“Unblocking” Serum Activity <Emphasis Type="Italic">in vitro</Emphasis> in the Polyoma System may Correlate with Antitumour Effects of Antiserum <Emphasis Type="Italic">in vivo</Emphasis>

In a variety of tumour systems, individuals carrying progressively growing neoplasms have lymphoid cells with a specific cytotoxic effect on cultured tumour cells from the same individual^1–4. Since the sera of tumour-bearing individuals have been shown to prevent tumour cell destruction by immune lymphocytes in vitro^2,5–8 and since this serum blocking activity appears early in primary and transplant tumour development^5,7, it has been suggested that the appearance of this serum blocking activity might be responsible for the progressive growth of tumours in individuals having cytotoxic lymphocytes. Counteraction of this blocking activity would thus be of primary importance in facilitating the function of an already existing or bolstered cell-mediated immunity. The serum blocking activity might be inhibited in various ways, by preventing the formation of blocking antibody or by interfering with its action (“unblocking”), as demonstrated in Moloney sarcoma regressor sera⁹. This type of serum also has a therapeutic effect on Moloney sarcomas in vivo^10,11, which has been tentatively attributed to its unblocking activity^8,9 or, possibly, to a complement-dependent cytotoxicity¹⁰. Tumour growth in the Moloney sarcoma system, however, might be due in part to continuous recruitment of neoplastic cells by virus-induced transformation and so the therapeutic effect could be due to a virus-neutralizing serum activity^9,10.     

On the mechanism of ATP-induced shape changes in the human erythrocyte membranes: the role of ATP

In the preceding paper (Sheetz, M. and S.J. Singer. 1977. J Cell Biol. 73:638-646) it was shown that erythrocyte ghosts undergo pronounced shape changes in the presence of mg-ATP. The biochemical effects of the action of ATP are herein examined. The biochemical effects of the action of ATP are herein examined. Phosphorylation by ATP of spectrin component 2 of the erythrocyte membrane is known to occur. We have shown that it is only membrane protein that is significantly phosphorylated under the conditions where the shape changes are produced. The extent of this phosphorylation rises with increasing ATP concentration, reaching nearly 1 mol phosphoryle group per mole of component 2 at 8mM ATP. Most of this phosphorylation appears to occur at a single site on the protein molecule, according to cyanogen bromide peptide cleavage experiments. The degree of phosphorylation of component 2 is apparently also regulated by a membrane-bound protein phosphatase. This activity can be demonstrated in erythrocyte ghosts prepared from intact cells prelabeled with [(32)P]phosphate. In addition to the phosphorylation of component 2, some phosphorylation of lipids, mainly of phosphatidylinositol, is also known to occur. The ghost shape changes are, however, shown to be correlated with the degree of phosphorylation of component 2. In such experiment, the incorporation of exogenous phosphatases into ghosts reversed the shape changes produced by ATP, or by the membrane-intercalating drug chlorpromazine. The results obtained in this and the preceding paper are consistent with the proposal that the erythrocyte membrane possesses kinase and phosphates activities which produce phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of a specific site on spectrin component 2 molecules; the steady-state level of this phosphorylation regulates the structural state of the spectrin complex on the cytoplasmic surface of the membrane, which in turn exerts an important control on the shape of the cell.     

Selective inhibition of prostaglandin biosynthesis by gold salts and phenylbutazone

Gold salts and phenylbutazone selectively inhibit the synthesis of PGF_2α and PGE₂ respectively. Lowered production of one prostaglandin species is accompanied by an increased production of the other. Selective inhibition by these drugs was observed in the presence of adrenaline, reduced glutathione and copper sulphate under conditions when most anti-inflammatory compounds inhibited PGE₂ and PGF_2α syntheses equally. It is postulated that selective inhibitors may have a different mode of action and beneficial effects may be related to the endogenous ratio of PGE to PGF required for normal function.     

