Synthesis of alpha- and beta-globulins in normal and liverless dog

Abstract
Incorporation of dl-S35 methionine into electrophoretically separated α1-, α2-, and ß-globulins was studied in the same four dogs before and after total hepatectomy. In the normal animal methionine was incorporated rapidly into both α- and ß-globulins. Peak specific activity was attained in all fractions at approximately 6–12 hr. The α1- and α2-globulins had approximately equal specific activity, expressed as counts per minute per milligram of each fraction, whereas the activity of ß-globulins was about one-half that of either α-globulins. Hepatectomy markedly reduced the formation of labeled α1- and α2-globulins to only 10% and 25% of the prehepatectomy levels, respectively. Incorporation of methionine into the ß-globulins was not reduced so extensively by hepatectomy, falling only to one-half of normal levels. These observations lead to the conclusion that most (75–90%) of the α-globulins are produced by the liver but that only about 50% of the ß-globulins are of hepatic origin.

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