Role of Erythrocytes and Serum in the Nutrition of Rickettsia quintana

Rickettsia quintana grew readily on blood-agar base when the following conditions and supplements were supplied: (i) aerobic conditions; (ii) increased CO(2) tension; (iii) crystalline hemoglobin or hemin, but not protoporphyrin; and (iv) a colloidal "detoxifying agent," such as starch or charcoal. Serum was not required nor did it enhance growth when all of the aforementioned components were supplied.     

The biosynthesis of cyanogenic glucosides in Linum usitatissimum (linen flax) in Vitro

Microsomal preparations from dark-grown Linum usitatissimum (linen flax) seedlings synthesize acetone cyanohydrin, the precursor of the cyanogenic glucoside linamarin, from valine in the presence of NADPH. N-Hydroxyvaline and isobutyraldoxime, which are predicted intermediates in the pathway, are also converted into products. These microsomal preparations also convert isoleucine into 2-butanone cyanohydrin the precursor of lotaustralin. The biosynthetic activity is located exclusively in the developing cotyledons.     

Diffusible Fraction of Serum Cholesterol and Atherogenesis

CHOLESTEROL is found in the blood as a structural component of lipoproteins concerned with the transport of other lipids¹. The high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of high density serum lipoproteins are similar to that observed when lipids are dissolved in organic solvents, or dispersed in water by bile salts or detergents, or in sonicated form. The lipid component in lipoproteins is therefore probably in an extremely fluid condition². If human serum is mixed with paraffin oil, some of the cholesterol diffuses into the oil without affecting the ultraviolet absorption spectrum of serum proteins. This procedure avoids any protein denaturing action used for cholesterol extraction^3–5. It therefore seems that serum cholesterol has two fractions, one strongly bound by lipoprotein structures and the other loosely bound and diffusible in an oil phase. In this article I designate the loosely bound fraction “diffusible”.     

Isozymes of cAMP-dependent protein kinase present in the rat corpus luteum.

Regulatory (R) subunits and their association with catalytic subunits to form cAMP-dependent protein kinase holoenzymes were investigated in corpora lutea of pregnant rats. Following separation by DEAE-cellulose chromatography, R subunits were identified by labeling with 8-N3[32P]cAMP and autophosphorylation on one and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and by reactivity with antisera. DEAE-cellulose elution of R subunits with catalytic subunits as holoenzymes or without catalytic subunits was determined by sedimentation characteristics on sucrose density gradient centrifugation and by cAMP-stimulated kinase activation characteristics on Eadie-Scatchard analysis. We identified the presence of a type I holoenzyme containing RI alpha (Mr 47,000) subunits, a prominent type II holoenzyme containing RII beta (Mr 52,000) subunits, and a second more acidic type II holoenzyme peak containing both RII beta and RII alpha (Mr 54,000) subunits. However, the majority of total R subunit activity was associated with a catalytic subunit-free peak of RI alpha protein which on elution from DEAE-cellulose was associated with cAMP. This report establishes the more basic elution position from DEAE-cellulose of the prominent rat luteal RII beta holoenzyme in very close proximity to free RI alpha and presents one of the few reports of a normal tissue containing a large percentage of catalytic subunit-free RI alpha.     

Use of APACHE II classification to evaluate outcome of patients receiving hemodialysis in an intensive care unit.

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of all patients who were admitted to the medical and surgical intensive care units of a university center (N = 100) and its affiliated veterans'' hospital (N = 46) between 1982 and 1986 to receive dialysis. The APACHE II severity-of-disease classification was used to identify the cases in which the prognosis was so poor that no long-term benefit would accrue from hemodialysis treatment. A "risk of death" was calculated for each patient. At a risk of death of 70% or greater, the system correctly predicted the demise of patients with 100% specificity regardless of what interventions were carried out. Sensitivity and predicted negative value were low in all cases, however, indicating a poor predictability of those who will survive. Withholding the average of 6 dialysis treatments that this group of patients received would probably have reduced patient suffering during a lingering terminal illness and led to a savings of about $4,500 per patient.     

Heterologous expression of preprosomatostatin. Intracellular degradation of prosomatostatin-II.

Somatostatin (SRIF) is a peptide hormone that is synthesized as part of a larger precursor, prepro-SRIF, consisting of a signal peptide and a proregion of 80-90 amino acids. The mature hormone exists as two different bioactive species. In addition to the most common form, which is a 14-residue peptide, there is also a 14-amino acid NH2-terminally extended form of the tetradecapeptide, SRIF-28. In mammals a single prepro-SRIF molecule undergoes tissue-specific processing to generate the mature hormone, whereas in some species of fish separate genes encode two distinct but homologous precursors, prepro-SRIF-I and -II, that give rise to SRIF-14 and -28, respectively. To investigate the molecular basis for differential processing of the prohormones, we have expressed their cDNAs in heterologous cells. Previously, we demonstrated that prepro-SRIF-I was efficiently and accurately processed in rat pituitary growth hormone (GH3) cells to generate the same hormone as synthesized in pancreatic islet D-cells, namely SRIF-14 (Stoller, T., and Shields, D. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264, 6922-6928). We have now compared the proteolytic processing of pro-SRIF-II to that of pro-SRIF-I in these cells. In contrast to pro-SRIF-I, pro-SRIF-II was neither processed nor secreted. Instead, greater than 70% of the precursor was degraded intracellularly in a post-trans Golgi network compartment which was inhibited by weak bases. Brefeldin A treatment prevented degradation, suggesting that turnover of the remaining pro-SRIF-II occurred after exit from the endoplasmic reticulum/intermediate compartment and prior to arrival at the trans Golgi network. The intracellular degradation of the precursor was unexpected, since heterologous cells which do not cleave prohormones generally secrete the unprocessed precursor. We speculate that unique structural domains within each precursor are recognized by the sorting apparatus in GH3 cells, thereby targeting the molecules to different intracellular organelles.