Circadian rhythm dependent kanamycin-induced hearing loss in rodents assessed by auditory brainstem responses.

An antimicrobial agent, kanamycin, has been shown to produce as an untoward effect, ototoxicity. The purpose of this study was to investigate differential effects of kanamycin ototoxicity as a function of Rx timing with regard to circadian rhythms. Four groups of comparable weight Sprague-Dawley rats received a daily subcutaneous dosage of 225 mg/kg kanamycin sulfate with each receiving the antibiotic at a different time: 8 AM (8A), 2 PM (2P), 8 PM (8P), and 2 AM (2A). The rats were housed in separate cages, in a room on a light-dark (12:12) illumination cycle with light between 6 AM and 6 PM. Hearing loss was assessed with the auditory brainstem response (ABR) using pure tone stimuli at 8, 16, 24, and 32 kHz. ABR measures were obtained before dosing began and 2, 4, and 6 weeks after the initial dosing. Kanamycin produced a hearing loss which reflected the total dosage given to each group. Significant differences in physiologic thresholds were observed for both timing of the daily dosage (p less than 0.05), and the 2, 4 and 6 week testings (p less than 0.001). After 2 weeks, the 8A group showed an average hearing loss of 11.5 dB at 32 kHz, with the other timed treatment groups exhibiting minimal effects (3.0-6.5 dB). For the 8A group at this frequency, the loss progressed at 4 (19.5 dB) and 6 (22.5 dB) weeks. The 2P group after 4 weeks exhibited similar losses as the 8A group for this frequency, with the loss at 6 weeks being even greater (34.0 dB). The 8P and 2A groups exhibited only slight losses over all frequencies.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Structure and regulation of the avian gene for fatty acid synthase.

Starvation, glucagon and cyclic AMP inhibit, and refeeding starved animals and insulin or IGF-I plus triiodothyronine stimulate accumulation of FAS and its mRNA in liver; transcription is the primary regulated step. In the uropygial gland, differentiation of basal cells into mature sebocytes is accompanied by the accumulation of large amounts of FAS and its mRNA. By analogy with liver, transcription is likely to be the regulated step, but direct experimental evidence for this hypothesis is lacking. FAS mRNA is a unique gene and is probably more than 100 kb in length. The FAS gene of goose and duck is transcribed into two mature mRNAs of about 10,800 and 12,200 nucleotides. The 3'-untranslated regions of the FAS mRNAs contain an unusual polypyrimidine tract which, at the mRNA level at least, appears unrelated to regulation of gene expression. Polypyrimidine tracts similar in sequence to that in the FAS gene are found in about 20 different parts of the genome. All of the fragments which contain these tracts are hypermethylated. The next stage of this investigation will involve identification of cis-acting sequence elements in the FAS gene which specify responses to diet, hormones and tissue-specific regulatory factors. Isolation and characterization of the 5'-ends of the cDNA and the gene are underway.

Terminal differentiation in the avian uropygial gland. Accumulation of fatty acid synthase and malic enzyme in non-dividing cells.

The secretory tissue of the uropygial gland is of the holocrine type, containing both dividing progenitor cells and lipid-filled differentiated cells. In this study, we examined the relationship between cell division and differentiation. The location of dividing cells was determined by autoradiography of tissue sections from ducklings injected intra-abdominally with 3H-thymidine. Only cells on the basal lamina of the tubules contained labeled nuclei. Dividing cells were distributed uniformly over the length of the tubules. Over the next five days, most of the labeled cells migrated to the lumen of the tubules and disappeared. Cells containing the "lipogenic" enzymes, fatty acid synthase and malic enzyme, were localized either immunocytochemically using affinity-purified antibodies or cytochemically using a specific assay for malic enzyme activity. Fatty acid synthase and malic enzyme were undetectable in dividing basal cells but present at high levels in differentiating and differentiated cells. Thus, basal cells lying along the basal lamina of the tubules were replacing lipid-laden cells that were continually sloughed into the lumens of the tubules. The signals for differentiation and enzyme accumulation appear to be linked to one another and to cessation of cell division.

The fatty acid synthase gene in avian liver. Two mRNAs are expressed and regulated in parallel by feeding, primarily at the level of transcription.

