beta-Glucosidase isoenzymes in Epstein-Barr virus-transformed lymphoid cell lines from normal subjects and patients with type 1 Gaucher disease

Lymphoid cell lines (LCL) from 3 adult patients with non-neuropathic Gaucher disease were established by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) transformation and were investigated from the view of enzymology. Glucosylceramide-beta-glucosidase (GlcCer-beta-glucosidase) was present in soluble and particulate fraction of LCL from normal subjects and was deficient in type 1 Gaucher LCL; the deficiency of all molecular forms, shown by electrofocusing, indicates that they are coded by the same gene. The existence of two non-specific beta-glucosidases, one soluble (minor), the other membrane-bound (major), was demonstrated in leucocytes and LCL from normals; in Gaucher LCL, these were also present in a normal range. Characteristic properties of the non-specific membrane-bound beta-glucosidase were defined: lability at acidic pH and strong inhibitory effect by detergents. These properties allowed to discriminate it from the lysosomal GlcCer-beta-glucosidase and to define optimal assay conditions for determination of residual GlcCer-beta-glucosidase activity in Gaucher disease, using artificial substrate, without interference of non-specific membrane-bound beta-glucosidase. These results demonstrate that EBV-transformed LCL represent an accurate model system for enzymatic studies of Gaucher disease.     

Effect of pteridines on normal and neoplastic cell lines of Xiphophorus

The effect of three pteridines namely biopterin, isoxanthopterin and xanthopterin on cell growth, viability and morphology of three embryo and one melanoma derived cell lines was studied. Pteridines were assayed in the range of 10(-6) M to 10(-4) M. Biopterin exerted no influence on all cell lines tested, whereas isoxanthopterin and xanthopterin caused a decrease in growth rate with increasing concentrations. The strongest decrease of cell growth was exerted by 10(-4) M xanthopterin. Furthermore at this concentration xanthopterin reduced the viability of normal cells and influenced the morphology of both normal and neoplastic cells. In general, normal cells were more sensitive to pteridines than neoplastic cells.     

Mechanism of thymidylate synthase inhibition by methotrexate in human neoplastic cell lines and normal human myeloid progenitor cells

We have studied the roles of 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate (5,10-methylene-H4PteGlu) depletion and dihydrofolate (H2PteGlu) accumulation in the inhibition of de novo thymidylate synthesis by methotrexate (MTX) in human MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Using both a high pressure liquid chromatography system and a modification of the 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridine-5'-monophosphate radioenzymatic binding assay, we determined that the 5,10-methylene-H4PteGlu pool is 50-60% depleted in human MCF-7 breast cancer cells following exposure to 1 micron MTX for up to 21 h. Similar alterations in the 5,10-methylene-H4PteGlu pools were obtained when human promyelocytic HL-60 leukemia cells and normal human myeloid precursor cells were incubated with 1 micron MTX. The H2PteGlu pools within the MCF-7 cells increased significantly after 15 min of 1 micron MTX exposure, reaching maximal levels by 60 min. Thymidylate synthesis, as measured by labeled deoxyuridine incorporation into DNA, decreased to less than 20% of control activity within 30 min of 1 micron MTX exposure. The inhibition of thymidylate synthesis coincided temporally with the rapid intracellular accumulation of H2PteGlu, a known inhibitor of thymidylate synthase. Furthermore, inhibition of this pathway was associated in a log-linear fashion with the intracellular level of dihydrofolate. These studies provide further evidence that depletion of the thymidylate synthase substrate 5,10-methylene-H4PteGlu is inadequate to account completely for diminished thymidylate synthesis resulting from MTX treatment. Our findings suggest that acute inhibition of de novo thymidylate synthesis is a multifactorial process consisting of partial substrate depletion and direct enzymatic inhibition by H2PteGlu polyglutamates.     

Determination of lactate dehydrogenase isoenzymes in single lymphocytes from normal and leukemia cell lines

This work demonstrates that our previously developed technique for single-erythrocyte analysis by capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection (CE-LIF) can be applied to study individual lymphocytes, with some modification in the cell lysing procedure. A tesla coil was shown to be capable of lysing the lymphocyte cells inside the capillary. The electromagnetic field induced by the tesla coil was believed to be responsible for breaking the cell membrane. The lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) isoenzyme activities and the relative ratios between different LDH isoenzymes were measured for normal lymphocytes as well as B-type and T-type acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells. Both the LDH activity and the isoenzyme ratios show large variations among individual cells. The former is expected due to variations in cell size. The latter implies that single-cell measurements are less useful than the average values over a cell population as markers for leukemia.     

