Toward an understanding of the economics of pastoralism: The balance of exchange between pastoralists and nonpastoralists in Western Iran, 1815–1975

It has become a theoretical commonplace among students of southwest Asian pastoralism that the balance of exchange between pastoralists and their settled neighbors has had a profound effect on pastoralists, strongly influencing household viability and, indeed, the viability of pastoralism as an adaptation. However, little attempt has been made to examine historical variation in the balance of exchange. Attempts to use transformations in the balance of exchange as a means of accounting for change among pastoralists thus remain largely impressionistic and underspecified. This paper examines variations in the balance of exchange between Iranian pastoralists and non-pastoralists from 1815 to 1977. It demonstrates that to the degree that there were long term shifts in the balance of exchange, they favored pastoralists, and it argues that this trend became stronger, rather than weaker in the 20th century. This suggests that pressures on pastoralists over this period were not directly economic and that variation in the balance of exchange itself cannot account for outcomes such as the increased settlement of Iranian pastoralists.     

Hydrogen peroxide lethality is associated with a decreased ability to maintain positive DNA supercoiling

Hydrogen peroxide is more toxic to mammalian cells at 37 degrees C than 0 degree C at all concentrations studied. Histone-free nuclei (nucleoids) extracted from treated cells have a reduced ability to maintain positive DNA supercoiling, with the maximum effect at the higher temperature. Prior exposure of cells to sodium ascorbate at 0 degree C increased both toxicity and the inhibition of nuclear supercoil rewinding. After exposure at 0 degrees C, normal levels of supercoiling returned with both a fast and a slow component, kinetics characteristic of DNA single-strand break repair; the fast component was eliminated when cells were exposed at 37 degrees C due to in situ rejoining. At least a portion of the lethal lesions induced by hydrogen peroxide are DNA double-strand breaks (dsb) because the dsb repair-deficient mutant, xrs-5, is approximately two to three times more sensitive than wild-type cells over the initial portion of the survival curve. However, the increased toxicity found after exposure at 37 degrees C is observed equally in both cell lines, indicating that temperature-dependent cell killing is not directly linked to DNA dsb. It is suggested that cell killing at 37 degrees C is mediated through two linked processes. First, hydrogen peroxide may disrupt cation-stabilized nuclear supercoiling by direct ion oxidation. Second, as a part of the oxidation process, hydrogen peroxide will produce potentially cytotoxic free radicals close to the DNA-linked metal site, limited in extent only by the presence of chemicals capable of reducing metal ions prior to reoxidation.     

Syndecan 4 Is Involved in Mediating HCV Entry through Interaction with Lipoviral Particle-Associated Apolipoprotein E

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of liver disease worldwide and HCV infection represents a major health problem. HCV associates with host lipoproteins forming host/viral hybrid complexes termed lipoviral particles. Apolipoprotein E (apoE) is a lipoprotein component that interacts with heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPG) to mediate hepatic lipoprotein uptake, and may likewise mediate HCV entry. We sought to define the functional regions of apoE with an aim to identify critical apoE binding partners involved in HCV infection. Using adenoviral vectors and siRNA to modulate apoE expression we show a direct correlation of apoE expression and HCV infectivity, whereas no correlation exists with viral protein expression. Mutating the HSPG binding domain (HSPG-BD) of apoE revealed key residues that are critical for mediating HCV infection. Furthermore, a novel synthetic peptide that mimics apoE’s HSPG-BD directly and competitively inhibits HCV infection. Genetic knockdown of the HSPG proteins syndecan (SDC) 1 and 4 revealed that SDC4 principally mediates HCV entry. Our data demonstrate that HCV uses apoE-SDC4 interactions to enter hepatoma cells and establish infection. Targeting apoE-SDC interactions could be an alternative strategy for blocking HCV entry, a critical step in maintaining chronic HCV infection.     

Spontaneous opening at zero membrane potential of sodium channels from eel electroplax reconstituted into lipid vesicles

Summary The voltage-dependent sodium channel from the eel electroplax was purified and reconstituted into vesicles of varying lipid composition. Isotopic sodium uptake experiments were conducted with vesicles at zero membrane potential, using veratridine to activate channels and tetrodotoxin to block them. Under these conditions, channel-dependent uptake of isotopic sodium by the vesicles was observed, demonstrating that a certain fraction of the reconstituted protein was capable of mediating ion fluxes. In addition, vesicles untreated with veratridine showed significant background uptake of sodium; a considerable proportion of this flux was blocked by tetrodotoxin. Thus these measurements showed that a significant subpopulation of channels was present that could mediate ionic fluxes in the absence of activating toxins. The proportion of channels exhibiting this behavior was dependent on the lipid composition of the vesicles and the temperature at which the uptake was measured; furthermore, the effect of temperature was reversible. However, the phenomenon was not affected by the degree of purification of the protein used for reconstitution, and channels in resealed electroplax membrane fragments or reconstituted, solely into native eel lipids did not show this behavior. The kinetics of vesicular uptake through these spontaneously-opening channels was slow, and we attribute this behavior to a modification of sodium channel inactivation.