Abstract
Plasma protein constituents are synthesized by explants of cultured human embryonic liver after the 5th week of gestation. To quantify the incorporation and release of protein in an abstracted physiological system, three human fetal livers of gestational ages of (a) 10, (b) 14, (c) 20 weeks perfused for 4 hr through the umbilical vein with an amino acid mixture and glucose in oxygenated Krebs-Ringer bicarbonate. L-Leucine-14C tracer was added to the medium at 60 min, when protein was released to the medium at constant rates of 0.45, 0.60, and 0.15 μ/min/mg of liver protein in a, b, and c, respectively. The incorportation of 14C into the protein was characterized at 24. min by autoradiography of both (1) immunodiffusion in agar gel and (2) electrophoresis on cellulose acetate. (1) 14C was incorporated into albumin, α-fetoprotein, α- & β-lipoprotein. Gc-protein, and transferri, but not into haptoglobin; (2a) a constant fraction (72%) of the label incorported was found in (albumin + α-fetoprotein) at all three gestational ages; (2b) the albumin/α-fetoprotein incorporation of the label was 1.6, 2.3, and 4.4 for a, b, and c, respectively; these values related to each of corresponding fetuses: 2.9, 7.5, and 17; (2c) the (stored) protein released by the livers during the first 60 min was mainly albumin.
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Kekomäki, M., Seppäla, M. & Schwartz, A. 18. Synthesis and release of plasma proteins by isolated perfused human fetal liver. Pediatr Res 5, 86 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197102000-00023
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-197102000-00023