated cell homogenates in sucrose density gradients in order to trace the pathways taken by asialo-transferrin and asialo-fetuin within the cells. More than one-half of the intracellular asialo-transferrin sedimented within a novel kind of 'light' endosomes which were recovered at 1.11 g/ml in sucrose gradients. When cells were fractionated 6 min after the addition of trace concentrations of 125I-asialo-fetuin and 131I-asialo-transferrin, their intracellular distributions were found to be roughly similar. After 24 min their distributions were clearly disparate, relatively more asialo-fetuin being recovered in a peak of heavy endosomes at 1.15 g/ml. The ligand molecules in this part of the gradient (e.g., asialo-fetuin) were delivered to the lysosomes to be degraded, while the material in the lighter peak was degraded much more slowly. The data indicate that asialo-fetuin and asialo-transferrin enter a light endosome fraction immediately after receptor-mediated endocytosis. Subsequently, they are separated; the asialo-transferrin remains receptor-bound and is returned to the cell surface, while the asialo-fetuin is transferred to endosomes of density 1.15 g/ml and is eventually degraded in the lysosomes.

Quantitative aspects of the uptake and degradation of lysozyme in the rat kidney in vivo.

Uptake and degradation of lysozyme in the rat kidney were studied in vivo. The protein was labeled with 125I by way of a moiety (tyramine-cellobiose or 'TC') which remained trapped inside the cells even after proteolysis of the peptide chain (in contrast, the label from conventionally labeled proteins escapes after degradation). Following the injection of 'trapped-label' lysozyme, the radioactivity in the kidneys represented the total amount of lysozyme that was taken up during the experiment. Proteolysis could be followed by determining the amount of acid-soluble degradation products. By adding the radioactivity in the urine to that in the kidneys, a measure of the total filtered load was obtained. When only a trace dose of 125I-labeled TC lysozyme was injected into rats, the amount of radioactivity in the kidneys increased on average by 0.09% per min, after the concentration in the blood had become nearly stable. After 100 min, 30% of the injected dose was recovered in the kidneys. The labeled protein was degraded to acid-soluble molecules of Mr less than 1000. There was apparently a 'lag period' between the endocytosis in the kidneys and the start of degradation. 40 min after the injection of a trace dose, about 0.6% of the 'trapped-label' lysozyme in the kidneys was degraded per min.; subsequently, there was a decline in the fraction which was degraded per min. The amount of lysozyme in the urine increased after the injection of increasing amounts of lysozyme, showing that the capacity of the uptake mechanism was being exceeded, but truly saturating levels of lysozyme could not be reached in vivo.

Effects of local anesthetics and related compounds on the endocytosis and catabolism of asialo-glycoproteins in isolated hepatocytes.

The effects of local anesthetics, including procaine and dibucaine, and some related amine compounds, such as dansyl-cadaverine, were studied with respect to their effects on the uptake and degradation of asialo-glycoproteins in isolated hepatocytes. 0.5 mM of either dibucaine or dansyl-cadaverine reduced the rates of uptake to 18-19% of control value; other amines were less effective. Dibucaine and dansyl-cadaverine both acted by reducing the surface binding capacity of the cells as well as by reducing the rate of internalization of surface-bound asialo-glycoprotein. All of the compounds that affected the uptake, including dansyl-cadaverine, also reduced the rate of degradation. This effect could be studied separately from their effect on uptake. The concentrations that were required in order to reduce degradation were, in general 0.5-0.25 of those which caused a reduction in the uptake. Even though dibucaine, lidocaine and dansyl-cadaverine were found to accumulate in the lysosomes, it was concluded from studies with isopycnic centrifugation in sucrose gradients that all three compounds inhibited the rate of transfer of endocytosed protein from endocytic vesicles to lysosomes. This effect could be due to a reduced rate of fusion between endocytic vesicles and lysosomes.

Evidence for in vivo hepatic uptake of a galactose-terminated glycoprotein in fish (Salmo alpinus L.).