The rates of synthesis of fatty acid synthase and the levels of its mRNA are high in livers of chicks, ducklings, or goslings fed high-carbohydrate mash diets and low in livers of starved birds, indicating pretranslational regulation of fatty acid synthase activity. Determination of the step(s) at which the nutritional state regulates the fatty acid synthase mRNA level was the objective of this study. Total RNA extracted from gosling or duckling liver contains two discrete fatty acid synthase transcripts, one of about 12,200 nucleotides and the other about 10,800 nucleotides. Both mRNAs are transcribed from the same gene because there is only one fatty acid synthase gene/haploid genome. A combination of 1) comparison of restriction fragment lengths in genomic DNA and cloned fatty acid synthase cDNAs, 2) differential hybridization of cloned cDNAs to the two mRNAs, and 3) sequence analysis indicates that the longer mRNA is a 3'-extension of the shorter one. The half-lives for fatty acid synthase mRNAs in fed ducklings and in starved ducklings were estimated from the rate at which mRNA level approached steady state during starvation or refeeding. The amount of fatty acid synthase mRNA in total liver RNA increased rapidly when starved ducklings were fed a high-carbohydrate mash diet, reaching an apparent steady state of 10 times the initial level after 9 h. The kinetics of accumulation suggested a half-life of 4-6 h for fatty acid synthase mRNA in fed ducklings. When fed ducklings were starved, fatty acid synthase mRNA decayed with a half-life of about 3 h. Therefore, the half-life for fatty acid synthase mRNA appeared to be little affected by feeding or starvation. The levels of both mRNAs changed in parallel indicating that half-lives of the two mRNAs were not regulated differentially. Transcription of the fatty acid synthase gene, as measured in isolated nuclei, increased about 10-fold when starved ducklings were refed for 24-30 h. Most of the increase in transcription occurred within 45 min after feeding was initiated. However, when fed ducklings were starved, the initial decrease in fatty acid synthase mRNA level occurred more rapidly than the decrease in transcription of the fatty acid synthase gene, indicating some degree of post-transcriptional regulation. Nevertheless, after 48 h of starvation, both mRNA level and transcription were decreased to the same extent. Nutritional state, therefore, regulates the transcription of two fatty acid synthase mRNAs from a unique gene. In addition, transient regulation occurs at an as yet undefined post-transcriptional step.

Developmental and nutritional regulation of the messenger RNAs for fatty acid synthase, malic enzyme and albumin in the livers of embryonic and newly-hatched chicks.

The mRNAs for fatty acid synthase and malic enzyme were almost undetectable in total RNA extracted from the livers of 16-day old chick embryos. Both mRNAs increased in abundance between the 16th day of incubation and the day of hatching. In neonates, fatty acid synthase mRNA level was dependent on nutritional status, increasing slowly if the chicks were starved and rapidly if they were fed. The abundance of malic enzyme mRNA decreased in starved neonatal chicks and increased in fed ones. When neonates were first fed and then starved, starvation caused a large decrease in the abundance of both mRNAs. Conversely, feeding, after a period of starvation, resulted in a substantial increase in both mRNAs. The relative abundances of fatty acid synthase and malic enzyme mRNAs correlated positively with relative rates of enzyme synthesis. Thus, nutritional and hormonal regulation of the synthesis of these two 'lipogenic' enzymes is exerted primarily at a pre-translational level. The abundance of albumin mRNA decreased significantly between the 16th day of incubation and the day of hatching but did not change thereafter in fed or starved chicks. The relative stability of albumin mRNA levels after hatching attests to the selectivity of the nutritional regulation of fatty acid synthase and malic enzyme mRNAs. The decrease in albumin mRNA which occurred between 16 days of incubation and hatching contrasts with the increase in albumin mRNA sequences which occurred during late gestation in the fetal rat (20). High levels of albumin in the chick embryo may be related to the lack of an analogue of mammalian alpha-fetoprotein in birds.

A cloned cDNA for duck malic enzyme detects abnormally large malic enzyme mRNAs in a strain of mice (Mod-1n) that does not express malic enzyme protein.

