Intracellular degradation of the complement C3b/C4b receptor in the absence of ligand

Human neutrophils (PMN) respond to various soluble stimuli by translocating intracellular complement C3b/C4b receptors (CR1) to the cell surface. Ligand-independent internalization of surface CR1 has been demonstrated previously, but the fate of total cellular CR1 during PMN stimulation has not been determined. In order to study the fate of CR1 during neutrophil activation, we have employed a unique approach for the quantitative analysis of intracellular antigens which allows simultaneous measurement of total cellular and surface membrane antigen pools. Stimulation of isolated PMN with N-formyl-Met-Leu-Phe or ionomycin resulted in a mean 7-fold increase in surface CR1 expression within 15 min. Total cellular CR1 decreased by as much as 45% within 15 min, with loss continuing for up to 1 h. Inclusion of NH4Cl during PMN stimulation inhibited the loss of total CR1 without affecting surface CR1 expression. Addition of phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride inhibited loss of total CR1 and enhanced the stimulus-induced increases in surface CR1. These data suggest that intracellular degradation of CR1 occurs during stimulation of PMN and may involve proteolysis in an acidic intracellular compartment. Since our experiments were done with isolated PMN in the absence of serum and complement components, this degradation occurred in the absence of C3b, the ligand for CR1. To our knowledge, ligand-independent degradation of a cell surface receptor has not been previously detected.     

Prolonged increased responsiveness of canine peripheral airways after exposure to O3

Because it is relatively insoluble, the oxidant gas O3 may penetrate to small peripheral airways when it is inhaled. Increased responsiveness in large airways after O3 breathing has been associated with the presence of inflammatory cells. To determine whether O3 produces prolonged hyperresponsiveness of small airways associated with the presence of inflammatory cells, we exposed the peripheral lungs of anesthetized dogs to 1.0 ppm O3 for 2 h using a wedged bronchoscope technique. A contralateral sublobar segment was simultaneously exposed to air as a control. In the O3-exposed segments, collateral resistance (Rcs) was increased within 15 min and remained elevated approximately 150% throughout the 2-h exposure period. Fifteen hours later, the base-line Rcs of the O3-exposed sublobar segments was significantly elevated, and these segments demonstrated increased responsiveness to aerosolized acetylcholine (100 and 500 micrograms/ml). There were no differences in neutrophils, mononuclear cells, or mast cells (numbers or degree of mast cell degranulation) between O3 and air-exposed airways at 15 h. The small airways of the lung periphery thus are capable of remaining hyperresponsive hours after cessation of localized exposure to O3, but this does not appear to be dependent on the presence of inflammatory cells in the small airway wall.     

Multipoint linkage analysis of the short arm of chromosome 11 in non-insulin dependent diabetes including maturity onset diabetes of youth

Summary Members of three families with maturity onset diabetes of youth (MODY) and seven with common type 2 diabetes were typed for six DNA markers (H-RAS, INS, HBBC, PTH, CALC1, CAT) on the short arm of chromosome 11. Using conventional pairwise linkage analysis, close linkage in the MODY families was excluded for all six markers. By multipoint analysis and a genetic map of the short arm of chromosome 11, MODY was excluded from a region of at least 35 and up to 60 centiMorgans (cM) on the short arm of chromosome 11. Multipoint analysis in the type 2 families also excludes linkage to the INS, H-RAS region of at least 3 and up to 30 cM. This study using multipoint linkage analysis in non-insulin dependent diabetes provides strong evidence against a role for mutations in or around the insulin gene in the causation of MODY or type 2 diabetes in the families studied.     

Transformation and regeneration of Brassica rapa using Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Summary Transformation and regeneration procedures for obtaining transgenic Brassica rapa ssp. oleifera plants are described. Regeneration frequencies were increasedby using silver nitrate and by adjusting the duration of exposure to 2,4-D. For transformation, Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain EHA101 containing a binary plasmid with the neomycin phosphotransferase gene (NPT II) and the b-glucuronidase gene (GUS) was cocultivated with hypocotyl explants from the oilseed B. rapa cvs. Tobin and Emma. Transformed plants were obtained within three months of cocultivation. Transformation frequencies for the cultivars Tobin and Emma were 1–9%. Evidence for transformation was shown by NPT II dot blot assay, the GUS fluorometric assay, Southern analysis, and segregation of the kanamycin-resistance trait in the progeny. The transformation and regeneration procedure described here has been used routinely to transform two cultivars of B. rapa and 18 cultivars of B. napus.     

