Influence of gender and castration on liver and CNS N-demethylation of morphine in rats1

Rats were injected with combinations of morphine-N-¹⁴CH₃ and morphine-6³H and the isotope content of the brain and liver was measured by combustion in a tissue oxidizer. The liver of intact male rats showed a significant increase in the ³H to ¹⁴C isotope ratio relative to the blood reflecting the existence of N-demethylation in this organ. This increase was not observed in the liver of either intact females or castrated males or females. Centrally, the hypothalamus, medial thalamus, and corpus striatum of both intact and castrated male and female rats exhibited increases in ³H to ¹⁴C isotope ratios indicating the presence of N-demethylation in these tissues. These results indicate that testicular hormones serve to increase the hepatic N-demethylation of morphine, but apparently reduce the comparable reaction in the CNS.     

The connection of plasma triiodothyronine levels with the sex-dependent body weight loss after bilateral pallidal lesion in rats.

Previous data showed that after bilateral pallidal lesion (GPL) the weight loss of animals is higher in males than females. Data in the literature have called attention to the possible involvement of thyroid hormones. The sex dependence of weight loss was prevented by neonatal castration. In the present experiments, plasma triiodothyronine level was determined in neonatally castrated and non-castrated male and female rats on the 4th day after GPL. Body weight changes in food and water deprived male and female rats were compared after 4 days of T3 administration. A positive correlation between weight loss and T3 levels was found but there was no difference in mean T3 values between male and females. In the non-castrated group, T3 levels were higher in lesioned than in food and water deprived animals. In neonatally castrated animals no such difference was found. T3 administration caused a uniform weight loss in both sexes. It seems that while they play a role in the mechanism of weight loss after GPL, the sex-dependence is not due to changes in factors involved in regulation of the thyroid hormone level.     

Effect of insulin and prednisolone on cyclic nucleotides and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase activity in brown fat and liver of developing rats

The concentrations of cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP in brown fat and liver of both suckling and adult rats at fixed times after injection of insulin (2.5 U/100 g body weight) or prednisolone (2.5 mg/100 g body weight) were compared with the activity of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase assayed 24 h after the injections. A stimulus that produced an increase in cyclic AMP content also produced an increase in the enzyme activity. If the content of cyclic GMP was also increased there was no rise in phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase activity. A rise in the content of cyclic GMP alone was associated with a reduction in the activity of the enzyme. These preliminary results indicate that cyclic AMP could be involved in the induction of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase and that cyclic GMP may somehow be related to its repression. The known differences in the response of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase activity to insulin and prednisolone in different tissues and at different stages of ontogenic development may thus be linked to differences in the responsiveness of enzymes concerned with the metabolism of cyclic nucleotides.     

Calcium and pancreatic beta-cell function. 7. Evidence for cyclic AMP-induced translocation of intracellular calcium

The effect of cyclic AMP on calcium movements in the pancreatic beta-cell was evaluated using an experimental approach based on in situ labelling of intracellular organelles of ob/ob-mouse islets with 45Ca. Whereas the glucose-stimulated 14Ca incorporation by mitochondria and secretory granules was increased under a condition known to reduce cyclic AMP (starvation), raised levels of this nucleotide (addition of 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine or N6,O2'-dibutyryl adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate) reduced the mitochondrial accumulation of 45Ca. Conditions with increased cyclic AMP were associated with a stimulated efflux of 45Ca from the secretory granules but not from the mitochondria. The microsomal fraction differed from both the mitochondrial and secretory granule fractions by accumulating more 45Ca after the addition of 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine. The results suggest that cyclic AMP potentiates glucose-stimulaated insulin release by increasing cytoplasmic Ca2+ at the expense of the calcium taken up by the organelles of the pancreatic beta-cells.     

