scholarly journals Preparation of Crude Subcellular Fractions by Differential Centrifugation

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 1638-1642 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Graham

The employment of differential centrifugation to prepare crude fractions of subcellular particles from homogenates is often a necessary first step to a subsequent purification of one or more particles on a density gradient. Buoyant density gradient purification of peroxisomes or lysosomes for example is almost invariably carried out on a light mitochondrial fraction so as to eliminate smaller particles that may have similar densities. Unless they are first removed, large rapidly sedimenting particles in homogenates may also disturb shallow gradients designed to fractionate small low-density microsomes.

1973 ◽  
Vol 134 (3) ◽  
pp. 687-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. G. Satav ◽  
M. S. Rajwade ◽  
S. S. Katyare ◽  
M. S. Netrawali ◽  
P. Fatterpaker ◽  
...  

1. The heavy, light and fluffy mitochondrial fractions obtained by differential centrifugation were further characterized with respect to their protein synthesizing ability in vitro, their nucleic acid content, buoyant density of their DNA and ultrastructure. 2. The light mitochondrial fraction synthesized proteins in vitro at a rate 4–5 times as high as heavy and fluffy mitochondria. The incorporation ability of this fraction was also maximally affected by the thyroid status of the animal. The radioactivity in leucyl-tRNA of the light mitochondrial fraction was about 3–4 times as high as that of the other two fractions. 3. The heavy, light and fluffy mitochondrial fractions contained small but consistent amounts of RNA and DNA. Although the DNA content was the same in all mitochondria fractions, the light mitochondria contained relatively more RNA. The buoyant density of DNA from all the fractions was 1.701g/cm3. 4. Electron microscopy revealed that the heavy mitochondria have a typical mitochondrial architecture, with densely packed cristae and a well developed double membrane. Light mitochondria were also surrounded by double membranes, but were smaller in size and contained less cristae. The fluffy fraction consisted of a mixture of well formed mitochondria and those in the process of degradation. 5. The significance of these findings in relation to mammalian mitochondrial genesis is discussed.


2007 ◽  
Vol 82 (5) ◽  
pp. 2120-2129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Gastaminza ◽  
Guofeng Cheng ◽  
Stefan Wieland ◽  
Jin Zhong ◽  
Wei Liao ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Intracellular infectious hepatitis C virus (HCV) particles display a distinctly higher buoyant density than do secreted virus particles, suggesting that the characteristic low density of extracellular HCV particles is acquired during viral egress. We took advantage of this difference to examine the determinants of assembly, maturation, degradation, and egress of infectious HCV particles. The results demonstrate that HCV assembly and maturation occur in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and post-ER compartments, respectively, and that both depend on microsomal transfer protein and apolipoprotein B, in a manner that parallels the formation of very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDL). In addition, they illustrate that only low-density particles are efficiently secreted and that immature particles are actively degraded, in a proteasome-independent manner, in a post-ER compartment of the cell. These results suggest that by coopting the VLDL assembly, maturation, degradation, and secretory machinery of the cell, HCV acquires its hepatocyte tropism and, by mimicry, its tendency to persist.


1987 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 1261
Author(s):  
Peter Goldie ◽  
Michael J. Stewart ◽  
Seymour Schulman ◽  
Jerome P. Vanderberg

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Humra Athar ◽  
Zhenghui G Jiang ◽  
Christopher J McKnight

High serum levels of low density lipoproteins (LDL) is associated with increased risk of atherosclerosis. Apolipoprotein B (ApoB) is required for the assembly and secretion of chylomicrons and very low density lipoproteins (VLDL), the precursor of low density lipoproteins (LDL). Despite its clinical significance, the mechanism of the assembly of these ApoB containing lipoproteins is poorly understood. The assembly process is an interplay of several key components including but not limited to nascent ApoB, lipids, ER resident chaperones and importantly, microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTP). In the current study, we are trying to understand several unanswered questions in the mechanism of the lipoprotein assembly. We have used a novel prokaryotic cell-free expression system and lipids mimicking the ER membrane to produce particles that represent the early dense initiation particles formed in the ER. After optimizing several different conditions, we were able to make “synthetic” lipoproteins by cotranslational expression of constructs from the first 22% of ApoB tagged with a 6-histidine tag at the C-terminus (ApoB 22-His) with small unilamellar phosphatidylcholine (PC) vesicles and phosphatidylcholine:triolein (PC:TO) emulsions. After cotranslational interaction with lipids, these constructs migrate to a lower density in potassium bromide (KBr) density gradient centrifugation. Here we report a new ApoB 22 construct with a FLAG tag at the N-terminus in addition to the C-terminal His tag. The construct makes significant amount of soluble protein that is soluble in the cell free reaction. The two N- and C-terminal tags allow us to purify full length construct from any truncation products. In addition, the dual-tag approach will allow us to purify the synthetic lipoproteins directly from the cell free system, and thereby avoid the requirement for KBr density gradient centrifugation. This new strategy will provide far more efficient generation and purification of synthetic ApoB containing lipoprotein particles.


