In primary cultures of adult rat hepatocytes maintained in a salts/glucose medium, a more than 100-fold increase in ornithine decarboxylase (EC 4.1.1.17) activity was caused by asparagine and glucagon in a synergistic manner. The synthesis rate of ornithine decarboxylase was determined by [35S]methionine incorporation into the enzyme protein, and the amount of ornithine decarboxylase-mRNA was m...

We describe a systematic examination of ornithine decarboxylase activity in 120 colonic mucosal samples which were obtained from 20 subjects without colonic disease to establish the normal mean and standard deviation from proximal to distal colon. Ornithine decarboxylase activity was determined by releasing CO2 from DL-[1-14C]ornithine. The mean ornithine decarboxylase levels (CO2 liberated) ra...

We have studied the regulation of the expression of ornithine decarboxylase with the aid of transgenic mice harbouring either functional human ornithine decarboxylase genes or the mouse ornithine decarboxylase promoter-driven chloramphenicol acetyltransferase fusion gene in their genome. We used three different stimuli which are well known to enhance ornithine decarboxylase activity in their ap...

The activity of ornithine decarboxylase, the rate-controlling enzyme in polyamine biosynthesis, was determined in tissues of normal control rats and rats made diabetic with streptozotocin. In untreated diabetic rats fed ad libitum, ornithine decarboxylase activity was markedly diminished in liver, skeletal muscle, heart and thymus. Ornithine decarboxylase was not diminished in a comparable grou...

The minimum requirements for eliciting or enhancing ornithine decarboxylase activity (EC. 4.1.1.17); L-ornithine carboxylase) in neuroblastoma cells incubated in salts-glucose solutions have been investigated. These incubation conditions permit the study of changes in ornithine decarboxylase activity independently of the growth-associated reactions that occur in cell culture media (Chen, K.Y. a...

Ornithine decarboxylase is the initial and rate-limiting enzyme in the polyamine biosynthetic pathway. Polyamines are found in all mammalian cells and are required for cell growth. We previously demonstrated that N-hydroxyarginine and nitric oxide inhibit tumor cell proliferation by inhibiting arginase and ornithine decarboxylase, respectively, and, therefore, polyamine synthesis. In addition, ...

Ornithine decarboxylase from the African trypanosome is an important target for antitrypanosomal chemotherapy. Despite this, the enzyme had not been previously purified or extensively characterized as it is a very low level protein. In this paper we describe the purification of Trypanosoma brucei brucei ornithine decarboxylase from bloodstream form trypomastigotes by 107,000-fold to a specific ...

The immunohistochemical distribution of renal ornithine decarboxylase was studied in male mice both with and without testosterone treatment. Testosterone (1 mg per mouse) induced a marked increase in ornithine decarboxylase activity of the mouse kidney, whereas no significant immunohistochemical difference was observed either in immunoreactivity or its localization. In intact male as well as an...

The level at which ornithine decarboxylase expression is regulated in growing oocytes has been investigated. Immunoprecipitation of the in vivo labelled proteins showed that ornithine decarboxylase accumulated less rapidly in stage IV oocytes than in previtellogenic stage I + II oocytes. Quantitative Northern analysis showed that ornithine decarboxylase mRNA is abundant in oocytes (about 8 x 10...

A radioimmunoassay for ornithine decarboxylase was used to study the regulation of this enzyme in rat liver. The antiserum used reacts with ornithine decarboxylase from mouse, human or rat cells. Rat liver ornithine decarboxylase enzyme activity and enzyme protein (as determined by radioimmunoassay) were measured in thioacetamide-treated rats at various times after administration of 1,3-diamino...