Rates of protein synthesis and turnover in fetal life

Uniformly labeled [14C]lysine was infused at constant rate into the inferior vena cava of eight ovine fetuses with gestational ages ranging from 110 to 145 days. The infusion lasted 9 to 13 h and produced a steady-state specific activity of free lysine in the fetal plasma. In the steady state, approximately 9% of the infused radioactivity was excreted by the fetus as 14CO2, indicating fetal catabolism of lysine. At the end of the infusion, the fetal carcass was analyzed for its total content of labeled and unlabeled lysine. The rate of protein synthesis was calculated from the carcass-to-plasma lysine specific activity ratio. The fractional rate constant (Ks) for the unidirectional flux of lysine into fetal proteins was inversely related (r = -0.88) to fetal age: Ks = 0.584 - 0.0036 age (days). In each fetus, Ks was 2-4 times greater than the estimated fractional rate of fetal protein accretion (KG). The discrepancy between Ks and KG demonstrates that a large fraction of protein synthesis in the ovine fetus is devoted to protein turnover.