Decreased rate of protein breakdown during nutritional recovery of mouse kidney.

Abstract

After a 5-day protein-depletion diet, there is a 23% decrease in kidney protein content in mice. When mice are shifted to a normal diet, protein mass is restored to its normal value 15 h after the nutritional change. The mechanism for this protein-depleted mice have a protein synthesis efficiency in vivo equal to 71% of that in normal kidneys, and normal values were reached within 6 h after the nutritional shift; 2) protein degradation rates were estimated either from the difference between the synthesis of kidney proteins and the net protein increase or by the disappearance of radioactivity from kidney proteins previously labeled by the administration of NaH14CO3 to mice. By both procedures, a large decrease in protein degradation rates during the recovery through a complete diet was observed.