Effect of estrogen administration on rat liver 2-5A synthetase activity

Interferon-induced 2-5A synthetase is also present in various cells and tissues in the absence of any interferon treatment. The activity of this enzyme, which synthesizes a series of oligoadenylates, ppp(A2'p)n5'A (collectively referred to as 2-5A), was previously shown to vary with the growth status of liver tissue i.e., it decreased before and during the peak of DNA synthesis activity induced in rat liver by a two third hepatectomy. In the course of studies aimed at testing the hypothesis that 2-5A synthetase activity might exert negative control on normal cell growth and multiplication, we show here that a treatment of ovariectomized rats with a single dose of estradiol-17beta (100 micrograms/100 g body weight) induced a transient increase in the [3H]thymidine labelling index in the liver after 24 h and markedly decreased the 2-5A synthetase activity. A time course study revealed that 2-5A synthetase activity started to decrease after 3 h, reaching a minimal value (10% of the control level) after 12 h, then slowly increased to come back to control level at 48 h. These results, together with our similar data on regenerating liver, suggest that low 2-5A synthetase activity is permissive for acquisition of proliferative 'competence' by G0 cells.