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Endotoxin induces rat lung ribonuclease activity
Author(s) -
Clerch Linda B.,
Wright Angélique,
Massaro Donald
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(93)80937-p
Subject(s) - ribonuclease , lipopolysaccharide , rna , gene expression , messenger rna , lung , bacteria , chemistry , gene , biochemistry , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , immunology , medicine , genetics
Lipopolysaccharide (endotoxin), a component of Gram‐negative bacteria, causes marked alterations in eukaryotic gene expression and cellular physiology. We show that within one hour of injection of endotoxin into adult rats there is an induction of ribonuclease activity in the lung. The degradation of RNA was prevented by treatment of the lung extract from endotoxin‐injected rats with ribonuclease inhibitor (RNasin). We suggest that induction by endotoxin of ribonuclease activity is a novel mechanism by which cells could alter gene expression to meet an environmental challenge and caution that the presence of ribonuclease can hinder molecular biological analyses of tissue extracts from endotoxin‐treated rats.