Serum levels of c-myc and c-ras oncogene products in normal subjects and in patients with neoplastic and non neoplastic conditions

A new, simple and sensitive low pH ELISA system has been developed and used to measure serum levels of c-myc and c-ras oncogene products in healthy blood donors and patients with neoplastic and non neoplastic conditions. Blood donors had significantly lower serum levels of oncogene products than patients with cancer or other pathologies (p-value less than 0.01). There was, however, no difference between patients with neoplastic and non-neoplastic conditions. Although c-myc and c-ras oncogene products in the serum appear to discriminate between healthy state and pathological conditions they do not discriminate between neoplastic and non-neoplastic conditions.     

DNA ligase activity in human cell lines from normal donors and Bloom''s syndrome patients.

DNA ligase activity was studied in several untransformed or virus-transformed human cell lines from normal donors and from Bloom's syndrome (BS) patients. This proneness genetic disease is characterized by several cytological abnormalities and cancer proneness and, recently, some transformed cell lines from these patients were described to present a reduced activity of DNA ligase I. Results presented in this work indicate that: (i) the total DNA ligase activity in crude extract from untransformed or transformed cell lines from several BS patients was significantly higher than in control cells; (ii) the partial purification of the enzyme after gel filtration on fast protein liquid chromatography of crude extracts from lymphoblastoid BS cells showed that the enzyme activity was eluted in a major 180 kDa form in which activity was higher than in control cells; (iii) the activity gel analysis of these enzyme fractions revealed that DNA ligase of human cells was correlated to a major 130 kDa polypeptide and, in BS cells, the extent of the activity of this band was equal or higher than that in control untransformed or transformed cells.     

Effect of bleomycin on DNA-dependent RNA polymerase purified from normal and neoplastic tissues

The effect of bleomycin was investigated using two forms of DNA-dependent RNA polymerase (A and B) purified from normal tissues and experimental tumours in presence either of Mn2+ or Mg2+ and native or denatured homologous DNA. THe results show that the antibiotic inhibits the enzyme activity of both classes, and the degree of inhibition appears to be influenced by the nature of cation, the highest values being reached with Mg2+. Moreover, the denaturation of DNA modify the bleomycin effect significantly. With regard to cellular damage induced by the drug, the data here reported show that there is not a substantial difference between normal and tumour tissues.     

Effect of actinomycin D on purified DNA-dependent RNA polymerases from normal and neoplastic tissues

The effect of low concentrations of actinomycin D was investigated, using two forms of DNA-dependent RNA polymerase (A and B) purified from normal tissues and experimental tumours, in the presence either of Mn2+ or Mg2+, and homologous DNA. The A enzyme activity was strongly inhibited by the antibiotic in presence of Mg2+ and much less in presence of Mn2+. The B enzyme activity was almost suppressed in presence of both cations. The results here reported provide support that the actinomycin D induce a cellular damage of the same extent in normal and tumour tissues.     

Characterization of human malignant melanoma cell lines. III. Membrane immunofluorescence reactivity with sera from patients with melanoma

Summary Seven well-characterized human malignant melanoma cell lines have been evaluated in terms of their reactivity in membrane immunofluorescence tests with sera from 48 patients with melanoma, 23 patients with other forms of cancer and 28 normal controls. There was a significantly greater degree of reactivity of melanoma sera (33.7%) than of sera of normal controls (22.2%) or of sera from patients with other forms of cancer (24.2%). The incidence of strong reactors among the melanoma patients was found to be inversely proportional to the extent of disease in the melanoma patients: Stage I, 54.5%, Stage III, 36.8% and Stage IV, 29.4%. Reactivity against non-melanoma cell lines was similar in the three subject groups and was unaffected by stage of disease in the melanoma patients. No single cell line showed preferential reactivity with melanoma sera. There was an increased overall incidence of reactivity of all three subject groups against non-pigmented cell lines.A-B-0 antigens and heterophile antigens were excluded as a cause of seropositivity. The antigen(s) was trypsin-sensitive and neuraminidase-resistant.These data suggest that long term cultures of human melanoma may contain melanoma-associated antigens which may be useful in the further study and search for melanoma-specific antigens.     

Characterization of cell lines stably expressing human normal or mutated EGFP-tagged MC4R

The melanocortin receptor type 4 (MC4-R) is involved in food intake and represents a potential target for the treatment of some forms of obesity. The fluorescent protein EGFP was fused to the wild-type or mutated coding sequence of the human MC4-R. After transfection in HEK 293, clones stably expressing hMC4-R-EGFP were selected. Wild-type chimeric hMC4-R was well addressed to the cell membrane as demonstrated using confocal microscopy and displayed the same pharmacological characteristics as native hMC4R. NDP-alpha MSH induced a time-dependent internalization of MC4-R that was partially prevented by AgRP. The two mutated chimeric receptors studied here (CTCT-deleted and C271A) showed a high alteration of their response to ligand and were retained inside the cells. In conclusion, we have developed a model of clones stably expressing EGFP-tagged-hMC4-R. This is the only such model available to date and it provides a useful tool to follow the trafficking of MC4-R inside living cells.     

