THE REPLICATION OF DESOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID IN HEPATOCYTES

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
It has been found that the histogram for the log of the grain counts per hepatic nucleus could be fitted to a normal curve with the same mean and standard deviation. The changing rate of DNA synthesis of an hepatocyte during replication has therefore been expressed as an exponential function. It has been possible to follow individual nuclei throughout the period of replication by labeling the nuclei with tritiated thymidine and measuring the DNA content of the labeled hepatocytes microspectrophotometrically at different times after tritiated thymidine administration. The experimental results from the cytochemical studies have been fitted to a curve from an integrated equation for changing rates of DNA synthesis. Thus, the theoretical curve predicted from the autoradiographic results agree with the experimentally determined cytochemical results. The mean time for replication of the DNA content of an hepatocyte was found to be 8 hr.