Isolation and characterization of the Bos taurus beta-casein gene

The expression of casein genes in the mammary cells is regulated by peptide and steroid hormones. To investigate the controlling mechanisms we have isolated and characterized the bovine beta-casein gene. The gene has the size of 8.6 kb, which is 7.8 times longer than the corresponding mRNA composed of nine exons. The genomic clones include additional 8.5-kb and 4.5-kb sequences of the 5'- and 3'-flanking regions. We have determined the sequences of the 5' and 3' ends of the gene and compared them with the respective sequences of the rat beta-casein gene. Conserved sequences are identical or homologous to the potential binding sites for nuclear factors and for glucocorticoid and progesterone receptors. The regulatory region contains two different TATA signals and a repeat sequence between them.     

Isolation and characterization of porcine parathyroid cathepsin B.

Cathepsin B was isolated from porcine parathyroid tissue and from liver by a procedure involving acetone precipitation, gel filtration, and carboxymethylcellulose chromatography. The final preparations of each migrated as single bands upon sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gels but exhibited several minor active variants upon isoelectric focusing. The parathyroid and liver enzymes were similar to each other and also resembled cathepsin B from other sources. The molecular weights for the porcine enzymes were estimated as 25,000, and the isoelectric point was at pH 4.8. The parathyroid enzyme cleaved benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Lys-Lys-Arg-(4-methoxy)-2-naphthylamide at pH 5.8 and 37 degrees C with a Km of 0.14 mM and a kcat of 68 s-1. The pH optimum for this reaction was pH 6 to 7. The enzyme was unstable above pH 7.5 and below pH 4.5. It was strongly inhibited by HgCl2, ZnSO4, iodoacetate, iodoacetamide, and N-ethylmaleimide which indicated that it is a thiol protease, and by leupeptin, a strong inhibitor of cathepsin B from other sources. Antibodies to the parathyroid enzyme were elicited in rabbits. The antisera formed single precipitin bands upon double diffusion in agar gels against both the parathyroid and liver enzymes. Precipitin bands were formed at both pH 6 and pH 8.5 which indicated that the antisera recognized both native and denatured forms of the enzymes.     

Isolation and characterization of proteoglycans from porcine lungs.

Proteoglycans were extracted from porcine lungs with 4 M guanidinium chloride. The extract was subjected to associative density gradient centrifugation, and four equal fractions, labeled A1 through A4 from the bottom to the top of the gradient, were obtained. The pooled A1 fractions containing proteoglycan aggregates were further fractionated by dissociative density gradient centrifugation to yield four equal fractions labeled A1D1 through A1D4 from the bottom to the top of the gradient. These fractions were analyzed for their protein, uronic acid, glucosamine, galactosamine, hexose, and sialic acid content. The fraction A1D1 with the highest buoyant density had the highest content of uronic acid and galactosamine, and lowest content of protein, indicating the enrichment of proteoglycan monomers at the bottom of the dissociative density gradient. As the density of the gradient decreased, the protein, hexoses, and sialic acid content increased, whereas uronic acid and galactosamine content decreased. The amino acid analysis showed similar composition for all four fractions with aspartic acid, serine, glutamic acid, proline, glycine, alanine, valine, and leucine as the major constituent amino acids. No hydroxyproline was detected in any of the fractions. As the buoyant density of the fractions decreased, the aspartic acid content increased and glycine content decreased.     

Isolation and characterization of mitochondrial alanine aminotransferase from porcine tissue.

Mitochondrial alanine aminotransferase L-alanine:2-oxoglutarate aminotransferase, EC 2.6.1.2) has been isolated in homogeneous form from both porcine liver and kidney cortex, but in low yield. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the purified enzyme in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate or 8 M urea gave a single band. An isoelectric point of 8.5 +/- 0.5 and a molecular weight of 75--80 000 were obtained. The enzyme is specific for L-alanine and is inhibited by D-alanine, aminooxyacetate and cyclosterine. The Km for pyruvate and glutamate is 0.4 mM and 32 mM, respectively. These values are similar to those determined for the cytoplasmic enzyme; however, at high concentrations, both compounds strongly inhibit the mitochondrial enzyme, an inhibition not observed with cytosolic alanine aminotransferase. These characteristics and the fact that the mitochondrial alanine aminotransferase was inactivated by procedures effective in the preparation of the cytosolic enzyme, clearly differentiate the two proteins and further support different roles for the two alanine aminotransferases in vivo.     

Isolation and characterization of a novel peptide amide from porcine brain.