Characterization of plasminogen activator from two human renal carcinoma cell lines

Plasminogen activator (PA) activity was identified in the conditioned medium of two human renal carcinoma cell lines, Cur and Caki-1. PA activity of medium, following chromatography on Con A-Sepharose, was divided into effluent and eluate fractions, the latter obtained after elution with methyl mannoside. The ratio of PA activity in effluent:eluate was 90:10 for Caki-1 and 60:40 for Cur. The PA of both effluent fractions and the Caki-1 eluate fraction was of the urokinase (UK) type. Identification rested on molecular weight determination by zymography (major component with Mr 52,000 and a less prominent component of 93,000), lack of binding to fibrin, inhibition by anti-UK antibodies, and lack of inhibitory effect of anti-tissue type PA (TPA) antibodies or the Erythrina trypsin inhibitor, which inhibits TPA but not UK. PA of the Cur eluate fraction gave a more complex pattern in that it bound significantly to fibrin (like TPA), was completely inhibited by both anti-UK and anti-TPA antibodies, but was unaffected by Erythrina trypsin inhibitor. These results raise the possibility of an unusual PA-like enzyme that immunologically cross reacts with anti-UK and anti-TPA. Most of the PA of both cell lines was secreted in a latent form that could be activated by trypsin treatment. The latency appears to result largely from secretion of urokinase proenzyme, which is consistent with the Mr 52,000 of the major PA species and the insensitivity to diisopropyl fluorophosphate inhibition prior to trypsin activation. However, in addition, a UK binding component was found in the conditioned medium, which produced an Mr 93,000 component by reaction with UK.     

Characterization of transformed cell lines evolving from a normal C3H line

The development of transformed cell lines evolving from an embryo fibroblastic C3H primary culture was followed before and after the ageing crisis using different techniques. By flow cytometry, alteration of subpopulations having different DNA content and altered metabolic activity was observed after the crisis, with the trend to assume a near tetraploid DNA index at higher passages. The fibrin clot retractile activity was lost in all cases during the ageing crisis, but the outcome did not present uniform values of growth characteristics or chromosome number and tumorigenicity appeared to be a nonstable property of the transformed cell lines.     

Human corticotropin-releasing hormone test in normal subjects and patients with hypothalamic, pituitary or adrenocortical disorders

Human corticotropin-releasing hormone (hCRH) test was performed in 57 normal volunteers and 102 patients with hypothalamic, pituitary and adrenocortical diseases. Intravenous bolus injection of synthetic hCRH, 100 micrograms for adults or 1.5 micrograms/kg for children, increased plasma ACTH and cortisol levels in about 90% of normal subjects. In 47 patients with Cushing's disease, plasma ACTH tended to show an exaggerated response to hCRH and peak ACTH was the most frequent abnormal component among the several reaction parameters. Poor responders among normal subjects and patients with Cushing's disease had significantly higher plasma cortisol levels before CRH administration. Patients with hypothalamic hypopituitarism showed exaggerated response, whereas patients with primary pituitary lesion, isolated ACTH deficiency or adrenal Cushing's syndrome showed no ACTH response. These differences in the response of patients suggest the value of the hCRH test in their differential diagnosis.     

Establishment of permanent cell lines purified from human mesothelioma: morphological aspects,new marker expression and karyotypic analysis

This study reports the establishment of three major subtypes of human mesothelioma cells in tissue culture, i.e. the epithelioid, sarcomatoid and biphasic forms, and compares their phenotypic and biological characteristics. Primary cells isolated from biopsies or pleural exudates were subcultured for over 50 passages. We evaluated immunoreactivity using various mesothelial markers related to histological patterns of these cell lines. For epithelioid cells, calretinin and cytokeratin were found to be useful and easily interpretable markers as for control mesothelial cells. The biphasic form was only partially positive and the sarcomatoid type negative. Vimentin was expressed by all cell lines. BerEP4, a specific marker for adenocarcinoma, was negative. Interestingly, while the macrophage marker CD14 was negative, immunoreactivity for a mature macrophage marker (CD68) was expressed by all cell types, suggesting that this marker might constitute an additional tool useful in the differential diagnosis of mesothelioma. At the ultrastructural level, a cell surface rich in microvilli confirmed their mesothelial origin. PCR analysis revealed that none of the cell lines contained SV40 DNA. Karyotypic analyses showed more complex abnormalities in the epithelioid subtype than in the sarcomatoid form. These cell lines may be useful in the study of cellular, molecular and genetic aspects of the disease.