Regulation of oxygen affinity by quaternary enhancement: Does hemoglobin ypsilanti represent an allosteric intermediate?

Recent crystallographic studies on the mutant human hemoglobin Ypsilanti (beta 99 Asp-->Tyr) have revealed a previously unknown quaternary structure called "quaternary Y" and suggested that the new structure may represent an important intermediate in the cooperative oxygenation pathway of normal hemoglobin. Here we measure the oxygenation and subunit assembly properties of hemoglobin Ypsilanti and five additional beta 99 mutants (Asp beta 99-->Val, Gly, Asn, Ala, His) to test for consistency between their energetics and those of the intermediate species of normal hemoglobin. Overall regulation of oxygen affinity in hemoglobin Ypsilanti is found to originate entirely from 2.6 kcal of quaternary enhancement, such that the tetramer oxygenation affinity is 85-fold higher than for binding to the dissociated dimers. Equal partitioning of this regulatory energy among the four tetrameric binding steps (0.65 kcal per oxygen) leads to a noncooperative isotherm with extremely high affinity (pmedian = .14 torr). Temperature and pH studies of dimer-tetramer assembly and sulfhydryl reaction kinetics suggest that oxygenation-dependent structural changes in hemoglobin Ypsilanti are small. These properties are quite different from the recently characterized allosteric intermediate, which has two ligands bound on the same side of the alpha 1 beta 2 interface (see ref. 1 for review). The combined results do, however, support the view that quaternary Y may represent the intermediate cooperativity state of normal hemoglobin that binds the last oxygen.     

Variation in the mutagenic potential of acridines in Salmonella typhimurium, with stage of the culture

The mutagenic potential of proflavine differed by up to two orders of magnitude in three strains of Salmonella typhimurium carrying the frameshift marker hisC3076, depending upon the stage of the culture. In cultures at a specific stage, proflavine showed decreased mutagenesis in a recA as compared with a wildtupe or uvrB derivative. The related compound 9-aminoacridine also showed marked variation in mutagenic potential with the stage of the bacterial culture, but was equally mutagenic in all three strains, at least in log phase cells. Within the literature, there are conflicting data regarding the mutagenicity of acridines, and the contribution of repair enzymes to this event. We suggest that many of the reported differences can be related to the variations in bacterial growth conditions in different laboratories, and urge authors to supply more details of these.     

Observation of inverted cubic phase in hydrated dioleoylphosphatidylethanolamine membranes

We report the observation of an inverted cubic phase in aqueous dispersions of 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (DOPE) by small-angle X-ray diffraction. DOPE is a paradigm in the study of nonlamellar phases in biological systems: it exhibits a well-known phase transition from the lamellar (L alpha) to the inverted hexagonal phase (HII) as the temperature is raised. The transition is observed to occur rapidly when a DOPE dispersion is heated from 2 degrees C, where the L alpha phase is stable, to 15 degrees C, where the HII phase is stable. We report on the induction of a crystallographically well-defined cubic lattice that is slowly formed when the lipid dispersion is rapidly cycled between -5 and 15 degrees C hundreds of times. Once formed, the cubic lattice is stable at 4 degrees C for several weeks and exhibits the same remarkable metastability that characterizes other cubic phases in lipid-water systems. X-ray diffraction indicates that the cubic lattice is most consistent with either the Pn3m or Pn3 space group. Tests of lipid purity after induction of the cubic indicate the lipid is at least 98% pure. The cubic lattice can be destroyed and the system reset by cycling the specimen several times between -30 and 2 degrees C. The kinetics of the formation of the cubic are dependent on the thermal history of the sample, overall water concentration, and the extreme temperatures of the cycle.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Revised enzyme synthesis rate expression in cybernetic models of bacterial growth

A revised enzyme synthesis rate expression for cybernetic models of bacterial growth is presented. The rate expression, which is comprised of inducible and constitutive contributions, provides for a basal enzyme level that is necessary to predict certain types of commonly observed continuous culture transients. The response of a continuous culture to a step change in feed stream composition is simulated using both the old and new formulations, and the ramifications for the "matching-law" formulation are discussed.