The relation between glucovanillin, β-d-glucosidase activity and cellular compartmentation during the senescence, freezing and traditional curing of vanilla beans

The aim of this research was to improve our understanding of the mechanism of glucovanillin hydrolysis by β‐d ‐glucosidase activity in vanilla beans by studying their senescence, freezing and traditional curing. A batch of green pods from Madagascar was ripened at 30°C until fruits turned black; another batch was frozen for few days at ?18°C and defrosted at 35°C for 24 h and a third batch was cured using traditional methods. During treatments, samples were analysed for the yield of glucovanillin hydrolysis, and β‐glucosidase activity was measured. Cellular structures were also examined by light and transmission electron microscopy. Green fruits had a low yield of glucovanillin hydrolysis (<5%), a high level of β‐glucosidase activity (～1000 nkatal g^?1 fresh weight) and a perfect cellular integrity. Senescent fruits had a high yield of glucovanillin hydrolysis (>95%), no measurable β‐glucosidase activity and complete cellular degradation. Similar results were observed in beans after defrosting. During curing, beans had a medium yield of glucovanillin hydrolysis (<50%), no measurable β‐glucosidase activity and partial cellular degradation compared with senescent or defrosted beans. Results show that the mechanism of glucovanillin hydrolysis in vanilla beans is regulated by cellular compartmentation and that the β‐glucosidase activity level is not the limiting factor for complete hydrolysis. If total decompartmentation is obtained, then complete glucovanillin hydrolysis is observed even if most of the β‐glucosidase activity is lost. The β‐glucosidase activity level only has an effect on glucovanillin hydrolysis kinetics.     

Validity of hair mineral testing

The variance of testing was compared between the College of American Pathologists clinical survey and that of a recent review about hair mineral testing. The review suggested that the accuracy of hair mineral testing was unreliable. In general, there was a greater range of variance in the College of American Pathologists testing results. These latter results are based on laboratory testing and are used as a “yardstick” to determine if a laboratory passes or fails that analyte and are considered a “gold standard.” An extract, which resulted from a method that avoided the washing step, was compared among five laboratories. Very good precision resulted, indicating that the varied washing steps used by the laboratories in a recent review were probably the source of much variance. Analysis of hair analysis seemed to yield important information in several historical or forensic cases involving Ludwig von Beethoven, Napoleon Bonaparte, ex-US-presidents Zachary Taylor and Andrew Jackson, and Charles Hall, an Arctic explorer. Several elements that were reviewed, including arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, germanium, lead, lithium, manganese, mercury, nickel, and thallium, showed relationships between body burden, dosage, and exposure or toxicity. Evidence of toxicity could not be found by measuring hair aluminum or vanadium. Chromium, selenium, and zinc seemed to have nutritional value. Ratios of hair elements with clinical importance could not be found.     

Kinetic studies of the applicability of the common site concept to the 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase: 5-ene-3-ketosteroid isomerase activities of human placental microsomes

Pregnenolone (3β-hydroxy-5-pregnen-20-one) and DHA (3β-hydroxy-5-androsten-17-one), substrates for 3β-hy-droxysteroid dehydrogenase (3β-HSD), with K_M values of 15–40 nM, were ineffective inhibitors of 5-ene-3-ketosteroid isomerase (isomerase), with K_I values >40 μM in each case. Progesterone and androstenedione (4-androstene-3, 17-dione), 3β-HSD inhibitors with K_I values of 5.0 μM and 0.8 μM respectively, were also relatively ineffective inhibitors of isomerase, with K_I values of 30 μM and 16.5 μM respectively. Exposure of microsomes to hydrogen peroxide, which significantly increases the K_M for pregnenolone as a 3β-HSD substrate, had no effect on the K_M for the isomerase substrate 5-pregnene-3, 20-dione.It is concluded that the data do not support the common site concept with regard to the conversion of pregnenolone to progesterone by human placental microsomes.     

Inhibiton of human placental 17 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase by steroids and nonsteroidal alcohols: aspects of inhibitor structure and binding specificity

Inhibition of human placental 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase by C₁₈ and C₁₉ steroids and nonsteroidal alcohols was assayed at pH 9.0 with 17β-estradiol 3-methyl ether and NAD⁺ as reactants. The nonstaroidal alcohols tested were poor inhibitors. Cyclopentanol and cyclohexanol had K_i values greater than 5 mm. Nonaromatic C₁₈ and C₁₉ steroids with oxygen functions at both positions 3 and 17 gave no detectable inhibition or had K_i, values greater than or equal to 160 μm. 3μ-Hydroxy-5,16-androstadiene, 5-androsten-3β-ol, 1,3,5(10)-estratrien-3-ol, and 1,3,5(10),16-estratetraen-3-ol, steroids lacking a C(17) oxygen function, had K_i values of 1.8, 6.0, 0.04, and 0.17 μm, respectively, demonstrating that both C₁₈ and C₁₉ steroids can bind at the steroid site. Binding specificity is narrowed and binding affinity for nonaromatic steroids weakened by oxygen functions at C(17) or both C(3) and C(17). The structural implications of the specificity data for steroid recognition and complex formation and in vivo control of enzyme activity are discussed.     

