Derepression of amino acid transport by amino acid starvation in rat hepatoma cells.

Amino acid starvation causes an adaptive increase in the initial rate of transport of selected neutral amino acids in an established line of rat hepatoma cells in tissue culture. After a lag of 30 min, the initial rate of transport of alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (AIB) increases to a maximum after 4 to 6 h starvation of 2 to 3 times that seen in control cells. The increased rate of transport is accompanied by an increase in the Vmax and a modest decrease in the Km for this transport system, and is reversed by readdition of amino acids. The enhancement is specific for amino acids transported by the A or alanine-preferring system (AIB, glycine, proline); uptake of amino acids transported by the L or leucine-preferring system (threonine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, leucine) or the Ly+ system for dibasci amino acids (lysine) is decreased under these conditions. Amino acids which compete with AIB for transport also prevent the starvation-induced increase in AIB transport; amino acids which do not compete fail to prevent the enhancement. Paradoxically threonine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, and tyrosine, which do not compete with AIB for transport, block the enhancement of transport upon amino acid starvation. The starvation-induced enhancement of amino acid transport does not appear to be the result of a release from transinhibition. After 30 min of amino acid starvation, AIB transport is either unchanged or slightly decreased even though amino acid pools are already depleted. Furthermore, loading cells with high concentrations of a single amino acid following a period of amino acid starvation fails to prevent the enhancement of AIB transport, whereas incubation of the cells with the single amino acid for the entire duration of amino acid starvation prevents the enhancement; intracellular amino acid pools are similar under both conditions. The enhancement of amino acid transport requires concomitant RNA and protein synthesis, consistent with the view that the adaptive increase reflects an increased amount of a rate-limiting protein involved in the transport process. Dexamethasone, which dramatically inhibits AIB transport in cells incubated in amino acid-containing medium, both blocks the starvation-induced increase in AIB transport, and causes a time-dependent decrease in transport velocity in cells whose transport has previously been enhanced by starvation.