Lipid metabolism in rabbit lungs

1970 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. M. J. Wolfe ◽  
B. Anhalt ◽  
J. C. Beck ◽  
D. Rubinstein

The incorporation of palmitate-3H into phospholipids and neutral lipids by alveolar slices from rabbit lung rose with increasing medium palmitate concentration, but glycerol-U-14C incorporation was inadequate to account for all of the palmitate-3H esterified. The highest specific activities with respect to palmitate-3H were found in the triglycerides, diglycerides, and phosphatidylcholine fractions, although that of the phosphatidyl-N,N-dimethylethanolamine was greatest in the early stages of incubation. Incubation of slices with the labelled precursors for 5 min followed by a chase of 175 min resulted in a rapid drop in the specific activity of the phosphatidyl-N,N-dimethylethanolamine and diglycerides with concomitant increases in phosphatidylcholine and triglycerides. However, the radioactivity of the lecithin was too great and the specific activity of the phosphatidylethanolamine too low for the methylation pathway to be of importance in the synthesis of lecithin.Lysophosphatidylcholine could be converted to phosphatidylcholine by lung slices but its addition did not increase the esterification of palmitate. Methionine-methyl-14C was incorporated into phospholipids only slightly, phosphatidylserine having the highest specific activity.Following the intravenous injection of the labelled precursors, half the radioactivity in the lung was found in the phosphatidylcholine fraction of the alveolar tissue, little radioactivity being found in the bronchiolar tissue and the alveolar cell-free saline washings. The highest specific activities were found in the triglycerides and phosphatidylcholine fractions in all three tissue components.

1993 ◽  
Vol 69 (05) ◽  
pp. 430-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Longstaff ◽  
Man-Yu Wong ◽  
Patrick J Gaffney

SummaryAn international collaborative study has been carried out to investigate the reproducibility of hirudin assays in 13 laboratories using four recombinant hirudins and one natural, sulphated product. A simple assay procedure was proposed involving the titration of α-thrombin with inhibitor and measurement of residual activity using a chromogenic substrate. A standard α-thrombin preparation was supplied to ensure that this reagent was of uniform quality throughout the study. The method appeared to present no difficulties and laboratories reported similar potencies for the 5 hirudin samples, in line with expected values. This gave 200–222 Thrombin Inhibitory Units/ampoule (TIU/ampoule) of lyophilised hirudin, with geometric coefficient of variation (gcv) values ranging from 10.15–15.97%. This corresponds to specific activities of approximately 14,300–15,900 TIU/mg protein. This is close to the upper limit of previously reported values of specific activity. We conclude that the precision of this determination compared with the wider range of values in the literature (8,000–16,000 thrombin inhibitory units [TIU]/mg) results from the use of good quality standard α-thrombin by all laboratories. This study has important implications for hirudin standardisation.


1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (05) ◽  
pp. 805-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuo Takahashi ◽  
Yoshitaka Hosaka ◽  
Hiromi Niina ◽  
Katsuaki Nagasawa ◽  
Masaaki Naotsuka ◽  
...  

SummaryWe examined the anticoagulant activity of two major molecules of soluble thrombomodulin purified from human urine. The apparent molecular weights of these urinary thrombomodulins (UTMs) were 72,000 and 79,000, respectively. Both UTMs showed more potent cofactor activity for protein C activation [specific activity >5,000 thrombomodulin units (TMU)/mg] than human placental thrombomodulin (2,180 TMU/mg) and rabbit lung thrombomodulin (1,980 TMU/mg). The UTMs prolonged thrombin-induced fibrinogen clotting time (>1 TMU/ml), APTT (>5 TMU/ml), TT (>5 TMU/ml) and PT (>40 TMU/ml) in a dose-dependent fashion. These effects appeared in the concentration range of soluble thrombomodulins present in human plasma and urine. In the rat DIC model induced by thromboplastin, administration of UTMs by infusion (300-3,000 TMU/kg) restored the hematological abnormalities derived from DIC in a dose-dependent fashion. These results demonstrate that UTMs exhibit potent anticoagulant and antithrombotic activities, and could play a physiologically important role in microcirculation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 522
Author(s):  
Lyudmila V. Gromova ◽  
Elena I. Ermolenko ◽  
Anastasiya L. Sepp ◽  
Yulia V. Dmitrieva ◽  
Anna S. Alekseeva ◽  
...  