1974 ◽  
Vol 143 (3) ◽  
pp. 669-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Ramakrishnan Bhaskar ◽  
J. Michael Creeth

1. Equilibrium density-gradient ultracentrifugation in caesium salts was used in two stages in the isolation and subfractionation of the glycoprotein component from a human ovarian-cyst fluid. The eight main subfractions thus obtained were the subject of detailed physicochemical characterization. 2. The fractions were unimodal in buoyant-density distribution, but had discrete ρ0 values ranging from 1.31 to 1.35. 3. Weight-average molecular weights and sedimentation coefficients decreased regularly with decreasing density of the fraction, whereas the partial specific volumes and selective solvation parameters increased. The latter behaviour correlates well with the increasing peptide content of the lighter fractions. 4. The fractions exhibited a range of analytical composition, although all were within the limits previously observed for blood-group substances of Lea specificity. All fractions had approximately equal Lea activity. The peptide content varied systematically from 7% for the densest fraction to 15% for the lightest, but the relative distributions of the amino acids remained essentially constant throughout the series. In particular, serine plus threonine plus proline made up about 50% of the peptide content of all the fractions. Fucose, galactose and N-acetylglucosamine contents decreased with increasing peptide content of the fractions, but N-acetylgalactosamine and sialic acid exhibited the opposite trend. Molar ratios of N-acetylgalactosamine to the sum of serine and threonine remained essentially constant at 0.8–0.9, implying a high degree of glycosylation of all the molecules, but the ratio of N-acetylglucosamine to N-acetylgalactosamine decreased steadily with increasing peptide content, suggesting the presence of oligosaccharide side chains of various lengths. The results are discussed in terms of the accepted structure of glycoprotein molecules. 5. Experiments on the glycoproteins extracted with phenol from the same cyst fluid have confirmed that equilibrium centrifugation in caesium salts does not remove any non-covalently bound protein nor cause any changes in the tertiary structures of these glycoprotein molecules.


1982 ◽  
Vol 242 (3) ◽  
pp. E178-E183
Author(s):  
R. C. Strickler ◽  
B. Tobias

The 20 alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase activity in human term placenta has been localized by different investigators to nuclear, mitochondrial, microsomal, and cytosolic subcellular fractions. Furthermore, in the cytosol, 20 alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase activity may be a second function of the enzyme that mediates 17 beta-estradiol dehydrogenase activity. To search for a unique 20 alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, human placental villous tissue, homogenized in three different buffer systems, was fractionated by differential centrifugation, and the 17 beta- and 20 alpha-activities were measured by radioisotope conversion assay. The enrichment and purity of the subcellular fractions were shown by marker enzyme assays and electron microscopy studies. Under all experimental conditions, 20 alpha-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase activity was identified only in the 105,000 g placental cytosol: intact, osmotically ruptured, and acetone-extracted mitochondria, nuclei, and microsomes did not convert progesterone to 20 alpha-dihydroprogesterone. Furthermore, because 17 beta-estradiol dehydrogenase activity was in large part soluble in the cytosol, these localization studies are consistent with the hypothesis that the 20 alpha- and 17 beta-oxidoreductase activities in human placenta reside on one soluble protein.


1976 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. M. G. Thomas ◽  
J. H. Veerkamp

ABSTRACT Human term placenta tissue homogenates were subjected to differential centrifugation procedures. The composition of the subcellular fractions was monitored with a number of marker enzymes and the effectiveness of these enzyme systems was evaluated. The subcellular fractions were tested for their 17β-hydroxy dehydrogenase activity on testosterone, oestradiol and the synthetic substrate retrotestosterone. Buffer medium composition showed a direct influence upon enzyme distribution patterns of all fractions during the same differential centrifugation procedure. All enzyme activities tested became less sedimentable when glycerol was present in the fractionation buffer. Glycerol stabilized soluble 17β-hydroxy dehydrogenase activity during fractionation. The activity of steroid-converting enzymes was inhibited by the presence of glycerol in the medium. Subcellular distribution of marker enzymes did not sustain the presence of mitochondrial 17β-hydroxy dehydrogenase but related it to microsomal contamination. In general the proportion of 17β-hydroxy dehydrogenase activity in the particulate fractions showed a decrease in the substrate order retrotestosterone > testosterone > oestradiol which was independent from the buffer medium used. Specific activities for both particle-bound and soluble 17β-hydroxy dehydrogenase increased in the substrate order retrotestosterone < testosterone < oestradiol. The particulate enzyme activity was maximal with NAD+ for the three substrates tested, but in the cytosol fraction NADP+ was the preferential co-enzyme only when oestradiol was used as the substrate.


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