J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 266, Issue 3, 1921-1925, Jan, 1991
Effect of heparin contained in preparations of small cytoplasmic RNAs on cell-free translation
HE Johansson, N De Groot, AA Hochberg and MW Hentze
European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Federal Republic of Germany.
It has been reported that small cytoplasmic RNA (scRNA) from human placenta
inhibits translation of most mRNAs in both wheat germ extracts and
reticulocyte lysates (Lorberboum, H., Digweed, M., Erdmann, V. A.,
Servadio, Y., Weinstein, D., De Groot, N., and Hochberg, A. A. (1986) Eur.
J. Biochem. 155, 279-287). We have investigated the mechanism by which
scRNA preparations inhibit mRNA translation in vitro. We demonstrate that
the inhibitory agent(s) is not sensitive to treatment with various
ribonucleases but that translational inhibition is sensitive to incubation
with 1 N NaOH at 95 degrees C or to treatment with heparinase. Based on
these findings and on the ability of heparin to inhibit cell-free
translation by itself, we conclude that the presence of heparin in
preparations of scRNA from human placenta is responsible for effects which
have previously been attributed to inhibitory RNA molecules. Since heparin
is also frequently used in the isolation of translationally inhibitory
scRNAs from other sources, we suggest that the sensitivity of these
preparations to ribonucleases and heparinase should be examined.
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