Chemical composition of subcellular particles from cultured cells of human tissue

Chemical composition of subcellular components of HeLa, KB, human heart and liver tissue-culture cell lines have been studied. The concentration of RNA, protein and phospholipid (μg/μg of DNA) of total subcellular particles was similar for all four cell lines studied. The greatest RNA concentration and lowest protein concentration is found in the microsomes as compared to the other subcellular fractions of HeLa and KB cells. The lipid P/Protein N ratio of mitochondria was greater than the other subcellular fractions from tissue-culture cell lines studied. Phosphatidyl choline and phosphatidyl ethanolamine are the major phospholipids with the former more predominant in all of the subcellular fractions of tissue-culture cells studied. Phosphatidyl inositol, phosphatidyl serine, sphingomyelin and polyglycerol phosphatide were shown to be present. Phosphatidyl choline composition (per cent of total lipid-P) is greatest in the microsomes when compared with the other subcellular fractions obtained from all of the cell lines studied except the nuclear fraction of human liver cells. Correspondingly, the mitochondrial fraction for all of the tissue culture cell lines contains the greatest composition of phosphatidyl ethanolamine except for the human liver and heart cells. The mitochondrial fraction contains the lowest amount of phosphatidyl inositol. Polyglycerol phosphatide is mainly present in the mitochondrial fraction of the tissue-culture cells. Part of a thesis submitted to the Graduate School of the University of North Dakota in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.