ANNALS O F CLIN IC A L AND LABORATORY SCIENCE, Vol. 5, No. 4 Copyright © 1975, Institute for Clinical Science Proline Biosynthesis and Degradation in Mammalian Cells and Tissue JAMES M. PHANG, M.D./ DAVID VALLE,f AND EDWARD M. KOWALOFF Endocrine Section, Metabolism Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda,MD 20014 ABSTRACT Radioisotopic assays have been developed for the enzymes of proline me­ tabolism. These assays are specific and sensitive enough to measure enzyme activities in cultured cells and biopsy specimens. Measurements of these enzymes in tissues and cultured cells suggest that endogenous biosynthesis of proline may be an important source of this amino acid. Proline and its hydroxylated derivative, and PC can be recycled back to glutamate hydroxyproline, are important constituents by PC dehydrogenase.15 of collagen. Together, these two amino acids In order to study these enzymes in bone, it make up 22 percent of this structural pro­ was necessary to develop specific assays tein.3 Although previous workers have sensitive enough to measure these enzymes shown that glutamate and ornithine can be in cultured cells and in hypocellular tissues, converted to proline, little is known of the e.g., bone. proline biosynthetic enzymes in bone or car­ Materials tilage cells. The biochemical pathways and relevant Materials include ornithine-U-14C (260 enzymes for proline metabolism are shown mC per mMole),° proline-U-14C (240 mC in figure 1. The immediate precursor of per mMole), ° o-aminobenzaldehyde, f nico­ proline, A‘-pyrroline-5-carboxylate (PC) is tinamide adenine dinucleotide (reduced converted to proline by PC reductase.713 form),t cytochrome C (equine heart)t and PC, the central intermediate of the pathway Dowex-50W (H+).t Established cell lines is derived from either ornithine by ketoacid were from the American Type Culture transamination814 or from glutamate.1 Orni- Collection. thine-5-transaminase catalyzes the conver­ Methods sion of ornithine to PC, but the enzyme(s) catalyzing the conversion of glutamate to ENZYME PREPARATION PC are undefined in higher organisms. The Cells were grown in Minimum Essential degradation of proline is catalyzed by Eagle’s (MEM) supplemented with 10 per­ proline oxidase converting proline to PC4 cent fetal calf serum, glutamine (2mM ) and nonessential amino acids. All cells were harvested in late log phase, washed three "Address reprint requests to Dr. Phang. tPresent address: Department of Pediatrics, Johns “New England Nuclear Corp. Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205 f Sigma Chemical Corp. 298 PROLINE BIOSYNTHESIS AND DEGRADATION 299 Figure 1. Schematic dia­ gram of the pathways for proline synthesis and degra­ dation. The dotted arrows indicate the enzymatic conversion of glutamate to GLUTAMATE A1 -pyrroline-5-carboxylate. PC These enzymes have been Dehydrogenase PC Proline demonstrated in micro­ Reductase Oxidase organisms but not in animal cells. Membrane Transport / \ COLLAGEN NONCOLLAGEN PROTEIN times in phosphate-buffered saline, resus­ to proline cell or tissue, extracts are in­ pended in the appropriate buffer and soni­ cubated with PC-14C, organically synthe­ cated for 40 secs. Tissues were minced and sized PC (0.045 mM) and NADH (0.68 mM) homogenized in the appropriate buffer with in 0.1 M phosphate pH 6.8 buffer. Following a Teflon pestle in a Potter-Elvehjem homog- incubation, the reaction mixture is acidified enizer and centrifuged at 25000 x g for 30 to 1 N with HC1 and a portion is reacted minutes. Calvaria were isolated from term with an equal volume of o-aminobenzal- rat fetuses, frozen with liquid nitrogen and dehyde (10 mg per ml in 10 percent ethanol pulverized with a mortar and pestle. The and 1 N HC1). PC combines with OAB, powder was taken up in the appropriate forming a dihydroquinazolinium compound buffer, sonicated for 40 sec, centrifuged at which binds tightly to Dowex 50. Product 25,000 x g for 30 minutes and the proline-14C is then eluted with 1 N HC1. supernatant dialyzed for 18 hours. Proline oxidase. Proline-14C (0.1 mM) is incubated with cell or tissue extracts and ENZYME ASSAYS cytochrome C (0.1 /¿M) in 0.1 M TrispH 7.2. Product PC is reacted with OAB and the These assays have been described in de­ mixture applied to a 1 ml bed volume Dowex tail.91011 A brief summary of the methods 50 column. The column is washed with 16 follows. ml of 2 N HCl to elute unreacted proline. Ornithine-5-transaminase. Uniformly la­ PC-14C (as the dihydroquinazolinium com­ beled ornithine-14 C (0.7 mM) is incubated plex) is then eluted with 2 N NaOH. with a-ketoglutarate (0.7 mM) and enzyme Proteins in the extracts were determined in 0.1 M P 0 4 pH 8.0 buffer. The reaction by the method of Lowry.6 mixture is acidified with HC1 to a final con­ centration of 1 N and applied to a Dowex 50 column. Product A'-pyrroline-5-carboxylate Results is eluted with 1 N HC1. PC reductase. PC-14C