Inhibition of rat liver RNA polymerases by action of the methylating agents dimethylnitrosamine in vivo and methyl methanesulfonate in vitro.

Dimethylnitrosamine maximally inhibits rat liver nuclear RNA synthesis by 50% at a dose of 40 mg/kg of body weight. The inhibition develops during the first 4 hr and persists through the 12th hr. All parenchymal cells of the lever lobule seem to be affected. The decreased RNA synthesis can be accounted for entirely by an inhibition of the RNA polymerase activities quantitatively solubilized and partially purified. A similar inhibition of the polymerase activities was demonstrated in the intact nuclei by inactivating the endogenous template with actinomycin D and assaying the polymerases with an added exogenous template, poly(deoxy-adenylate-deoxythymidylate). Chromatin was prepared by two methods differing in the extent to which they remove the endogenous polymerase activity. Each preparation was transcribed with either added Escherichia coli or partially purified rat liver nucleoplasmic RNA polymerase. With either polymerase or chromatin preparation, no inhibition of the template activity of liver nuclear chromatin isolated from the DMN-treated animals was detected. A similar mechanism of inhibition of RNA synthesis was produced by the action of the methylating agent methyl methanesulfonate on whole nuclei in vitro. The dose-dependent inhibition of RNA synthesis could be accounted for by an inhibition of the RNA polymerase activities quantitatively solubilized and partially purified from the affected nuclei. Chromatin prepared from the methyl methanesulfonate-treated nuclei had a normal template capacity with either E. coli or rat liver nucleoplasmic RNA polymerase. No preferential methylation of the RNA polymerases by [14C]methyl methanesulfonate could be demonstrated. It is concluded that the action of the two methylating agents on RNA metabolism is similar and that the inhibition of liver nuclear RNA synthesis results from inactivation of the RNA polymerases. At the same time, dimethylnitrosamine and methyl methanesulfonate leave the chromatin template intact, at least quantitatively, for the synthesis of RNA. The implications of such an effect on RNA synthesis are discussed.