125I-labelled asialofetuin injected intravenously into chars (Salmo alpinus L.) was cleared from the blood with a half-time of approx. 60 min. The injected asialofetuin was found to be accumulating in the liver when different organs were dissected out at various time points after the injection. 125I-labelled fetuin was not concentrated in the liver, and the uptake of 125I-labelled asialofetuin was almost completely inhibited by simultaneously injecting an excess unlabelled asialofetuin, indicating a specific uptake mechanism for the galactose-terminated glycoprotein in char liver. Denatured human serum albumin was not taken up by the liver, but was recovered in the kidneys, suggesting that the liver in char is devoid of macrophages. It therefore seems reasonable to assume that the injected 125I-labelled asialofetuin is taken up by the parenchymal cells of the char liver.

Uptake and degradation of desialylated luteinizing hormone by suspended hepatocytes.

The uptake and degradation of desialylated human luteinizing hormone (asialo-LH) in suspended hepatocytes have been studied. Asialo-LH was taken up by the asialo-glycoprotein receptor at a rate which was somewhat lower than that of asialo-fetuin. The rate constants and equilibrium binding parameters were similar, but the rate of dissociation of the receptor-ligand complex was higher in the case of asialo-LH. The uptake was influenced by heterogeneity of the asialo-LH preparation. Degradation of endocytosed asialo-LH took place in the lysosomes. After fractionation of the cells by isopycnic centrifugation in a sucrose gradient, partially degraded asialo-LH (precipitable with trichloracetic acid, but not with antibody) was found in the fractions containing endocytic vesicles, but not in the lysosomal fractions, indicating that the proteolysis of asialo-LH was initiated in the endocytic vesicles.

Intracellular localization and degradation of asialofetuin in isolated rat hepatocytes.

Analysis by isopycnic and differential centrifuging of the intracellular distribution of radioactivity following uptake of 125I-labelled asialofetuin by isolated rat hepatocytes showed that during incubations up to 1 h, most of the radioactivity was associated with structures which had a subcellular distribution pattern different from both the lysosomes and the plasma membrane. The latter two organelles were followed by means of enzyme markers. Ca2+ is necessary for the binding of asialofetuin to the plasma membrane, and it was also possible to differentiate between asialofetuin bound to the plasma membrane and that contained in intracellular structures by removing Ca2+ from the medium (by EGTA). Such experiments showed that asialofetuin became rapidly internalized. Practically all the labelled protein was located intracellularly in cells that had been incubated with asialofetuin for more than 30 min. When incubations were carried out for more than 1 h a peak appeared in the radioactivity distribution in the same place as the peak of activity of lysosomal marker enzymes. However, degradation of asialofetuin takes place in the lysosomes and this starts before the labelled protein can be found in the lysosomal fractions. Our data suggest that the rate-determining step in the cellular handling of asialofetuin is the transport of endocytized protein from the endocytic vesicles to the lysosomes.

Uptake and degradation of 125I-labelled asialo-fetuin by isolated rat hepatocytes.

125I-Labelled asialo-fetuin was taken up by isolated rat hepatocytes by a saturable process. Half maximum uptake was seen at about 3 - 10(-8) M asialo-fetuin. Non-parenchymal liver cells did not take up asialo-fetuin in vitro. Rate of uptake of asialo-fetuin exceeded rate of degradation at all concentrations of asialo-fetuin tested. Asialo-fetuin consequently accumulated in the cells until the extracellular supply was exhausted. Asialo-fetuin degradation could be studied without concurrent uptake by incubating cells, previously exposed to asialo-fetuin, in asialo-fetuin-free medium. Degradation, as evidenced by increase in acid-soluble radioactivity, was inhibited by NH4Cl and chloroquine. The change with time in the intracellular distribution pattern of radioactivity in cells that had been exposed to 125I-labelled asialo-fetuin for 10 min was examined by means of differential centrifugation. Initially, the radioactivity was found mostly in the microsomal fraction. 60 min after the exposure to labelled protein, the distribution pattern of radioactivity resembled that of the lysosomal enzyme beta-acetylglucosaminidase. The possibility that asialo-fetuin digestion takes place in lysosomes is discussed.

Kinetics of internalization and degradation of asialo-glycoproteins in isolated rat hepatocytes.

