Synthesis of proteins, lipids and nucleic acids from formate in young rats

¹ Department of Biochemistry, Baylor University College of Medicine, Houston, Texas

Formate-C¹⁴ was injected into a 21-day pregnant rat and into 1-, 3- and 10-day-old rats. Whole fetal and 1-day-old rats and liver, heart, brain and intestine from 1-, 3- and 10-day-old rats were blended with trichloroacetic acid. The breis were fractionated into acid-soluble, protein, DNA, RNA and lipid fractions and the radioactivity of each fraction measured. Most of the activity was always in the acid-soluble fraction. Protein activity was high in all 1-day rat tissues and decreased progressively with age; it was higher 1 day after birth than before. Activity of the lipids was increased on the 1st and 3rd days and then decreased. RNA showed high activity in 1-day rats, then dropped markedly. DNA was always of low activity. It may be concluded that the rate of formation of protein, lipid and RNA from formate reflects the activity of tissues during development.