A comparison of microtubule assembly in brain extracts from young and old rats

Microtubule assembly was examined in the high-speed supernatant from homogenates of young (2–4 months old) and old (more than 24 months old) rat brains and significant age-related differences in microtubule assembly were found in the absence of exogenous GTP. In extracts from young brains, the increase in absorbance at 350 nm, which reflects the assembly reaction, was characterized by three phases (lag, elongation, and steady state) superimposed on a slow continuous increase due to non-specific aggregation. However, assembly in extracts from old brains was very sluggish, in some cases barely more rapid than the non-specific aggregation reaction. Two to three times as much protein was assembled into cold-labile microtubules in extracts from young brains than from old brains. When 1 mM GTP was included in the assembly solutions the patterns of assembly in extracts from young and old brains became similar, with about the same amount of protein assembled into cold-labile microtubules. The assembly of tubulin purified from rat brains showed no differences between young and old. Results showed that extracts from old brains contained a higher GTPase activity than extracts from young brains. The sluggish assembly in extracts from old brains could be due to a deficiency in GTP or an inefficient regeneration of GTP.