The rate constants for internalization of surface-bound asialo-orosomucoid by hepatocytes were 0.040 min-1 at 20 degrees C, 0.18 min-1 at 30 degrees C and 0.28 min-1 at 40 degrees C. At 40 degrees C, internalization accounted for most of the increase in cell-associated radioactivity. The activation energy over the temperature range 20 to 40 degrees C was 68 +/- 7 (S.D.) kJ/mol. At 10 degrees C, most of the cell-associated asialo-orosomucoid was bound to the cell surface in a reaction which followed ordinary chemical kinetics. Pre-incubation of hepatocytes with a large concentration of unlabelled asialo-orosomucoid did not influence the uptake of subsequently added 125I-asialofetuin; neither was degradation of 125I-asialo-fetuin affected in this experiment. The fractional rate of degradation (the fraction of cell-associated asialo-fetuin which was degraded per unit time) was constant over a twelve-fold range of intracellular asialo-fetuin concentrations. Increasing the temperature from 20 to 30 degrees C produced approximately a ten-fold increase in the rate of degradation of either asialo-fetuin or asialo-orosomucoid. The average activation energies of degradation over the range 20 to 40 degrees C were 125 kJ/mol for asialo-fetuin and 149 kJ/mol for asialo-orosomucoid; however, the Arrhenius plots were not straight lines over this temperature range.

Endocytosis of a mannose-terminated glycoprotein and formaldehyde-treated human serum albumin in liver and kidney cells from fish (Salmo alpinus L.).

The uptake and degradation of a mannose-terminated glycoprotein, yeast invertase, in char (Salmo alpinus L.) tissue was studied after intravenously injection of the 125I-labelled protein. 125I-labelled formaldehyde-treated human serum albumin (fHSA) and native HSA was also injected for comparison. Labelled invertase was rapidly cleared from blood and at about the same rate as labelled fHSA (at 8 degrees C). Approximately 50% of the initial concentration remained in blood 15 min after the injection of the ligands. Acid soluble degradation products appeared in the circulation about 60 min after the injection of the proteins. 125I-labelled invertase was recovered in the liver, pronephros and kidney. The clearance of labelled invertase from blood and the uptake in the organs were inhibited by co-injection of excess unlabelled invertase. fHSA was taken up in the pronephros and kidney tissue, while HSA was not taken up in any organs. In vitro degradation of the labelled ligands was studied in isolated pronephros cells, which had taken up the proteins in vivo. The degradation of invertase in isolated cells was partly inhibited by ammonium chloride. Ammonium chloride and chloroquine inhibited degradation of fHSA, but not leupeptin. These results together suggest that invertase and fHSA were taken up in the organs described by the receptor-mediated endocytosis. The degradation was partly or wholly lysosomal.

The influence of cellular ATP levels on receptor-mediated endocytosis and degradation of asialo-glycoproteins in suspended hepatocytes.

Receptor-mediated endocytosis in suspended hepatocytes was studied in conjunction with ATP levels of the cells, which were decreased by the use of metabolic inhibitors. The receptor system studied was the asialo-glycoprotein receptor, and multiple aspects of the endocytic pathway were examined: binding of ligand, internalization, intracellular transport and proteolysis. Moderate concentrations of the inhibitors (e.g. 30 microM rotenone or 200 microM iodoacetamide) produced only a transient decline in the ATP levels of the cells. Two to four times higher concentrations reduced the ATP levels to about 1/10 of control cells. At low levels of ATP (less than 30% of controls) the uptake ceased completely after 10-20 min. Moderate reductions brought about by rotenone reduced the uptake roughly in proportion to the ATP levels; iodoacetamide and sodium fluoride had little influence on the energy production by the cells, but the rate of asialo-glycoprotein uptake was reduced to a small fraction of controls. The effect of rotenone on the rate of uptake was mainly due to a lower rate of internalization of occupied receptors; the half-time for internalization of surface-bound ligand was increased from 2.9 to 6.2 min in the presence of 42 microM rotenone. The binding capacity of the cell surface was also somewhat lower. There was no degradation of the asialo-glycoproteins which were taken up by cells treated with high concentrations of rotenone or iodoacetamide. This was shown to be due to a low rate of transport of the endocytosed protein into those endosomes (at density 1.15 g/ml in a sucrose gradient) which were delivering their contents to the lysosomes; coincidentally, there was an accumulation of ligand in light endosomes (density 1.11 g/ml), in which the ligand appears immediately after endocytosis.

