Effect of age on peptide chain initiation and elongation in preparations from brain, liver, kidney and skeletal muscle of the C57B1/6J mouse

Abstract

The effects of age on the initiation and elongation stages of protein synthesis were measured in cell-free preparations from brain, liver, kidney and skeletal muscle of young (3–5 months) and senescent (23–27 months) female C57B1/6J mice. The ability to form initiation complexes from isolated 40 S and 60 S ribosomal subunits decreased only slightly with age. In contrast, the rate of peptide chain elongation decreased by 67% in brain preparations, 80% in liver, 81% in kidney and 85% in skeletal muscle of the senescent mice when compared with the young mice.