Plants interact with microbial polysaccharides

Plants are resistant to almost all of the microorganisms with which they come in contact. In response to invasion by a fungus, bacterium, or a virus, many plants produce low molecular weight compounds, phytoalexins, which inhibit the growth of microorganisms. Phytoalexins are produced whether or not the invading microorganism is a pathogen. The production of phytoalexins appears to be a widespread mechanism by which plants attempt to defend themselves against pests. Molecules of microbial origin which trigger phytoalexin accumulation in plants are called elicitors. Structural polysaccharides from the mycelial walls of several fungi elicit phytoalexin accumlation in plants. Approximately 10 ng of the polysaccharide elicits the accumulation in plants of more than sufficient amounts of phytoalexin to stop the growth of microorganisms in vitro. The best characterized elicitors have been demonstrated to be β-1,3-glucans with branches to the 6 position of some of the glucosyl residues. Oligosaccharides, produced by partial acid hydrolysis of the mycelial wall glucans, are exceptionally active elicitors. The smallest oligosaccharide which is still an effective elicitor is composed of about 8 sugar residues. Bacteria also elicit phytoalexin accumulation in plants, but the Rhizobium symbionts of legumes presumably have a mechanism which allows them to avoid either eliciting phytoalexin accumulation or the effects of the phytoalexins if they are accumulated. The lectins of legumes bind to the lipopolysaccharides of their symbiont, but not of their non-symbiont, Rhizobium. It is not known whether the lectin-lipopolysaccharide interaction is involved with the establishment of symbiosis. However, evidence will be presented that suggests that lectins are, in fact, enzymes capable of modifying the structurs of the lipopolysaccharides of their symbiont, but not of their non-symbiont, Rhizobium. It will also be shown that the lipopolysaccharides isolated from different Rhizobium species and from different strains of individual Rhizobium species have different sugar compositions. Thus, the different strains of a single Rhizobium species are as different from one another as the different species of Salmonella and other gram-negative bacteria. This conclusion is substantiated by experiments demonstrating that antibodies to the lipopolysaccharide from a single Rhizobium strain can differentiate that strain from other strains of the same species as well as from other Rhizobium species. The role in symbiosis of the strain-specific O-antigens is unknown.     

Ein neuer Palaeodictyopteren-Fund aus dem westdeutschen Namurium

From the Namurian B of the Bergisches Land the oldest known remain of the Dictyoneuridae is described, namedSchmidtopteron adictyon n. g., n. sp. Present is a wing with the following characteristics: 1. shape long and slender; 2. subcosta relativly short; 3. radius nearly as long as the wing; 4. radius-sector branched off from the radius at 1/5 of the length of the wing (prox.), subdivided into 4 branches; 5. medialis subdivided also at 1/5 of the length of the wing; MEp with 2 branches; 6. cubitus subdivided at 1/10 of the length of the wing, CUp undivided; 7. anal veins 4 in number, separated each from the others in full length; at least A1 und A2 bifurcated; 8. A1 and CUp joined by a short connecting vein; 9. archaeodictyon not present. Schmidtopteron adictyon is the most primitive Namurian wing known. Its systematic position results from the structure of the only little branched veins. The absence of the archaeodictyon may be attributed to preservation: only the external mould of the upper surface of the wing is preserved. From all other genera of the Dictyoneuridae,Schmidtopteron is separated by the connection between A1 and CUp. This feature, and the relative large anal area, show thatSchmidtopteron is not the ancestor of younger Dictyoneuridae, but an early side branch of the evolution of this family.     

Host-Pathogen Interactions: XIV. Isolation and Partial Characterization of an Elicitor from Yeast Extract

An elicitor of glyceollin accumulation in soybeans (Glycine max L.) has been isolated from a commercially available extract of brewers' yeast. Yeast is not a known pathogen of plants. The elicitor was isolated by precipitation in 80% (v/v) ethanol followed by column chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, sulfopropyl-Sephadex, and concanavalin A-Sepharose. Compositional and structural analysis showed the elicitor to be a glucan containing terminal, 3-, 6-, and 3,6-linked glucosyl residues. The yeast elicitor stimulates the accumulation of glyceollin in the cotyledons and hypocotyls of soybeans when as little as 15 nanograms or 100 nanograms of the elicitor is applied to the respective tissues. The yeast elicitor is very similar in both structure and absolute elicitor activity to an elicitor isolated from the mycelial walls of Phytophthora megasperma var. sojae, a pathogen of soybeans. These and other results of this laboratory suggest that plants are able to respond to the presence of a wide range of fungi by recognizing, as foreign to the plant, structural polysaccharides of the mycelial walls of the fungi.