Thiamine Diphosphate Content of Liver Mitochondria of the Pregnant and Developing Rat

1974 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 317-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Hoekstra ◽  
R. Berger ◽  
F.A. Hommes
1973 ◽  
Vol 51 (11) ◽  
pp. 1498-1504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Sribney ◽  
Marilyn K. Duffe ◽  
Eileen M. Lyman

The properties of the enzyme phosphorylcholine–ceramide transferase (CDP-choiine:ceramide cholinephosphotransferase, EC 2.7.8.3) which catalyzes the biosynthesis of sphingomyelin has been studied in brain tissues of the developing rat, chick, and calf. This enzyme catalyzes the transfer of the phosphorylcholine moiety from the coenzyme CDP-choline to the free primary hydroxyl group of threo-ceramides containing short-chain fatty acids in acyl linkage. Free erythro- or threo-sphingosines and erythro-ceramides with either short- or long-chain fatty acids in acyl linkage do not act as acceptors of phosphorylcholine in these tissues. In contrast to chicken liver these brain tissues do not catalyze the menadione-stimulated formation of sphingomyelin from erythro-cetamidts. Brain tissues have been found to inhibit the menadione-stimulated formation of sphingomyelin catalyzed by chicken liver mitochondria. Other properties of brain phosphorylcholine–ceramide transferase are also described.


Author(s):  
E. A. Elfont ◽  
R. B. Tobin ◽  
D. G. Colton ◽  
M. A. Mehlman

Summary5,-5'-diphenyl-2-thiohydantoin (DPTH) is an effective inhibitor of thyroxine (T4) stimulation of α-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase in rat liver mitochondria. Because this finding indicated a possible tool for future study of the mode of action of thyroxine, the ultrastructural and biochemical effects of DPTH and/or thyroxine on rat liver mere investigated.Rats were fed either standard or DPTH (0.06%) diet for 30 days before T4 (250 ug/kg/day) was injected. Injection of T4 occurred daily for 10 days prior to sacrifice. After removal of the liver and kidneys, part of the tissue was frozen at -50°C for later biocheailcal analyses, while the rest was prefixed in buffered 3.5X glutaraldehyde (390 mOs) and post-fixed in buffered 1Z OsO4 (376 mOs). Tissues were embedded in Araldlte 502 and the sections examined in a Zeiss EM 9S.Hepatocytes from hyperthyroid rats (Fig. 2) demonstrated enlarged and more numerous mitochondria than those of controls (Fig. 1). Glycogen was almost totally absent from the cytoplasm of the T4-treated rats.


Author(s):  
F. G. Zaki

Choline-deficiency was induced in Holtzman young rats of both sexes by feeding them a high fat - low protein diet.Preliminary studies of the ultrastructural changes in the myocardium of these animals have been recently reported from this laboratory. Myocardial lesions first appeared in the form of intraventricular mural thrombi, loss of cross striation of muscle fibers and focal necrosis of muscle cells associated with interstitial myocarditis. Prolonged choline-deficiency induced cardiomegaly associated with pericardial edema.During the early phase of this nutritional disorder, heart mitochondria - despite of not showing any swelling similar to that usually encountered in liver mitochondria of the same animal - ware the most ubiquitous site of marked structural abnormalities. Early changes in mitochondria appeared as vacuolation, disorganization, disruption and loss of cristae. Degenerating mitochondria were often seen quite enlarged and their matrix was replaced by whorls of myelin figures resembling lysosomal structures especially where muscle fibers were undergoing necrosis. In some areas, mitochondria appeared to be unusually clumped together where some contained membranelined vacuoles and others enclosed dense bodies and granular inclusions.


Author(s):  
V. Kriho ◽  
H.-Y. Yang ◽  
C.-M. Lue ◽  
N. Lieska ◽  
G. D. Pappas

Radial glia have been classically defined as those early glial cells that radially span their thin processes from the ventricular to the pial surfaces in the developing central nervous system. These radial glia constitute a transient cell population, disappearing, for the most part, by the end of the period of neuronal migration. Traditionally, it has been difficult to definitively identify these cells because the principal criteria available were morphologic only.Using immunofluorescence microscopy, we have previously defined a phenotype for radial glia in rat spinal cord based upon the sequential expression of vimentin, glial fibrillary acidic protein and an intermediate filament-associated protein, IFAP-70/280kD. We report here the application of another intermediate filament-associated protein, IFAP-300kD, originally identified in BHK-21 cells, to the immunofluorescence study of radial glia in the developing rat spinal cord.Results showed that IFAP-300kD appeared very early in rat spinal cord development. In fact by embryonic day 13, IFAP-300kD immunoreactivity was already at its peak and was observed in most of the radial glia which span the spinal cord from the ventricular to the subpial surfaces (Fig. 1). Interestingly, from this time, IFAP-300kD immunoreactivity diminished rapidly in a dorsal to ventral manner, so that by embryonic day 16 it was detectable only in the maturing macroglial cells in the marginal zone of the spinal cord and the dorsal median septum (Fig. 2). By birth, the spinal cord was essentially immuno-negative for this IFAP. Thus, IFAP-300kD appears to be another differentiation marker available for future studies of gliogenesis, especially for the early stages of radial glia differentiation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 476 (24) ◽  
pp. 3687-3704 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aphrodite T. Choumessi ◽  
Manuel Johanns ◽  
Claire Beaufay ◽  
Marie-France Herent ◽  
Vincent Stroobant ◽  
...  

Root extracts of a Cameroon medicinal plant, Dorstenia psilurus, were purified by screening for AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activation in incubated mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs). Two isoprenylated flavones that activated AMPK were isolated. Compound 1 was identified as artelasticin by high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and 2D-NMR while its structural isomer, compound 2, was isolated for the first time and differed only by the position of one double bond on one isoprenyl substituent. Treatment of MEFs with purified compound 1 or compound 2 led to rapid and robust AMPK activation at low micromolar concentrations and increased the intracellular AMP:ATP ratio. In oxygen consumption experiments on isolated rat liver mitochondria, compound 1 and compound 2 inhibited complex II of the electron transport chain and in freeze–thawed mitochondria succinate dehydrogenase was inhibited. In incubated rat skeletal muscles, both compounds activated AMPK and stimulated glucose uptake. Moreover, these effects were lost in muscles pre-incubated with AMPK inhibitor SBI-0206965, suggesting AMPK dependency. Incubation of mouse hepatocytes with compound 1 or compound 2 led to AMPK activation, but glucose production was decreased in hepatocytes from both wild-type and AMPKβ1−/− mice, suggesting that this effect was not AMPK-dependent. However, when administered intraperitoneally to high-fat diet-induced insulin-resistant mice, compound 1 and compound 2 had blood glucose-lowering effects. In addition, compound 1 and compound 2 reduced the viability of several human cancer cells in culture. The flavonoids we have identified could be a starting point for the development of new drugs to treat type 2 diabetes.


Author(s):  
Olga A. Gonchar ◽  
Valentina I. Nosar ◽  
Larisa. V. Bratus ◽  
I. N. Tymchenko ◽  
N. N. Steshenko ◽  
...  

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