Lack of effect of amino acid concentration on protein synthesis in the perfused rat liver

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Abstract
The effect of increasing the perfusate concentration of amino acids on the incorporation of labelled valine into protein was followed in perfusions of rat livers lasting for 2h. A fixed amount of labelled and unlabelled valine was added to the perfusate as the other amino acids were increased in multiples of the concentrations normally found in rat plasma. Under these conditions no increase in valine incorporation was observed, which appeared to be in conflict with results published by other workers, However, a different method of labelling from that used here was used in the earlier studies. An increasing amount of a labelled amino acid was added as the concentrations of the unlabelled amino acids were increased in the perfusate. An experiment directly comparing to the two labelling methods produced results that indicated that the apparent increase in liver protein synthesis observed by the other workers could have been due to the method of radioisotope addition. It is therefore concluded that increasing the perfusate concentration of amino acids does not increase amino acid incorporation into liver protein.