Biosynthesis of phospholipids in subcellular particles from cultured cells of human tissue.

A time study of the incorporation of(32)P(i) into the phospholipids of HeLa, KB, human heart, and liver tissue-culture cell lines has been carried out. The incorporation of(32)P(i) at various time-intervals into the phospholipids of nuclei, mitochondria, and microsomes of HeLa and KB cells was investigated. The labeling of the isotope into the phospholipids was divided into three groups.The first had two components: phosphatidyl inositol and polyglycerol phosphatides, which showed the greatest incorporation of the isotope as demonstrated in the specific activity values and the percentage of total radioactivity after 15 to 30 minutes of incubation. A second group was composed of the major phospholipids of all tissue-culture cell lines studied, phosphatidyl choline, and phosphatidyl ethanolamine. At first, there was a delayed labeling of these phospholipids; however, after one hour of incubation, a rapid increase was shown in the incorporation of(32)P(i). A third group of lipids containing sphingomyelin and phosphatidyl serine demonstrated low specific activity values.The phospholipids of the subcellular fractions, nuclei, mitochondria, and microsomes, had a high degree of incorporation of the isotope into the individual phospholipids and probably represented an active process in the membranes of these cellular units or a renewal of the biological membrane structures.