Abstract
Adult lethal milk (lm/lm) mutant mice display increased induction of hepatic metallothionein synthesis compared to wild-type mice following the subcutaneous injection of 40 µmol ZnCl2/kg mouse. At this zinc dose the rate of incorporation of |35S| cysteine into hepatic metallothionein in adult (100-to 230-day-old) lm/lm mice was approximately 2.4-fold greater than the rate of incorporation of isotope in wild-type animals. At a higher zinc dose (160 µmol ZnCl2/kg) the incorporation of |35S| cysteine into hepatic metallothionein was similar in lm/lm and wild-type mice. The altered dose-response to zinc administration was not due to a change in hepatic zinc, copper, or manganese levels, to a difference in 65Zn uptake, or to an alteration in 65Zn bound to differential centrifugation fractions of adult lm/lm liver. 65Zn bound to hepatic metallothionein was, however, increased in aging lm/lm mice with symptomatic skin lesions.
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This work was supported by Contract DE AM03 76 SF00012 between the Department of Energy and the Regents of the University of California. JEP is the recipient of a National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health.
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Piletz, J.E., Herschman, H.R. Induction of metallothionein by zinc in lethal milk mutant mice. Biochem Genet 20, 1221–1233 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00498945
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00498945