Inhibition of 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (17β-HSD) activities of human placenta by steroids and non-steroidal hormone agonists and antagonists

Various naturally occurring steroids, synthetic steroid derivatives and non-steroidal hormone agonists and antagonists were assayed as inhibitors of human placental 17β-HSD activities. Microsomal 17β-HSD was inhibited by C₁₈ -,C₁₉- and C₂₁-steroids. Soluble 17β-HSD was highly specific for C₁₈-steroids. In contrast to the soluble activity, the microsomal enzyme also had a strong affinity for ethinylestradiol (K_I=0.3 μM) and danazol (K_I=0.6 μM); anabolic steroids and norethisterone were weaker inhibitors. Of the non-steroids tested only diethylstilbestrol and o-demethyl CI-680 were inhibitors and they showed a greater affinity for soluble 17β-HSD.K_I-values for estradiol-17β, (0.8 μM), progesterone (27.0 μM) and 20α-dihydroprogesterone (1.5 μM) were comparable to reported tissue levels of these compounds, consistent with a possible competition in vivo among naturally occurring C₁₈-, C₁₉-, and C₂₁-steroids for the active site of microsomal 17β-HSD.     

Organotypic differentiation of trypsin-dissociated fetal rat intestine

These studies examined the potential for reorganization and differentiation of dissociated 18-day fetal rat intestine. Cultures of trypsin-dissociated fetal intestine were maintained in vitro for 1 week on a three-dimensional matrix, then transplanted into syngeneic hosts. When harvested after 4 weeks, these transplants consistently demonstrated organotypic differentiation. Spherical structures containing crypts with frequent mitotic figures and villi lined with columnar epithelium had formed. PAS staining demonstrated positive epithelial cell brush borders, goblet cells, and luminal contents. Significant levels of the microvillus membrane enzymes lactase, sucrase, maltase, and alkaline phosphatase were present in the luminal contents. Sucrase-isomaltase, an enzyme characteristic of postweaning small intestine, was demonstrated by immunoprecipitation and SDS-PAGE. Thus, both morphological and biochemical maturation occurred in the transplants.     

Neurite extension by peripheral and central nervous system neurons in response to substratum-bound fibronectin and laminin

Small groups of blastoderm cells were transplanted from wild-type donor embryos into genetically marked host embryos of the same age. Donor cells were injected either into an homologous or an ectopic region of the recipient, and both donor and recipient embryos were allowed to develop. Donor flies were examined for defects in external structures. Recipients were scored for patches of donor-type marked tissue derived from the injected cells. After ectopic transfer, the donor cells recovered in chimaeric recipients differentiated structures consistent with the donor site of cell removal. No apparent fate change was observed. In the rare cases when both individuals of a donor/host pair survived, a direct correspondence could be made between the deleted region in the donor and the chimaeric patch in the host. The results show that blastoderm cells are stably determined to within a segment.     

Teratoma cybrids: An analysis of the post-fusion effects of myoblast cytoplasms on embryonal carcinoma cells

The influence of rat myoblast cytoplasms in cybrids derived from fusions with mouse embryonal carcinoma cells (EC cells) has been considered. Cytoplasmic hybrids (cybrids) were identified by the use of nuclear and cytoplasmic markers. The presence of chromocenters was used as a marker for EC-cell nuclei. Phagocytosed polystyrene beads served as cytoplasmic markers. Shortly after fusion the cybrids had a drastically altered morphology. They lacked the cytoplasmic lipid granulum characteristic of EC cells and had gained demonstrable fibronectin deposits. These phenotypic changes disappeared during a 3-day period after fusion as the cybrids gradually regained normal EC-cell properties. It was considered that the lack of more stable phenotypic modifications in the cybrids was related to major abnormalities in the cytoplasm preparations. However, cytoplasms were found to be viable for up to 65 h post-enucleation and, as analysed by 2-D gel electrophoresis, continued to synthesize the same major polypeptides as did intact cells, for at least 10 h. Thus, the addition of a myoblast cytoplasm to an EC cell has significant short-term effects but has no detectable permanent or heritable effect on the EC phenotype.