Effect of hydrocortisone on HeLa cells with special reference to the RNA metabolism.

Hydrocortisone (HC) inhibited the growth of HeLa cells at the concentration of 0.01•`10ƒÊg/ml but enhanced it at 0.001ƒÊg/ml. HC increased the ƒÀ-glucuronidase and alkaline phosphatase activities of HeLa cells at 10ƒÊg/ml in 4 days, although it did not affect the acid phosphatase activity. Nucleic acids obtained from growing HeLa cells were fractionated by methylated bovine serum albumin column chromatography. Two peaks of rapidly labeled RNA were found in the chromatogram, and from the experiment of time course of 32P-labeling and base composition analysis, it was assumed that one was the precursor of