Effects of Age and Gender on Sleep Habits and Sleep Trouble for Aged People

The healthy 455 subjects above 60 years of age were questioned on their sleep habit inventory and the morningness-eveningness questionnaire. We analyzed the effects of age and sex on sleep habits and sleep-related trouble. Bedtimes on weekdays and weekends became earlier with aging, and women went to bed significantly later than men did. The length of sleep on weekdays slightly increased with aging, and it was longer for men than for women. The number of urinations and awakenings during nocturnal sleep and the amount of daytime napping increased with aging. The score on morningness-eveningness shifted toward the morning type with aging. In comparison with men, women had significantly longer sleep latency; and a higher percentage of subjects who reported that they sleep for only a short time, have sleep trouble, have received medical treatment for their sleep trouble, and take sleep medication. From these results, we deduced that the phase of sleep shifted forward in subjects above 60 years of age, and they showed frequent interruptions during nocturnal sleep and long daytime napping. We discussed the factor of gender difference in sleep in relation to social and cultural factors, particularly the household activities of women.     

Sarcopenia Is Independently Associated with Cardiovascular Disease in Older Korean Adults: The Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) from 2009

Background

The association between sarcopenia and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in elderly people has not been adequately assessed. The aim of this study was to investigate whether CVD is more prevalent in subjects with sarcopenia independent of other well-established cardiovascular risk factors in older Korean adults.

Method

This study utilized the representative Korean population data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) which was conducted in 2009. Subjects older than 65 years of age with appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) determined by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry were selected. The prevalence of sarcopenia in the older Korean adults was investigated, and it was determined whether sarcopenia is associated with CVD independent of other well-known risk factors.

Results

1,578 subjects aged 65 years and older with the data for ASM were selected, and the overall prevalence of sarcopenia was 30.3% in men and 29.3% in women. Most of the risk factors for CVD such as age, waist circumference, body mass index, fasting plasma glucose and total cholesterol showed significant negative correlations with the ratio between appendicular skeletal muscle mass and body weight. Multiple logistic regression analysis demonstrated that sarcopenia was associated with CVD independent of other well-documented risk factors, renal function and medications (OR, 1.768; 95% CI, 1.075–2.909, P = 0.025).

Conclusions

Sarcopenia was associated with the presence of CVD independent of other cardiovascular risk factors after adjusting renal function and medications.     

An approach to identify cold-induced low-abundant proteins in rice leaf

A proteomic approach has been adopted to investigate the low-abundant proteins in rice leaf in response to cold stress. Rice seedlings were exposed to different temperatures, such as 5 or 10 degrees C, and samples were collected after different time course. To eliminate the high-abundant proteins in leaf tissues such as ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco), proteins were fractionated by polyethylene glycol (PEG). The elimination of Rubisco from the protein samples was confirmed by Western blot analysis. The PEG fractionated protein samples were separated by 2-DE and visualized by silver or CBB staining. A total 12 up-regulated protein spots were identified using the analysis of MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry or ESI MS/MS. We identified some novel proteins such as cysteine proteinase, thioredoxin peroxidase, a RING zinc finger protein-like, drought-inducible late embryogenesis abundant, and a fibrillin-like protein that had not yet been reported in the earlier reports on cold proteomic analysis. The identification of some novel low-abundant proteins in response to cold stress may provide a new homeostasis to develop enhanced cold tolerance transgenic plants. Thus, we propose that a PEG fractionation system can be used as an influential protein extraction method from the leaf samples, which can lead to knowledge of the expression pattern of low-abundant proteins in response to various biotic or abiotic stresses.     

Diversity and varietal classification of Hibiscus syriacus L. with the heterogeneity within retrotransposon-like elements

Retrotransposons are present in multi-copy numbers that are integrated into plant genomes with considerable heterogeneous sequences within a single plant and between plant species, which allows the use of retrotransposons as additional sources of DNA polymorphism. A primer design for the sequence-tagged specific site and cleaved amplified polymorphic sequences (STS-CAPs) that are derived from retrotransposon-like sequences was developed for the molecular marker analysis in Hibiscus syriacus. This method was applied for the detection of sequence variations of intact retrotransposons that exist in plant genomes, which resulted in higher polymorphisms than in the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). Through STS-CAPs, specific fingerprinting data among H. syriacus varieties can be easily distinguished and generated with reproducible results. It could also be adapted to any species that possess multi-copy retrotransposons for varietal identification as well as the assessment of genetic relationships.     

A web server to locate periodicities in a sequence

Summary : FT is a tool written in C++, which implements the Fourier analysis method to locate periodicities in aminoacid or DNA sequences. It is provided for free public use on a WWW server with a Java interface. Availability : The server address is http://o2.db. uoa.gr/FT Contact : shamodr@atlas.uoa.gr