Stimulation of lipid synthesis in reticulocytes as a response to membrane damage.

Exposure of rabbit reticulocytes to agents which damage the cell membrane by a variety of different mechanisms stimulates the incorporation of radioactive acetate and glycerol into membrane lipids. An increase in the rate of lipid synthesis occurs within minutes at 37’C at concentrations of the agents which do not cause spontaneous cell lysis. Different agents do not increase synthesis of different classes of reticulocyte lipids to the same extent. 1.5 x 10-i M vincristine stimulates the incorporation of precursors only into neutral lipids while, in contrast, 10 M