Renal uptake and degradation of trapped-label calcitonin.

In order to quantitate the role of the kidneys in the clearance and degradation of calcitonin, a trapped-label procedure was used to label human calcitonin. In contrast to conventional [125I]calcitonin, the trapped-label preparation allows quantitative measurements of the extent of uptake as well as of degradation in vivo because the final degradation products do not leave the cells. Trapped-label calcitonin activated adenylate cyclase of bone cells and kidney, as did the native hormone. Ten minutes after intravenous injection into rats, 16% of a trace dose was found in the kidneys. Renal recovery increased to 20% after one hour; in addition, 14% of the injected dose was found in the urine. Eighty per cent of the radioactivity in the urine was in high-molecular weight material. After 90 min, the sum of the accumulated radioactivities in the kidneys and the urine reached 40% of the dose. More than 80% of the radioactivity was sedimentable by centrifuging in a density gradient, indicating that intact calcitonin, as well as the degradation products in the cells, were enclosed within membrane-bound vesicles. Two minutes after injection of trapped-label calcitonin, the peak of radioactivity was found in light gradient fractions associated with cell membrane marker enzymes. Between 5 and 15 min, the peak migrated from light fractions to heavy fractions containing lysosomal marker enzymes. After just 2.5 min, 61% of the renal radioactivity was in low-molecular weight degradation products, as determined by gel filtration. The kinetics of renal degradation of calcitonin indicate that substantial amounts of endocytosed calcitonin is degraded before the hormone reaches the lysosomes.

Phagocytosis and chemiluminescence response of granulocytes to monodisperse latex particles of varying sizes and surface coats.

The response of human granulocytes to polystyrene latex beads of diameter 0.1-7 microm was measured by luminol-dependent chemiluminescence. In all instances, the response to beads of 3-7 microm was definitely higher than with smaller beads. In protein-free medium, the chemiluminescence response was slow compared to that of opsonized zymosan, and the highest response was only 9% of the response to opsonized zymosan. Scanning electron microscopy showed that granulocytes in suspension bound the particles, occasionally by extending rope-like protrusions. When the beads were coated with albumin, the chemiluminescence diminished to about 1/3 of that seen with uncoated beads; however, preincubating the beads in serum led to a large increase with beads of 1.1 microm (to 25% of the maximal response to opsonized zymosan) and 3.19 microm (to 42%), but with the smallest beads, no increase was noted. "Priming" of the cells with tumor necrosis factor-alpha caused a further increase with serum-coated beads. When uncoated beads of 1.1 microm were tested with "primed" cells, there was an increase of 6 times in the chemiluminescence compared to un-"primed" cells.

Uptake and degradation of asialo-fetuin by isolated rat hepatocytes.

125I-labelled asialo-fetuin was taken up by isolated rat hepatocytes by a saturable process. Half maximum uptake was seen at about 3 . 10(-8) M asialo-fetuin. Rate of uptake of asialo-fetuin exceeded rate of degradation at all concentrations of asialo-fetuin tested. Degradation of asialo-fetuin, as indicated by release of acid-soluble radioactivity from the cells, was inhibited by NH4Cl and chloroquine. The intracellular distribution of labelled asialo-fetuin was studied by differential and density gradient centrifuging. The distribution curves for radioactivity indicated that asialo-fetuin was present in lysosomes about 1 h after the uptake had started. Chloroquine and ammonium ions seemed to inhibit the uptake of asialo-fetuin into the lysosomes, possibly by interfering with the fusion between phagosomes and lysosomes.

Effect of leupeptin on the intracellular degradation of asialofetuin in isolated rat hepatocytes.

The effect of the protease inhibitor leupeptin on the intracellular distribution of [14C]-sucrose-asialofetuin in isolated rat hepatocytes was investigated. Leupeptin had no effect on the uptake but reduced the degradation of asialofetuin. Fractionation of hepatocytes by isopycnic centrifugation in sucrose gradients indicated that prolonged treatment with leupeptin inhibited the uptake of asialofetuin into the lysosomes. Therefore, leupeptin inhibits degradation of asialofetuin both by inhibiting intralysosomal proteolysis and transport of endocytosed asialofetuin to the lysosomes.