Protein synthesis artifacts

The main efforts in the early period were directed toward demonstrating that the incorporation observed with the slices could be validly related to results obtained in the whole animal. One of the approaches used was a comparison of the initial rates of incorporation in the slices with those observed in vivo. Despite the many artifacts, i.e., incorporation of labeled amino acids into other than peptide bonds [for a detailed discussion of these see Tarver (15)], it had been amply demonstrated by 1950 [for review of the evidence see Borsook (SO)] that on the whole, the rate of protein synthesis in slices or minces and in some metabolically active cell suspensions was very comparable to the rates in the corresponding organ in situ. This is in sharp contrast, as we shall see, with the situation in homogenates or otherwise damaged cells—hence the choice in this chapter of speaking of whole cells rather than differentiating between a tissue outside or inside the animal. 

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