Peptide with C-terminal tyrosine amide was isolated from porcine brain by acid extraction and sequential steps of reverse phase HPLC. Microsequence, amino acid and mass spectral analyses revealed the structure: Ac-Ala-Ser-Glu-Lys-Arg-Pro-Ser-Glu-Arg-His-Gly-Ser-Lys- Tyr-amide. Since this peptide had the identical sequence to N-terminus of porcine myelin basic protein (pMBP) 1-14, we have designated porcine myelin peptide amide 14 (pMPA14). The final HPLC step yielded 20 micrograms of homogeneous peptide preparation from 20 kg brain tissue. Unlike other amidated peptides, pMPA14 may be produced by non enzymatic mechanism or unknown amidating enzyme. This unique amidation seems to occur exclusively to MBP in the brain.     

Isolation and partial characterization of serine- and threonine-rich porcine gastric mucus glycopeptides.

1. Two subfractions from purified porcine gastric mucus glycopeptide were found to separate from each other by cesium chloride equilibrium centrifugation. The highest density fraction and two lower density fractions separated were designated VHD, HD and LD, respectively. A comparative study of these components was made. 2. The high and low density fractions, HD and LD, appeared almost the same or identical, while VHD differed completely from either of them in the following respects: (1) VHD exhibited strong alcian blue binding activity. (2) 57% of VHD bound to the DEAE-Toyopearl column equilibrated with 0.2 M NaCl. (3) VHD eluted from the Sephacryl S-400 column as a lower molecular subunit. (4) One third of the sialic acid as a minor component in VHD was constituted by N-glycolylneuraminic acid. (5) Carbohydrate composition showed typical mucus glycoprotein with slightly higher fucose content. (6) Amino acid compositions of the anionic components prepared from VHD showed the highest Ser/Thr ratio, 1.92 compared to 0.46 for LD and 0.62 for HD. (7) Oligosaccharide released from VHD by alkaline-sodium borohydride treatment was larger than that from HD or LD. 3. The above results indicate the minor component, VHD, separated from the major components, to be a quite similar but not identical component to the so-called sulfated mucus glycoprotein reported previously [Slomiany et al. (1972) J. biol. Chem. 247, 5062-5070].     

Isolation and characterization of the porcine growth hormone gene

A cosmid clone containing the entire porcine growth hormone (PGH) gene has been isolated using a full-length PGH cDNA as the hybridization probe. The gene within the cosmid was subcloned into plasmids and completely sequenced. The coding, promoter, and both 5'- and 3'-noncoding sequences of the PGH gene were found to be highly conserved when compared to the previously sequenced genes coding for rat, human and bovine growth hormones, and also to the human placental lactogen gene. The high degree of conservation between the 5'- and 3'-noncoding regions of the genes from these different species indicates that growth hormone genes may be evolving by some unusual mechanism. The PGH gene was found to contain the unusual variant GC donor splice site.     

Isolation and characterization of porcine adult muscle-derived progenitor cells

Here, we report the isolation of progenitor cells from pig skeletal muscle tissue fragments. Muscle progenitor cells were stimulated to migrate from protease-digested tissue fragments and cultured in the presence of 5 ng/ml basic fibroblast growth factor. The cells showed a sustained long-term expansion capacity (>120 population doublings) while maintaining a normal karyotype. The proliferating progenitor cells expressed PAX3, DESMIN, SMOOTH MUSCLE ACTIN, VIMENTIN, CD31, NANOG and THY-1, while MYF5 and OCT3/4 were only expressed in the lower or higher cell passages. Myogenic differentiation of porcine progenitor cells was induced in a coculture system with murine C2C12 myoblasts resulting in the formation of myotubes. Further, the cells showed adipogenic and osteogenic lineage commitment when exposed to specific differentiation conditions. These observations were determined by Von Kossa and Oil-Red-O staining and confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR analysis. In conclusion, the porcine muscle-derived progenitor cells possess long-term expansion capacity and a multilineage differentiation capacity.     

Isolation and characterization of neuropeptide Y from porcine intestine

The isolation and primary structure of intestinal neuropeptide Y (NPY) is described. The peptide was purified from porcine intestinal extracts using a chemical assay and radioimmunoassay for NPY. The amino acid sequence of this peptide is: Tyr-Pro-Ser-Lys-Pro-Asp-Asn-Pro-Gly-Glu-Asp-Ala-Pro-Ala-Glu-Asp-Leu-Ala- Arg-Tyr-Tyr- Ser-Ala-Leu-Arg-His-Tyr-Ile-Asn-Leu-Ile-Thr-Arg-Gln-Arg-Tyr-NH2. This the structure of intestinal NPY is identical to the NPY of brain origin.     

