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. 1971 Aug;68(8):1725–1729. doi: 10.1073/pnas.68.8.1725

Gene Activation in WI-38 Fibroblasts Stimulated to Proliferate: Requirement for Protein Synthesis

Giovanni Rovera 1, John Farber 1, Renato Baserga 1
PMCID: PMC389280  PMID: 5288757

Abstract

Confluent monolayers of WI-38 human diploid fibroblasts can be stimulated to divide by fresh medium containing 30% fetal-calf serum. Up to 80% of the cells are stimulated to divide, with a peak of DNA synthesis between 15 and 21 hr. 1 hr after the change of medium there is a 70% rise in chromatin template activity. Cycloheximide inhibited the increase in chromatin template activity. A requirement for RNA synthesis was investigated by incubating stimulated and unstimulated cells with 10 μg/ml of actinomycin D. In spite of a 95% inhibition of RNA synthesis in whole cells, purified chromatin from stimulated cells showed the usual increase in template activity. These experiments implicate a requirement for protein synthesis in template activation, and imply that the synthesis of this (or these) protein(s) is independent of RNA synthesis and regulated by a purely translational mechanism.

Keywords: template activation, human diploid fibroblasts, cell proliferation

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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