Insulin stimulus of leucine incorporation into frog liver protein

¹ Department of Physiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Slices prepared from livers of bull frogs (Rana catesbiana), pancreatectomized and/or hypophysectomized 7 days before, were incubated 2 hr in frog Ringer-bicarbonate solution at 25 C. Incorporation of leucine-1-C¹⁴ into protein was subnormal in the pancreatectomized series. The addition of insulin in vitro, with glucose also present in the medium, produced a significant (P < 0.01) stimulation of amino acid incorporation in the following series: livers from normal fed animals; livers from animals pancreatectomized 7 days before; and livers from animals pancreatectomized and hypophysectomized 7 days before. Neither insulin nor glucose alone gave a significant effect. These results therefore confirm and extend those obtained with rat liver slices showing that insulin can stimulate amino acid incorporation into protein when added directly to liver. The effect is relatively greatest with livers from animals pancreatectomized 7 days before; the insulin effect does not depend on the presence of the pituitary, as it is obtainable with livers from animals hypophysectomized and pancreatectomized 7 days previously.