In recent years, great interest has arisen in the use of autoprobiotics (indigenous bacteria isolated from the organism and introduced into the same organism after growing). This study aimed to evaluate the effects of indigenous bifidobacteria on intestinal microbiota and digestive enzymes in a rat model of antibiotic-associated dysbiosis. Our results showed that indigenous bifidobacteria (the Bf group) accelerate the disappearance of dyspeptic symptoms in rats and prevent an increase in chyme mass in the upper intestine compared to the group without autoprobiotics (the C1 group), but significantly increase the mass of chyme in the colon compared to the C1 group and the control group (healthy animals). In the Bf group in the gut microbiota, the content of opportunistic bacteria (Proteus spp., enteropathogenic Escherichia coli) decreased, and the content of some beneficial bacteria (Bifidobacterium spp., Dorea spp., Blautia spp., the genus Ruminococcus, Prevotella, Oscillospira) changed compared to the control group. Unlike the C1 group, in the Bf group there was no decrease in the specific activities of maltase and alkaline phosphatase in the mucosa of the upper intestine, but the specific activity of maltase was decreased in the colon chyme compared to the control and C1 groups. In the Bf group, the specific activity of aminopeptidase N was reduced in the duodenum mucosa and the colon chyme compared to the control group. We concluded that indigenous bifidobacteria can protect the microbiota and intestinal digestive enzymes in the intestine from disorders caused by dysbiosis; however, there may be impaired motor function of the colon.


Genetics ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-87
Author(s):  
Daniel W Nebert ◽  
Nancy M Jensen ◽  
Hisashi Shinozuka ◽  
Heinz W Kunz ◽  
Thomas J Gill

ABSTRACT Forty-four inbred and four randombred rat strains and 20 inbred mouse strains were examined for their Ah phenotype by determining the induction of liver microsomal aryl hydrocarbon (benzo[a]pyrene) hydroxylase activity (EC 1.14.14.1) by intraperitoneal treatment with either β-naphthoflavone or 3-methylcholanthrene. All 48 rat strains were found to be Ah-responsive. The maximally induced hydroxylase specific activities of the ALB/Pit, MNR/Pit, MR/Pit, SHR/Pit, and Sprague-Dawley strains were of the same order of magnitude as the basal hydroxylase specific activities of the ACI/Pit, F344/Pit, OKA/Pit, and MNR/N strains. Six of the 20 mouse strains were Ah-nonresponsive (i.e. lacking the normal induction response and presumably lacking detectable amounts of the Ah receptor). The basal hydroxylase specific activities of the BDL/N, NFS/N, STAR/N, and ST/JN mouse strains were more than twice as high as the maximally induced hydroxylase specific activity of the CBA/HT strain.——To date, 24 Ah-nonresponsive mouse strains have been identified, out of a total of 68 known to have been characterized. The reasons for not finding a single Ah-nonresponsive inbred rat strain—as compared with about one Ah-nonresponsive inbred mouse strain found for every three examined—remain unknown.


1982 ◽  
Vol 208 (3) ◽  
pp. 611-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
M R Grigor ◽  
A Geursen ◽  
M J Sneyd ◽  
S M Warren

1. The rate of mammary-gland lipogenesis measured in vivo from 3H2O was suppressed after decreasing the milk demand by decreasing the number of pups from ten to two or three, as well as by giving diets containing lipid [Grigor & Warren (1980) Biochem. J. 188, 61-65]. 2. The specific activities of the lipogenic enzymes fatty acid synthase, glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase and ‘malic’ enzyme increased between 6- and 10-fold in the mammary gland and between 2- and 3-fold in the livers during the first 10 days of lactation. The increases in specific activity coupled with the doubling of liver mass which occurred during pregnancy and lactation resulted in considerable differences in total liver activities when compared with virgin animals. 3. Although consumption of a diet containing 20% peanut oil suppressed the activities of the three lipogenic enzymes in the livers, only the ‘malic’ enzyme was affected in the mammary glands. 4. In contrast, decreased milk demand did not affect the specific activities of any of the liver enzymes, whereas it resulted in suppression of all three lipogenic enzymes of the mammary glands. There was no effect on either the cytoplasmic malate dehydrogenase or the lactate dehydrogenase of the mammary gland. 5. In all the experiments performed, the activity of the fatty acid synthase correlated with the amount of material precipitated by the rabbit antibody raised against rat fatty acid synthase.