Sensitive immunochemical assays were used to measure the mass and rate of synthesis of malic enzyme protein in wild-type and Mod-1n mutant mice fed a high carbohydrate/low fat diet supplemented with thyroid hormone. Malic enzyme activity in the fed, wild-type mice was 100-fold higher than in starved, wild-type mice. Neither activity, mass, nor synthesis of malic enzyme could be detected in fed, mutant mice. However, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase responded to these dietary manipulations with normal or supranormal increases in activities, respectively, in mutant mice. A cDNA clone containing an almost complete copy of the mRNA for malic enzyme from duck liver was used to analyze poly(A+) RNA from C57BL/6J-DBA/2J hybrid mice that had been fasted and refed a high carbohydrate/low fat diet supplemented with thyroid hormone. The 32P-cDNA probe hybridized to two RNAs of 2250 and 2950 nucleotides. The same two RNAs were detected in RNA from starved mice except at much lower concentrations. A similar analysis of RNA from Mod-1n mice fed the high carbohydrate-thyroid diet also revealed two hybridizing RNAs but each was 700-800 nucleotides longer than its counterpart in wild-type mice. The abundance of malic enzyme mRNA in the fed, mutant mice was about the same as that in fed, wild-type mice. The mutant malic enzyme mRNAs also were present in RNA from starved mice but at much lower concentrations. These results suggest that the mutation responsible for the Mod-1n phenotype is in the structural gene for malic enzyme.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Regulation of the activity and synthesis of malic enzyme in 3T3-L1 cells.

Malic enzyme activity in differentiated 3T3-L1 cells was about 20-fold greater than activity in undifferentiated cells. A new steady-state level was achieved about 8 days after initiating differentiation of confluent cultures with a 2-day exposure to dexamethasone, isobutylmethylxanthine, and insulin. This increase in enzyme activity resulted from an increase in the mass of malic enzyme as detected by immunotitration of enzyme activity with goat antiserum directed against purified rat liver malic enzyme. Malic enzyme synthesis was undetectable in undifferentiated cells and increased to about 0.2% of soluble protein in differentiated cells, suggesting that the increase in enzyme mass was due primarily to an increase in enzyme synthesis. Thyroid hormone, a potent stimulator of malic enzyme activity in hepatocytes in culture and in liver and adipose tissue in intact animals, decreased or increased malic enzyme activity in differentiating 3T3-L1 cells by about 40% when it was removed or added to the medium, respectively. Insulin, another physiologically important regulator of malic enzyme activity in vivo, had no effect on the initial rate of accumulation of malic enzyme activity in the differentiating cells and caused a 30 to 40% decrease in the final level of enzyme activity in the fully differentiated cells. Cyclic AMP, a potent inhibitor of malic enzyme synthesis in hepatocytes in culture, inhibited this process in 3T3-L1 cells by 30%. Malic enzyme is like several other enzymes in that the large increase in its concentration which accompanies differentiation of 3T3-L1 cells is due to increased synthesis of enzyme protein. However, the hormonal modulation of malic enzyme characteristic of liver and adipose tissue in intact animals does not appear to occur in differentiated 3T3-L1 cells, suggesting that differentiated 3T3-L1 cells may not be an appropriate model system in which to study the hormonal modulation of malic enzyme that occurs in liver and adipose tissue of intact animals.

Molecular cloning of cDNA sequences for avian malic enzyme. Nutritional and hormonal regulation of malic enzyme mRNA levels in avian liver cells in vivo and in culture.

A double-stranded cDNA library constructed from the total poly(A+) RNA of goose uropygial gland was screened for recombinants containing sequences complementary to malic enzyme mRNA. Replicate arrays of 1400 colonies were hybridized independently with 32P-labeled cDNAs copied from two populations of hepatic RNA derived from tissues which differed by about 35-fold with respect to the relative synthesis of malic enzyme. Forty-eight of the colonies which gave differential signals were further screened by hybrid-selected translation. DNA from one of these contained an insert of 970 base pairs and selected an mRNA which directed the synthesis of malic enzyme in a cell-free system. The malic enzyme sequences were subcloned into the single-stranded bacteriophage M13mp8. The subclones were used to prepare 32P-labeled single-stranded hybridization probe. Northern analysis indicated that malic enzyme mRNA from both goose and chicken is about 2100 bases in length. Hepatic malic enzyme mRNA concentration is stimulated 30- to 50-fold or more when neonatal chicks or goslings, respectively, are fed for 24 h. When added to chick embryo hepatocytes in culture, triiodothyronine stimulated malic enzyme mRNA accumulation by more than 100-fold. Glucagon inhibited the thyroid hormone-stimulated accumulation of malic enzyme mRNA by 99%. In all instances, malic enzyme mRNA concentration was closely correlated with the relative rate of malic enzyme synthesis. These results suggest that nutritional and hormonal regulation of malic enzyme synthesis occurs at the pretranslational level.