Incorporation of glycine-1-C¹⁴ into nucleic acids and proteins of mice with hereditary muscular dystrophy

¹ Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine

The incorporation of glycine-1-C¹⁴ into the nucleic acids and proteins of normal and genetically dystrophic mice was studied. Skeletal muscle from adult mice afflicted with muscular dystrophy contained increased amounts of nucleic acids (up to 60% more DNA and 40% more RNA per gram) when compared with muscle from normal littermate controls. No significant differences in nucleic acid concentration of liver, spleen or kidney were seen. Dystrophic skeletal muscle was found to incorporate glycine-1-C¹⁴ into both muscle nucleic acids and muscle proteins much more rapidly than normal skeletal muscle. In contrast, the livers from dystrophic animals showed a diminished ability to incorporate this precursor into liver nucleic acids. These differences between normal and dystrophic animals were found to be proportional to the age of the animal, which in turn is proportional to the severity of the disease.