1982 ◽  
Vol 94 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
G P Miljanich ◽  
A R Brasier ◽  
R B Kelly

During transmitter release, synaptic vesicle membrane is specifically inserted into the nerve terminal plasma membrane only at specialized sites or "active zones." In an attempt to obtain a membrane fraction enriched in active zones, we have utilized the electric organ of the marine ray. From this organ, a fraction enriched in nerve terminals (synaptosomes) was prepared by conventional means. These synaptosomes were bound to microscopic beads by an antiserum to purified electric organ synaptic vesicles (anti-SV). The success of this immunoadsorption procedure was demonstrated by increased specific activities of bead-bound nerve terminal cytoplasmic markers and decreased specific activities of markers for contaminating membranes. To obtain a presynaptic plasma membrane (PSPM) fraction, we lysed the bead-bound synaptosomes by hypoosmotic shock and sonication, resulting in complete release of cytoplasmic markers. When the synaptosomal fraction was surface-labeled with iodine before immunoadsorption, 10% of this label remained bead-bound after lysis, compared with 2% of the total protein, indicating an approximately fivefold enrichment of bead-bound plasma membrane. Concomitantly, the specific activity of bead-bound anti-SV increased approximately 30-fold, indicating an enrichment of plasma membrane which contained inserted synaptic vesicle components. This PSPM preparation is not simply synaptic vesicle membrane since two-dimensional electrophoresis revealed that the polypeptides of the surface-iodinated PSPM preparation include both vesicle and numerous nonvesicle components. Secondly, antiserum to the PSPM fraction is markedly different from anti-SV and binds to external, nonvesicle, nerve terminal components.


1961 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 1393-1407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Shaw

Wang (Can. J. Botany, 38, 635–642 (1960)) concluded that the accumulation of radioactivity observed on radioautographs at infection sites on rusted leaves fed with C14-labelled substances was 'apparent' rather than real. The ‘accumulation ratio’ is defined as the ratio of the specific activities (c.p.m./mg dry weight of intact tissue) of rust-infected to uninfected areas of infected leaves. Theoretical considerations relating to the radioautography of leaves labelled with C14 and to the measurement of ‘accumulation ratios’ by extraction of C14-labelled substances from rusted and uninfected segments of infected leaves, as well as experimental data, show that Wang's conclusion is not generally applicable.Experimentally, it was shown using polymethacrylate C14 sources that differences in distance between sources and X-ray film of the order of 100 μ had no effect on the intensity of autoradiographs. Rust-infected leaves, fed with radioactive glucose, were radiographed between X-ray plates. Localization of radioactivity at infection sites was observed on both ‘dorsal’ and ‘ventral’ radiographs, indicating a real accumulation per unit area. Ventral were more radioactive than dorsal surfaces. The main development of the fungus occurred on the former. Radioautography revealed that C14 from glucose-1-C14, glucose-6-C14, and uniformly labelled glucose fed to excised wheat leaves became localized at 10-day-old rust infections in 2 hours. ‘Accumulation ratios’ calculated from the specific activity of leaf segments remained close to 1.0 for at least 6 hours after introduction of the tracer, but increased to more than 2 after 24 hours. When ‘accumulation ratios’ were calculated from the specific activities of individual pustules (excised with a punch 1 mm in diameter) and interpustular disks, values greater than 1 were observed in 2 hours, thus confirming the results of autoradiography. Differences between the ‘accumulation ratios’ observed with glucose-6-C14 and glucose-1-C14 were consistent with an increased role of the pentose phosphate pathway at infection sites. Incorporation of C14 from uniformly labelled glucose into the alcohol-insoluble fraction of rusted leaf segments was 2.5-fold that in uninfected segments in 6 hours and 3.65-fold in 24 hours. The humin formed during hydrochloric acid hydrolysis accounted for approximately 50% of the activity of the alcohol-insoluble material. The ‘accumulation ratio’ for the alcohol-soluble material was only 1.56 after 24 hours.All the results support the view (Shaw and Samborski, Can. J. Botany, 34, 389–405 (1956)) that there is a quantitative, metabolically dependent accumulation of C14 from radioactive glucose at vigorous rust infections. The relative roles of fungus and host in this process are discussed briefly.


1980 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 1091-1098 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Jobe ◽  
M. Ikegami ◽  
I. Sarton-Miller ◽  
L. Barajas

Surfactant, microsomal, and lamellar body fractions were isolated from the lungs of 5-day-old lambs 0.21-55 h after the intravenous injection of radiolabeled palmitic acid. The specific activities as cpm/mumol phospholipid phosphate of phosphatidylcholine, saturated phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, and phosphatidylethanolamine were measured. The palmitate-labeled phospholipids disappeared from the lung parenchyma with a half-life of approximately 50 h. The radiolabel disappeared from phosphatidylcholine, saturated phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, and phosphatidylethanolamine of microsomal fractions with initial half-life values of 4.5, 4.6, 1.9, and 23.9 h, respectively. The labeled phospholipids rapidly appeared in the lamellar body fraction and accumulated in the surfactant of the lambs in a linear fashion for 35 h. The curves for the labeling of surfactant with radiolabeled saturated phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylglycerol, and phosphatidylethanolamine were similar to the curve for phosphatidylcholine.