Isolation and genetic characterization of the porcine apolipoprotein E gene

The present report describes the isolation and genetic characterization of the porcine apolipoprotein E (ape-E) gene. A single positive recombinant phage clone containing a 10·7-kb insert was isolated from a porcine genomic library, and a 4·2-kb fragment was subcloned and sequenced. The 4·2-kb fragment contained the entire apo-E gene in addition to upstream and downstream sequences (GenBank accession no. 470240). The porcine apo-E gene is made up of four exons and three introns, and encodes a preapo-E protein comprised of a signal peptide of 18 amino acids and a mature protein of 299 amino acids. The porcine apo-E gene contains a (CG)₁₃ microsatellite marker within intron three. This microsatellite is moderately polymorphic, and at least four alleles were evident at this locus among 10 animals from each of the Yorkshire, Hampshire, Landrace and Duroc breeds. Finally, localization of the porcine apo-E gene to chromosome 6 band q2·1 was determined by fluorescent in situ hybridization and confirmed by genetic linkage analysis.     

猪原始生殖细胞的分离、培养与鉴定

Embryonic germ cells (EG cells) are pluripotential undifferentiated stem cells isolated from cultured primordial germ cells (PGCs). Like ES cells, EG cells are of importance for gene targeting, therapeutical cloning and organ trans-plantation. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize EG cells from porcine PGCs. The genital ridges from 24- 26 days old porcine embryos were treated in 0.02% EDTA for 20 min and pricked with a needle to release PGCs. The isolated PGCs were cultured on a SNL feeder layer in an EG cell medium. The EG cell medium consisted of Dulbecco‘‘s modified Eagle‘‘ s medium (DMEM) supplemented with 20 % Buffalo rat lever (BRL) cell-conditioned medium, 15 % fe-tal bovine serum, 1 mmol L-glutamine, 0.1 mol nonessential amino acids, 10 μmol β-mercaptoethanol and antibiotics.The freshly isolated PGCs were positive for alkaline phosphatase activity and Periodic acid-Schiff‘‘ s staining. Under this culture regime, PGCs could be maintained in an undifferentiated state and used for further cultures. One strain of the cul-tured PGCs was cultured 8 times, and alkaline phosphatase activity was detected in the colony formed from this strain.These cultured PGCs could spontaneously differentiate into fibroblast-like cells. These data suggested that we had success-fully isolated EG-like cells from oorcine PGCs.     

Isolation and partial characterization of prothymosin alpha from porcine tissues

Prothymosin alpha, an immunoactive polypeptide of 12 kDa, has been isolated from porcine thymus, spleen, lung and kidney. It lacks aromatic and sulfur-containing amino acids and has a high content of glutamic and aspartic acids. Tryptic digestion of porcine thymus prothymosin alpha yielded peptides which on separation, amino acid analysis and alignment with the known sequence of prothymosin alpha from rat and man showed that the amino terminal portion of the molecule is conserved and the few differences present are confined to the carboxy terminal.     

Isolation and characterization of porcine amniotic fluid-derived multipotent stem cells

The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize porcine amniotic fluid-derived multipotent stem cells (pAF-MSC). The porcine amniotic fluid (AF) from the amniotic cavity of pregnant gilts in the early stages of gestation (at E35) was collected and centrifuged for 5-10 min at 400 g to pellet cells. The primary culture of AF showed the multiple cell types, including the epithelial-like cells and fibroblast-like cells. By culturing in AMM medium for 6 to 8 days, the epithelial-like cells disappeared and the remaining cells presented the fibroblastoid morphology. The doubling time of pAF-MSCs was about 34.6 h, and the cells had been continually cultured over 60 passages in vitro. The flow cytometry results showed that pAF-MSCs were positive for CD44, CD117 and CD166, but negative for CD34, CD45 and CD54. Meanwhile, pAF-MSCs expressed ES cell markers, such as Oct4, Nanog, SSEA4, Tra-1-60 and Tra-1-81. The ratio of CD117(+) CD44(+) cells accounted for 98% of pAF-MSCs population. Three germ layer markers, including FGF5 (ectodermal marker), AFP (endodermal marker) and Bra (mesodermal marker), were detected in embryoid bodies derived from pAF-MSCs. Under the different induction conditions, the pAF-MSCs were capable of differentiating into neurocytes, adipocytes and beating cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, the pAF-MSCs didn't form teratoma when injected into immunodeficiency mice. These optimal features of pAF-MSCs provide an excellent alternative stem cell resource for potential cell therapy in regenerative medicine and transgenic animals.