Changes in non-histone nuclear proteins during postnatal myocardial development.

Myocardial-cell nuclei isolated from ventricles of rats between 4 days and 15 months of age showed a progressive loss of DNA-synthetic activity in vitro. Correlated with this loss is the differential appearance of three major groups of non-histone nuclear proteins. Group a, with pI5.7-6.5 and Mr 67000, appeared in detectable amounts in rats more than 10 days of age, whereas group b, consisting of proteins with pI6.8-7.2 and Mr 45000, appeared in rats older than 33 days. The third group (group c), with pI6.5-8.5 and Mr 32000-42000, was present throughout postnatal development, but the amount of these proteins appeared to be greater in the 10-day-old rat than in the 15-month-old rat. All groups of these specific proteins were localized within the nucleus and did not reflect cytoplasmic constituents. Furthermore, the amino acid compositions of these polypeptides were also analysed and compared with those of actin and tubulin.