Twelve-hour exposure of G1 Ehrlich ascites cells to controlled hypoxia (200 ppm of 02 at 1 bar) suppressed replicon initiation. Synchronous cycling, beginning with a normal S phase, was released by reoxygenation immediately. The addition of cycloheximide at reoxygenation largely resuppressed, after a short initial burst, succeeding replicon initiations. Alkaline sedimentation analysis of growing daughter strand DNA, DNA fiber autoradiography, and analysis of the newly formed DNA demonstrated that normal chain growth and DNA maturation (replicon termination) in the initially activated replicons continued in the presence of cycloheximide. After 2 to 3 h, a low level of cycloheximide-insensitive background replication emerged out of the then-ebbing single surge of activity of the initially released replicons.In earlier reports (17-19, 22- (24). The regulation occurs when the oxygen tension in the cellular environment is lowered to the range between about 200 and 2,000 ppm (relative to 1 bar of total pressure). These 02 tensions are distinctly above those depressing mitochondrial respiration (2) and do not alter the cellular adenylate energy charge (22). Furthermore, we have shown that this regulation takes place during ascites tumor growth in vivo (18,22). There it may represent a major determinant of tumor cell propagation by adapting growth to the supply of nutrients (not only of 02) which is increasingly impaired when the tumor mass in the peritoneal cavity grows. Possibly, it also influences cell propagation in poorly vascularized regions of solid tumors. Repeatedly (18, 22-24), we pointed to the possible significance of 02-dependent replication regulation in critical situations during embryonic development of mammals before placentation. A further function in nonmalignant cell growth may be associated with certain stages of healing of a wound. When hypoxia hits cells in the G1 phase they obviously proceed in the cycle up to the point at which normally the first replicons of the S phase are activated. Reoxygenating such hypoxic G1 cells triggers, within a few minutes, entry into the S phase and succeeding synchronous cycling (3,24).In detailed experiments, we investigated the effects of cycloheximide (CHX) and puromycin on replicon action in aerated cells and in transiently hypoxic cells (3, 24). The results suggested (i) that replicon initiation in Ehrlich ascites cells depends on one or several short-lived protein(s) whose formation is not affected by the hypoxia and (ii) that inhibition of protein synthesis affects in Ehrlich ascites cells, unlike in many other cell lines (24), and in analogy to hypoxia, only replicon initiation.
* Corresponding author.Thus, hypoxia and CHX provide two independent tools for specifically suppressing replicon initiation in Ehrlich ascites cells. These tools are differently suited for quickly releasing and establishing, respectively, the suppression. Establishing hypoxia in a cell culture requires 1 to 2 h (22), but a normal partial 02 pressure can be restored instantaneously ...