is enzymatically ENZYME ACTIVITIES IN CULTURED CELLS prepared from precursor ornithine-U-14C and then isolated by Dowex 50 column Using the assays described, the authors chromatography. To assay conversion of PC were able to quantitate the activities of the 3 0 0 PHANG, VALLE AND KOWALOFF TABLE I Enzymes of Proline Synthesis and Degradation: Activities in Cultured Mammalian Cells Enzyme Activity (nMoles per hr - mg protein) Cell Line Ornithine-6-transaminase PC Reductase Proline Oxidase Normal human fibroblast (D550) 156 ± 19 746 ± 75 Undetectable Chinese hamster lung (CHL) 180 ± 41 461 ± 27 Undetectable Rat liver (BRL) 234 + 17 542 ± 24 Undetectable Rabbit kidney (LLC) 3600 ± 200 310 ± 20 2200 ± 300 proline metabolic enzymes in 106 to 107 cul­ described. In addition, the conversion of tured cells. Cell lines studied include normal glutamate to PC by in vivo incorporation human fibroblasts (D550), rabbit kidney studies was estimated using glutamate-14C cells (LLC), Chinese hamster lung cells and quantitating proline-14C in protein. As (CHL) and normal rat liver cells (BRL). The shown in table II, CHO-Kl cells were activities of ornithine-5-transaminase, PC deficient in both biochemical pathways for reductase and proline oxidase in these cells synthesizing PC.16 are shown in table I. TABLE I I PROLINE ENZYMES IN FETAL BONE Pathways for A1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate Formation: Since rapidly proliferating bone requires Comparison Between a Proline Auxotroph and Proline Prototroph proline for collagen synthesis, it was of in­ terest whether or not bone possessed the ca­ Relative Incorporation pacity for synthesizing this amino acid. The of Glutamate’-1 C into Cell Protein levels of ornithine-5-transaminase and PC Relative Recovered Recovered Cell character­ OTA as as reductase found in fetal calvaría were much Line istics Activity Glutamate Proline higher than activities found in either fetal liver or kidney. In fact, enzyme activities in CHO-Kl Proline 8 92 0 Auxotroph calvaría were comparable to those found in CHL Proline 100 100 100 cultured cells (table III). These findings indi­ Prototroph cate that developing bone has a high ca­ pacity for synthesizing its own proline for protein and collagen synthesis. In contrast, ENZYME DEFECT(S) IN A PROLINE AUXOTROPH TA BLE I I I Previous workers have shown that Chinese Omithine-6-transaminase and PC hamster ovary cells (CHO-Kl) require Reductase Activities in Rat Tissue* proline in the media for growth.5 PC, substi­ tuted for proline in the media could also sup­ Enzyme Activity (nMoles per hr - mg protein) port growth. These findings suggest that the Ornithine-6- PC defect in these cells was in the biosynthesis transaminase Reductase of PC rather than in the conversion of PC to Adult rat liver 176 ± 70 26 ± 3 proline. Since PC can be derived from either Fetal rat liver 26 + 1 71 ± 6 ornithine or glutamate, the defect could be Fetal rat kidney 48 ± 7 263 ± 34 Fetal rat bone 132 ± 29 713 ± 71 in either or both pathways for PC formation. (calvaria) Therefore, ornithine-5-transaminase was measured by the radioisotopic method ♦Values are mean ± SEM PROLINE BIOSYNTHESIS AND DEGRADATION 301 the activities of the degradative enzyme, kidney and 10 times that found in fetal liver. proline oxidase, were relatively low. The pattern of enzyme activities suggests that bone cells can readily produce their own proline for protein and collagen syn­ Discussion thesis. The capability of mammalian cells to It is hoped that these initial studies will synthesize proline from a number of pre­ stimulate investigation of proline me­ cursors is well known. Little attention, tabolism and collagen synthesis in osseous however, has been given to the tissue tissue. Since collagen synthesis is routinely specificity or the regulation of these measured using exogenous labeled proline, biosynthetic processes. Although investiga­ the interaction between proline from en­ tors have speculated that derangements of dogenous synthesis and proline accumulated proline metabolism may be involved in the by membrane transport will be of special in­ pathogenesis of human disease,12 little direct terest. experimental evidence is available to sup­ port these hypotheses. The lack of sensitive References enzyme assays has been a major obstacle in pursuing these studies. 1. BAICH, A.: Proline synthesis in Escherichia coli. A Specific sensitive radioisotopic assays have proline—inhibitable glutamic acid kinase. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 192:462-467, 1969. been developed for measuring the enzymes 2. BURTON, K .: A study of the conditions and of proline synthesis and degradation. Meth- mechanism of the diphenzlamine reaction for the odologic innovations include (1) the produc­ colorimetric estimation of deoxyribonucleic acid. Biochem. J. 62:315-322, 1956. tion and isolation of high specific activity A1- 3. GOULD, B.