Influence of trypsin on in vitro RNA synthesis by disrupted nuclei of rat and human uteri in different hormonal states.

Abstract

Ovariectomized rats were either untreated, treated with estradiol, or treated with estradiol plus progesterone for 3 days. Nuclear preparations of the uteri were incubated with 3H-UTP, ATP, CTP and GTP and excess RNA polymerase with and without preincubation with trypsin. The study focused on the enhancement of template activity mediated by trypsin. Five experiments were performed. In incubations of nuclei from estradiol-treated rats the increase in template activity mediated by trypsin ranged from 327 to 651 %. The results with the untreated rats were not statistically different from those with the estradiol-treated rats. On the other hand, the enhancement of template activity with the nuclei obtained from rats treated with estradiol plus progesterone was far less, ranging from 34 to 127%. When the rats were treated with progesterone alone (2 experiments), the average increase was 316%. Nuclear preparations of human endometrium were studied in the same way. In 17 studies of proliferative endometrium, the average trypsin-mediated increase was 369%, whereas with secretory endometrium (13 cases) the average was 143%.