Corticosteroidogenesis in the hypertrophic adrenal gland produced by betamethasone 17, 21-dipropionate in the rat fetus

Betamethasone 17, 21-dipropionate (BMDP), a potent glucocorticoid, produces adrenal hypertrophy in the rat fetus. The present study was performed to investigate the possible alterations of corticosteroidogenesis due to endogeneous substrates or exogenous pregnenolone in the incubation of homogenates of fetal hypertrophic adrenals caused by BMDP given to pregnant rats at day 19 of pregnancy.The corticosteroidal products and those levels per mg homogenate in an incubate of the hypertrophic adrenal homogenate did not differ from those of a normal adrenal. No accumulations of abnormal precursors or intermediates were found in the incubates of the hypertrophic adrenals. It is concluded from these findings that no qualitative alterations in the pathway of corticosteroidogenesis occurred in the hypertrophic adrenal glands caused by BMDP in the rat fetus. When the calculation was done per adrenal gland, the content of corticosterone in the incubate of the homogenate of the hypertrophic adrenal was remarkably higher than that found in a normal gland. This finding was compatible with the significant increase of the plasma corticosterone concentration in the fetuses with the adrenal hypertrophy caused by BMDP.     

Localization of the antigen for the monoclonal antibody ②9F11-B-E4 interspecific cross-reaction in the freshwater triclads

The localization of the antigen for monoclonal antibody 9F11-B-E₄ was clarified by immuno-electron microscopy. The antigens were localized on the mitochondria and Golgi bodies in the male germ cells and on the secretory granules of various glands cells in the penis bulb and subepidermal parenchymal tissue of Phagocata vivida. The results of the interspecific cross-reaction tests with seven other freshwater triclads showed that these secretory granules are species-specific. A positive interspecific reaction was showed with Dugesia (family Dugesiidae), but not with Polycelis within the same family Planariidae which suggests the position of Phagocata within the Planariidae needs to be reassesed.     

Effects of chitin/chitosan and their oligomers/monomers on release of type I collagenase from fibroblasts

The effects of chitin/chitosan and their oligomers/monomers on the release of type I collagenase (MMP-1) from fibroblasts were evaluated using adult (adFB) and neonatal human fibroblasts (neFB) by a immunological assay. Release of MMP-1 from adFB increased significantly or tended to increase for all samples, while there was no significant change in MMP-1 levels with neFB. Because the oligomers and monomers of chitin and chitosan influenced MMP-1 activity, it was suggested that the elevated MMP-1 activity would continue until biodegradation of chitin and chitosan was complete.     

Stimulatory effect of glycine betaine on l-lysine fermentation

Summary The growth rate, sugar consumption rate, and production rate of an l-lysine producing Brevibacterium lactofermentum mutant were stimulated by addition of exogenous glycine betaine. Glycine betaine stimulated the growth rate especially in media of inhibitory osmotic stress, and the stimulation was independent of any specific solute. Therefore growth stimulation by glycine betaine was considered to be an osmoprotective effect. A strong enhancement of the sugar consumption rate and the l-lysine production rate was observed even with resting cells under osmotic stress as well as in a fermentation with growing cells. These data indicated that the osmoprotective effects of glycine betaine on l-lysine production can be independent of protein synthesis. Offprint requests to: Yoshio Kawahara     

Uptake of Homologous Series of p-n-Alkylphenols by Phytopathogenic Fungi

Uptake of homologous series of p-n-alkylphenols by fungi from aqueous phase was studied using spores of Piricularia oryzae and Gibberella fujikuroi, and mycelia of P. oryzae as test organisms.

Process of uptake seemed to be physical, because dead cells took up as much phenol as did living cells. Amount of phenol taken up by fungal cells equilibrated with concentration of remaining phenol in external aqueous phase. Uptake was found to increase with increasing alkyl side chain length, and solubility of the homologous series decreases at higher rate than uptake increases. Uptake of higher homologue is not supposed to reach the level enough to inhibit growth of fungi, on account of its slight solubility.

These results explain the reason why antifungal activity of p-n-alkylphenol increases with increasing alkyl chain length up to a certain homologue, and decreases for the higher members.     

Selective tumoricidal effect of soluble proteoglucan extracted from the basidiomycete, Agaricus blazei Murill, mediated via natural killer cell activation and apoptosis

 We have isolated a novel type of natural tumoricidal product from the basidiomycete strain, Agaricus blazei Murill. Using the double-grafted tumor system in Balb/c mice, treatment of the primary tumor with an acid-treated fraction (ATF) obtained from the fruit bodies resulted in infiltration of the distant tumor by natural killer (NK) cells with marked tumoricidal activity. As shown by electrophoresis and DNA fragmentation assay, the ATF also directly inhibited tumor cell growth in vitro by inducing apoptotic processing; this apoptotic effect was also demonstrated by increased expression of the Apo2.7 antigen on the mitochondrial membranes of tumor cells, as shown by flow-cytometric analysis. The ATF had no effect on normal mouse splenic or interleukin-2-treated splenic mononuclear cells, indicating that it is selectively cytotoxic for the tumor cells. Cell-cycle analysis demonstrated that ATF induced the loss of S phase in MethA tumor cells, but did not affect normal splenic mononuclear cells, which were mainly in the G0G1 phase. Various chromatofocussing purification steps and NMR analysis showed the tumoricidal activity to be chiefly present in fractions containing (1→4)-α-D-glucan and (1→6)-β-D-glucan, present in a ratio of approximately 1:2 in the ATF (molecular mass 170 kDa), while the final purified fraction, HM3-G (molecular mass 380 kDa), with the highest tumoricidal activity, consisted of more than 90% glucose, the main component being (1→4)-α-D-glucan with (1→6)-β branching, in the ratio of approximately 4:1. Received: 27 August 1997 / Accepted 22 December 1997