Insulin Mimetic Effect of Tungsten Compounds on Isolated Rat Adipocytes

Investigations of effective, orally active, and safe antidiabetic metallopharmaceuticals have been carried out during the last two decades. It has been reported that tungsten compounds mimic the action of insulin in intact cell systems. As insulin mimetics, the most investigated tungsten compound was sodium tungstate (ST), rarely investigated was tungstophosphoric acid (WPA), but never alanine complex of tungstophosphoric acid (WPA-A). In this study, the insulin mimetic activity of three different tungsten compounds, ST, WPA, and WPA-A, was evaluated by means of in vitro measurements of the glucose uptake and inhibition of free fatty acids release from epinephrine-treated isolated rat white adipocytes. We investigated the influence of concentration (lower and higher, 0.1 and 1.0 mM, respectively) and solvent: isotonic salt solution—saline (0.9% w/v of NaCl) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO; 2% v/v), on the biological effect of tested compounds. Our experimental data showed that all of the three investigated tungsten compounds possess insulin mimetic activity in vitro on the isolated adipocytes. Influence of concentration and solvents on insulin mimetic effect for the certain tungsten compounds were: WPA was shown effect independently of concentration and solvents; higher concentration and DMSO were significant decreasing insulin mimetic effect of ST; lower concentration and saline led to decreasing effect of WPA-A. Generally, there were no differences in insulin mimetic effect of three tungsten compounds in lower concentration and dissolved in DMSO. When saline was used as solvent, it was needed higher concentration of investigated compounds to accomplish the same effect. In conclusion, our results suggest that low concentration (0.1 mM) of ST, WPA, and WPA-A dissolved in 2% DMSO could be the good candidates for in vivo investigation of their antidiabetic properties.     

Flora von Oesterreich-Ungarn

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

The Escherichia coli dnaW mutation is an allele of the adk gene

Summary A dnaW mutant, isolated on the basis of inability to effect conjugal DNA transfer at high temperature, has been shown by complementation and enzyme assay to be defective in the adk (adenylate kinase; EC 2.7.4.3) locus. The adk mutant, known to have reduced ATP concentration at the nonpermissive temperature (Cousin and Belaich 1966), was used to demonstrate a donor energy requirement for stable aggregate formation and for chromosome transfer in conjugation.     

Community composition has greater impact on the functioning of marine phytoplankton communities than ocean acidification

Ecosystem functioning is simultaneously affected by changes in community composition and environmental change such as increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) and subsequent ocean acidification. However, it largely remains uncertain how the effects of these factors compare to each other. Addressing this question, we experimentally tested the hypothesis that initial community composition and elevated CO₂ are equally important to the regulation of phytoplankton biomass. We full‐factorially exposed three compositionally different marine phytoplankton communities to two different CO₂ levels and examined the effects and relative importance (ω²) of the two factors and their interaction on phytoplankton biomass at bloom peak. The results showed that initial community composition had a significantly greater impact than elevated CO₂ on phytoplankton biomass, which varied largely among communities. We suggest that the different initial ratios between cyanobacteria, diatoms, and dinoflagellates might be the key for the varying competitive and thus functional outcome among communities. Furthermore, the results showed that depending on initial community composition elevated CO₂ selected for larger sized diatoms, which led to increased total phytoplankton biomass. This study highlights the relevance of initial community composition, which strongly drives the functional outcome, when assessing impacts of climate change on ecosystem functioning. In particular, the increase in phytoplankton biomass driven by the gain of larger sized diatoms in response to elevated CO₂ potentially has strong implications for nutrient cycling and carbon export in future oceans.