1998 ◽  
Vol 180 (7) ◽  
pp. 1814-1821 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Yang ◽  
Ho-Ching Tiffany Tsui ◽  
Tsz-Kwong Man ◽  
Malcolm E. Winkler

ABSTRACT pdxK encodes a pyridoxine (PN)/pyridoxal (PL)/pyridoxamine (PM) kinase thought to function in the salvage pathway of pyridoxal 5′-phosphate (PLP) coenzyme biosynthesis. The observation that pdxK null mutants still contain PL kinase activity led to the hypothesis that Escherichia coli K-12 contains at least one other B6-vitamer kinase. Here we support this hypothesis by identifying the pdxY gene (formally, open reading frame f287b) at 36.92 min, which encodes a novel PL kinase. PdxY was first identified by its homology to PdxK in searches of the complete E. coli genome. Minimal clones of pdxY + overexpressed PL kinase specific activity about 10-fold. We inserted an omega cassette intopdxY and crossed the resultingpdxY::ΩKanr mutation into the bacterial chromosome of a pdxB mutant, in which de novo PLP biosynthesis is blocked. We then determined the growth characteristics and PL and PN kinase specific activities in extracts ofpdxK and pdxY single and double mutants. Significantly, the requirement of the pdxB pdxK pdxY triple mutant for PLP was not satisfied by PL and PN, and the triple mutant had negligible PL and PN kinase specific activities. Our combined results suggest that the PL kinase PdxY and the PN/PL/PM kinase PdxK are the only physiologically important B6vitamer kinases in E. coli and that their function is confined to the PLP salvage pathway. Last, we show thatpdxY is located downstream from pdxH (encoding PNP/PMP oxidase) and essential tyrS (encoding aminoacyl-tRNATyr synthetase) in a multifunctional operon.pdxY is completely cotranscribed with tyrS, but about 92% of tyrS transcripts terminate at a putative Rho-factor-dependent attenuator located in thetyrS-pdxY intercistronic region.


Blood ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 75 (9) ◽  
pp. 1788-1793 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Okabe ◽  
M Asano ◽  
T Kuga ◽  
Y Komatsu ◽  
M Yamasaki ◽  
...  

About 100 derivatives of human recombinant granulocyte colony- stimulating factor (rhG-CSF) were created by various gene-mutagenic techniques, and KW-2228, in which amino acids were replaced at five positions of N-terminal region of intact rhG-CSF, was picked up and evaluated for its biologic and physicochemical properties in comparison with intact rhG-CSF. KW-2228 showed two to four times higher specific activity than that of intact rhG-CSF in mouse and/or human bone marrow progenitor cells by colony-forming unit assay in soft agar, and by cell- proliferation assay in liquid culture. KW-2228 showed a potency to increase peripheral neutrophil counts when it was administered to normal C3H/He mice by single intravenous injection. Increase of total leukocyte count and neutrophils was observed, with peak level at 8 to 12 hours at low doses (0.5 to 1.0 micrograms/mouse), and the highest level was maintained for 24 to 30 hours at high doses (5 to 10 micrograms/mouse). The granulopoietic effect of KW-2228 was examined by several doses of single course (once daily for 10 days) or multiple courses (twice daily injection for 5 days followed by cessation for 9 days on one cycle, 3 cycles in total) of treatment. KW-2228 showed higher activity than that of rhG-CSF, especially at sub-optimal doses of multiple courses of treatment. Furthermore, KW-2228 was found to be more stable physicochemically and biologically than intact rhG-CSF, especially under thermal conditions at 56 degrees C and in the human plasma at 37 degrees C, suggesting a protease resistancy. Pharmacokinetic study showed that plasma concentration of KW-2228 assayed for its bioactivity maintained a higher level than that of intact rhG-CSF for 60 minutes after intravenous injection of this protein to normal mice. Those results suggest that KW-2228 might show a superior in vivo hematopoietic effect to intact rhG-CSF due to its high specific activity to progenitor cells, and also due to its improved physicochemical, biologic, and pharmacokinetic stability in host animals.


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