Bone morphogenetic protein-4

Bone morphogenetic protein-4 (BMP-4) is one of nine structurally related BMPs belonging to the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) superfamily of secreted proteins. Mature BMP-4 is a dimer that binds to a multimeric transmembrane receptor with serine/threonine kinase activity. Although discovered because it stimulates bone formation in adult mammals, BMP-4 has important roles as a signalling molecule in embryonic tissues, including the developing central and peripheral nervous system, musculature and skeleton. It participates in an ancient signalling pathway also found in insects and worms. Nevertheless, the main practical application of BMPs is for stimulating repair of bone, and their use in humans is currently being assessed.     

猪精子中与卵透明带糖蛋白ZP3结合的蛋白质

依次经ＰＳＬ－Ｓｅｐｈａｒｏｓｅ亲和层析柱和纤维素ＣＭ－５２离子交换层析柱,从猪精子的ＣＨＡＰＳ抽提液分离得４个蛋白质组分。用固相透明带精蛋白结合试验（ＩＺＰＧＢＡ）检测;表明精子蛋白ＳＰ１和ＳＰ２具有结合透明带糖蛋白ＺＰ３的活性,ＳＰ２并显示凝集血球的活性。精子蛋白ＳＰ１与卵预温育明显抑制精卵结合,抑制活性与加入的精子蛋白的浓度呈正相关。用生物素标记的ＺＰ３和蛋白质印迹技术,证明ＳＰ１中的６８ｋＤ精子蛋白与ＺＰ３结合,提示６８ｋＤ精子蛋白参与精卵结合。     

癫痫对大鼠学习记忆的影响及与生长抑素的相关性研究

对听源性癫痫大鼠进行迷宫训练,观察癫痫发作对大鼠光分辨学习作业的成绩以及用放射免疫分析法测定的大鼠部分脑区中生长抑素含量的影响。结果表明：（１）癫痫发作对大鼠记忆阶段有明显的抑制作用（Ｐ＜０．０１）;（２）癫痫发作后,在大鼠信息提取明显障碍的同时,其颞叶皮层、下丘脑、垂体及海马中生长抑素的含量明显增加（Ｐ＜０．０５－０．０１）。结果提示：癫痫发作影响大鼠学习记忆过程,在该过程中生长抑素含量发生改变。     

用正交实验法筛选营养缺陷型酿酒酵母原生质体的最佳实验条件

为了提高原生质体的再生率,用正交实验筛选了制备营养缺陷型酿酒酵母PW208菌株原生质体的条件。最佳条件为用柠檬酸缓冲液配制1％蜗牛酶,在30℃酶解60min后再经后处理可得99％的形成率和43％的再生率。     

胁迫处理对林生山黧豆蛋白质多肽及其含量的影响

应用二维电泳技术,分析了经水分胁迫（ＰＥＧ）、盐分胁迫（ＮａＣｌ）和热激（４０℃）处理后林生山黧豆（ＬａｔｈｙｒｕｓｓｙｌｖｅｓｔｒｉｓＬ．）体内蛋白质多肽及其含量的变化。有些蛋白质经ＰＥＧ、ＮａＣｌ和热激处理后可以产生相同的变化。两种不同的胁迫因子对某些蛋白质的影响有一定的共同性。特定的胁迫条件可以造成特定的影响。不同胁迫因子对同一蛋白质多肽可以造成不同的影响。胁迫下蛋白质的变化可能与林生山黧豆抵抗和适应胁迫条件的能力以及体内非蛋白质氨基酸的代谢有关     

Characterization of phospholipase A2 activation by plasmin in cultured bovine endothelial cells

Treatment of cultured bovine carotid artery endothelial cells with 0.1 µM human plasmin has been reported to induce a receptor-mediated short burst of arachidonate release, which is a pertussis toxin-sensitive and extracellular calcium-dependent reaction. Plasmin-induced calcium influx in cells was significantly inhibited by pretreatment with pertussis toxin, indicating that the former was coupled with a pertussis toxin-sensitive guanosine 5-triphosphate (GTP)-binding protein. Plasmin significantly induced the formation of lysophosphatidylcholine but not lysophosphatidylethanolamine. A cellular phospholipase A₂ with an arachidonyl specificity at the sn-2 position of phosphatidylcholine, which required submicromolar calcium, was identified as a cytosolic phospholipase A₂ by immunoblot analysis. By a cell-free enzyme activity assay and immunoblot analysis, plasmin was found to induce a translocation of the cytosolic phospholipase A₂ from the cytosol to the membrane. Taken together, the results suggest that plasmin bound to its putative receptor and activated a GTP-binding protein coupled to calcium influx channel, followed by translocation and activation of cytosolic phospholipase A₂ in endothelial cells.     

Aliphatic nitro-compounds in Astragalus canadensis

A reinvestigation of the alphatic nitro-compounds in Astragalus canadensis resulted in the identification of two new esters of glucose with 3-nitropropanoic acid and 5-oxotetrahydrofuran-3-acetic acid, together with six known conjugates of 3-nitropropanoic acid. ¹H and ¹³CNMR data are reported for the new compounds.     

Predictions of protein backbone bond distances and angles from first principles

A procedure is described, based on a spline-function representation of ab initio peptide conformational geometry maps, that allows one to predict backbone bond distances and angles of proteins as functions of the peptide ?(N-C^α)/Ψ(C^α-C′) torsions with an accuracy comparable to that of high-resolution protein crystallography. For example, for the more than 40 residues of crambin, the rms deviation between predicted and crystallographic values of N-C^α-C′ is 1.9° for the 1.5 Å resolution structure and 1.9° for the 0.83 Å resolution structure, compared with angle variations of < 10°. Accurate information on protein backbone geometries is important for establishing dictionaries of flexible geometry functions for use in empirical peptide and protein modeling. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.