Studies on regulatory factors of ornithine decarboxylase activity during development of mouse mammary epithelium in vitro

The activity of ornithine decarboxylase increases markedly in a biphasic manner during the hormone-dependent development of mouse mammary epithelium in vitro. The first peak of activity occurring at 3 to 4 hours of culture was elicited by incubating mammary explants in a culture medium without any added hormones, although addition of insulin or prolactin, or both, caused a greater increase. The emergence of the second peak of activity at about 12 hours depended on the actions of both insulin and prolactin. A second increase in activity could also be effected postmitotically by the delayed addition of prolactin. Studies with actinomycin D and cycloheximide suggest that the first increase in enzyme activity may be effected at a post-transcriptional level, whereas a second increase may be at both transcriptional and translational levels. During the first 3 hours of incubation, there was a rapid, transient increase in cyclic AMP concentration in mammary epithelium. The presence of insulin or prolactin in culture did not affect the change in epithelial cyclic AMP concentration. Addition of several derivatives of cyclic AMP, 0.1 to 0.5 mM, as well as prostaglandin E1, a stimulator of adenylate cyclase, resulted in enhancement of the first increase in enzyme activity. The effect of cyclic nucleotide was additive to that of insulin and prolactin and appears to be mediated at a post-transcriptional level. The stimulatory effect of a lower concentration of both the cyclic nucleotide and prostaglandin E1 was augmented by theophylline, an inhibitor of phosphodiesterase. These results may suggest possible involvement of cyclic AMP in the first increase in enzyme activity that occurs in the absence of any added hormones.