Differentiation in vivo and in vitro of pyruvate kinase isozymes in rat muscle.

The M type isozymes of Pyruvate-kinase have been studied by isoelectrofocusing in thin layer acrylamide ampholine gel, during the ontogeny of rat muscle in vivo and during the differentiation in vitro of myoblasts of a line established by Yaffe. In both cases, multiple subbands have been seen; the most acid (pHi 5.2) was the predominant band in myoblasts and in fetal muscle at the 15th day. Several more cathodic bands appear sequentially in vitro as in vivo, one of them corresponding to the "M2" or "K" band (predominant in kidney). The most cathodic band M1 (pHi 7.3), characteristic of the adult muscle, appears at the 9th day of culture in vitro in multinucleated myotubes and at the 20th day of fetal life in vivo. Kinetic results confirm these electrofocusing results, showing in fetal muscle and in myoblasts a sigmoid saturation curve of pyruvate kinase activity with phosphoenolpyruvate as substrate. This allosteric kinetic is progressively replaced by a Michaëlian kinetics in vitro as in vivo. Consequently, the studies in vitro may serve as a model for myogenesis in vivo, and may contribute to the understanding of the significance of the multiple forms of pyruvate-kinase during this myogenesis.