Expression of deoxyuridine triphosphatase during liver regeneration in rat.

Deoxyuridine triphosphatase (dUTPase) activity increases concomitantly with DNA replication in the course of liver regeneration in rat. We confirmed in this report using Western blot analysis and Northern blot hybridization that the increase of dUTPase activity was derived from expression of the gene. The content of dUTPase protein quantitatively coincided with the activity, they reached to the maximum at about 24 h after partial hepatectomy. We also detected a transcript (1.0 kb) presumed to be a rat spleen dUTPase mRNA by the human dUTPase cDNA probe. This transcript appeared in the liver after a lag of about 16 h, reached to the maximum at 24 h, and could be detected until 48 h after partial hepatectomy. The increase of this transcript nearly coincided with the changes of dUTPase activity and the quantity of enzyme protein. These results indicated that the expression of dUTPase gene is related to the DNA replication.