Specificity of Prednisolone Effect on Cell Volume, RNA and Protein in Cell Lines with Inducible and Noninducible Alkaline Phosphatase1

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Abstract
Cell volume, DNA, RNA and protein were determined in 2 established human cell lines (Henle embryonic intestine and HeLa-S3) grown in the presence of either prednisolone or prednisone. In both cell lines prednisolone, but not prednisone, reduced the amount of cells harvested from each culture. As evidenced by the size distribution studies, cells grown in the presence of prednisolone were on the average larger than either controls or cells grown in the presence of prednisone. The per cell concentration of DNA remained unaffected by prednisolone, but the per cell levels of RNA and protein were considerably increased. There was no effect of prednisone on either cell RNA or protein. Alkaline phosphatase activity increased after prednisolone treatment in the Henle line but was reduced in the HeLa-S3 line. The structural specificity of steroids necessary for suppression of alkaline phosphatase in the HeLa-S3 line was similar to that shown to be required for enzyme induction, i. e., only steroids having 11[alpha], 17[beta], 21-trihydroxy configuration were found to be active.