Quantitation of fluid phase uptake in paramecium. 1. Kinetics in the cells blocked in phagocytic activity

Abstract

Uptake of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) was quantified in the unicellular eukaryote Paramecium aurelia. About 80% of the total HRP accumulated within 20 min entered the cells via a fluid phase pathway as demonstrated measuring the HRP internalization in the presence of yeast mannan. The rate of HRP accumulation was concentration-dependent and was found to be linear over the range of 50–500 μg HRP per ml of the extracellular medium. During the first 10 min of exposure to HRP, the mannan-uninhibitable uptake was found to reach 1.2–1.65 ng HRP per mg protein (depending on the concentration of the marker in the medium), which corresponds to 0.68 fl per cell/min. Accumulation of HRP reached a plateau within the next 10–15 min and its intracellular uptake was 2–2.55 ng HRP per mg protein. When the phagocytic activity of the cells was blocked with 1-propranolol, the amount of cell-accumulated HRP was 1.8–2.1-fold higher than in the control and the rate of the marker uptake within the first 10 min of incubation reached 1.114 fl per cell/min.