Global brain ischemia and reperfusion: modifications in eukaryotic initiation factors associated with inhibition of translation initiation

We used in vitro translation and antibodies against phosphoserine and the eukaryotic initiation factors elF-4E, elF-4G, and elF-2 alpha to examine the effects of global brain ischemia and reperfusion on translation initiation and its regulation in a rat model of 10 min of cardiac arrest followed by resuscitation and 90 min of reperfusion. Translation reactions were performed on postmitochondrial supernatants from brain homogenates with and without aurintricarboxylic acid to separate incorporation due to run-off from incorporation due to peptide synthesis initiated in vitro. The rate of leucine incorporation due to in vitro-initiated protein synthesis in normal forebrain homogenates was approximately 0.4 fmol of leucine/min/microgram of protein and was unaffected by 10 min of cardiac arrest, but 90 min of reperfusion reduced this rate 83%. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and western blots of these homogenates showed that neither 10 min of global brain ischemia nor 90 min of reperfusion induced significant alterations in the quantity or serine phosphorylation of elF-4E. However, we observed in all 90-min-reperfused samples elF-4G fragments that also bound elF-4E. The amount of elF-2 alpha was not altered by ischemia or reperfusion, and immunoblotting after isoelectric focusing did not detect serine-phosphorylated elF-2 alpha in normal samples or in those obtained after ischemia without reperfusion. However, serine-phosphorylated elF-2 alpha was uniformly present after 90 min of reperfusion and represented 24 +/- 3% of the elF-2 alpha in these samples. The serine phosphorylation of elF-2 alpha and partial fragmentation of elF-4G observed after 90 min of reperfusion offer an explanation for the inhibition of protein synthesis.