Regulation of lysosomal fusion during deprivation-induced autophagy in perfused rat liver.

Previous studies have demonstrated that autophagic vacuoles induced in hepatocytes of the perfused rat liver can be effectively separated from secondary lysosomes in self-generating gradients of colloidal silica/polyvinylpyrrolidone. Here we show that, as autophagy is increased by graded amino acid deprivation, the lysosomal marker N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase shifts progressively from dense to buoyant gradient fractions, an effect attributable to enhanced lysosome-autophagosome fusion and the formation of additional autolysosomes. Both the amount of the shift and the aggregate volume of autolysosomes were directly proportional to the increase in protein degradation above basal. Because the total quantity of protein sequestered in the vacuoles is also a direct function of deprivation-induced proteolysis, the relative specific activity of the marker enzyme in autolysosomes (enrichment) would be expected to remain constant over the full range of deprivation; numerical estimates of enrichment, in fact, did not differ from the mean (43.9) by more than 5%. The close correspondence between cytoplasmic sequestration and fusion was maintained, despite a greater than 3-fold increase in the average volume of individual vacuoles. This suggests the existence of an intrinsic regulatory mechanism which limits the number of fusions per vacuole, on the basis of information derived from vacuolar volume.