Decreased DMT1 and increased ferroportin 1 expression is the mechanisms of reduced iron retention in macrophages by erythropoietin in rats

Recycled iron from reticuloendothelial macrophages to erythroid precursors is important to maintain the iron homeostasis. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying iron homeostasis in macrophages are poorly understood. In this study, male Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo, 500 IU/day, s.c.) for 3 days. At the fifth day, peritoneal exudate macrophages were harvested, and then (55)Fe uptake and release were measured by liquid scintillation counting method. The expression of divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1) and ferroportin 1 (FPN1) in peritoneal exudate macrophages was detected by RT-PCR and Western blot. In order to exclude the direct effect of rHuEpo on macrophages, the parallel experiments were performed with incubation normal peritoneal exudate macrophages with rHuEpo (2 IU/ml). Our results showed rHuEpo injection reduced the peritoneal exudate macrophages iron retention. The uptake of Fe(II) was decreased via the suppression of DMT1 (+IRE) expression and the release of Fe(II) was increased with increasing the expression of FPN1 in macrophages. Moreover, the expression of HAMP mRNA was four times lower in rHuEpo-treated liver of rats than control group (CG). HAMP mRNA expression was increased; the synthesis of DMT1 had no significant change, whereas the FPN1 was decreased in normal peritoneal exudate macrophages after treatment with rHuEpo in vitro. We conclude that hepcidin may play a major, causative role in the change of FPN1 synthesis and that decreased the iron retention in macrophages of rHuEpo-treated rats.     

Time-course Changes in Immunoreactivities of Glucokinase and Glucokinase Regulatory Protein in the Gerbil Hippocampus Following Transient Cerebral Ischemia

Glucose is a main energy source for normal brain functions. Glucokinase (GK) plays an important role in glucose metabolism as a glucose sensor, and GK activity is modulated by glucokinase regulatory protein (GKRP). In this study, we examined the changes of GK and GKRP immunoreactivities in the gerbil hippocampus after 5 min of transient global cerebral ischemia. In the sham-operated-group, GK and GKRP immunoreactivities were easily detected in the pyramidal neurons of the stratum pyramidale of the hippocampus. GK and GKRP immunoreactivities in the pyramidal neurons were distinctively decreased in the hippocampal CA1 region (CA), not CA2/3, 3 days after ischemia–reperfusion (I–R). Five days after I–R, GK and GKRP immunoreactivities were hardly detected in the CA1, not CA2/3, pyramidal neurons; however, at this point in time, GK and GKRP immunoreactivities were newly expressed in astrocytes, not microglia, in the ischemic CA1. In brief, GK and GKRP immunoreactivities are changed in pyramidal neurons and newly expressed in astrocytes in the ischemic CA1 after transient cerebral ischemia. These indicate that changes of GK and GKRP expression may be related to the ischemia-induced neuronal damage/death.     

Precision mapping of the human O‐GalNAc glycoproteome through SimpleCell technology

Glycosylation is the most abundant and diverse posttranslational modification of proteins. While several types of glycosylation can be predicted by the protein sequence context, and substantial knowledge of these glycoproteomes is available, our knowledge of the GalNAc‐type O‐glycosylation is highly limited. This type of glycosylation is unique in being regulated by 20 polypeptide GalNAc‐transferases attaching the initiating GalNAc monosaccharides to Ser and Thr (and likely some Tyr) residues. We have developed a genetic engineering approach using human cell lines to simplify O‐glycosylation (SimpleCells) that enables proteome‐wide discovery of O‐glycan sites using ‘bottom‐up’ ETD‐based mass spectrometric analysis. We implemented this on 12 human cell lines from different organs, and present a first map of the human O‐glycoproteome with almost 3000 glycosites in over 600 O‐glycoproteins as well as an improved NetOGlyc4.0 model for prediction of O‐glycosylation. The finding of unique subsets of O‐glycoproteins in each cell line provides evidence that the O‐glycoproteome is differentially regulated and dynamic. The greatly expanded view of the O‐glycoproteome should facilitate the exploration of how site‐specific O‐glycosylation regulates protein function.     

The emerging use of zebrafish to model metabolic disease

The zebrafish research community is celebrating! The zebrafish genome has recently been sequenced, the Zebrafish Mutation Project (launched by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute) has published the results of its first large-scale ethylnitrosourea (ENU) mutagenesis screen, and a host of new techniques, such as the genome editing technologies TALEN and CRISPR-Cas, are enabling specific mutations to be created in model organisms and investigated in vivo. The zebrafish truly seems to be coming of age. These powerful resources invoke the question of whether zebrafish can be increasingly used to model human disease, particularly common, chronic diseases of metabolism such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. In recent years, there has been considerable success, mainly from genomic approaches, in identifying genetic variants that are associated with these conditions in humans; however, mechanistic insights into the role of implicated disease loci are lacking. In this Review, we highlight some of the advantages and disadvantages of zebrafish to address the organism’s utility as a model system for human metabolic diseases.     

P2 receptors in atherosclerosis and postangioplasty restenosis

Atherosclerosis is an immunoinflammatory process that involves complex interactions between the vessel wall and blood components and is thought to be initiated by endothelial dysfunction [1–3]. Extracellular nucleotides that are released from a variety of arterial and blood cells [4] can bind to P2 receptors and modulate proliferation and migration of smooth muscle cells (SMC), which is known to be involved in intimal hyperplasia that accompanies atherosclerosis and postangioplasty restenosis [5]. In addition, P2 receptors mediate many other functions, including platelet aggregation, leukocyte adherence, and arterial vasomotoricity. A direct pathological role of P2 receptors is reinforced by recent evidence showing that up-regulation and activation of P2Y₂ receptors in rabbit arteries mediates intimal hyperplasia [6]. In addition, up-regulation of functional P2Y receptors also has been demonstrated in the basilar artery of the rat double-hemorrhage model [7] and in coronary arteries of diabetic dyslipidemic pigs [8]. It has been proposed that up-regulation of P2Y receptors may be a potential diagnostic indicator for the early stages of atherosclerosis [9]. Therefore, particular effort must be made to understand the consequences of nucleotide release from cells in the cardiovascular system and the subsequent effects of P2 nucleotide receptor activation in blood vessels, which may reveal novel therapeutic strategies for atherosclerosis and restenosis after angioplasty.     

Facilitation of Expression and Purification of an Antimicrobial Peptide by Fusion with Baculoviral Polyhedrin in Escherichia coli

Several fusion strategies have been developed for the expression and purification of small antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in recombinant bacterial expression systems. However, some of these efforts have been limited by product toxicity to host cells, product proteolysis, low expression levels, poor recovery yields, and sometimes an absence of posttranslational modifications required for biological activity. For the present work, we investigated the use of the baculoviral polyhedrin (Polh) protein as a novel fusion partner for the production of a model AMP (halocidin 18-amino-acid subunit; Hal18) in Escherichia coli. The useful solubility properties of Polh as a fusion partner facilitated the expression of the Polh-Hal18 fusion protein (~33.6 kDa) by forming insoluble inclusion bodies in E. coli which could easily be purified by inclusion body isolation and affinity purification using the fused hexahistidine tag. The recombinant Hal18 AMP (~2 kDa) could then be cleaved with hydroxylamine from the fusion protein and easily recovered by simple dialysis and centrifugation. This was facilitated by the fact that Polh was soluble during the alkaline cleavage reaction but became insoluble during dialysis at a neutral pH. Reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography was used to further purify the separated recombinant Hal18, giving a final yield of 30% with >90% purity. Importantly, recombinant and synthetic Hal18 peptides showed nearly identical antimicrobial activities against E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus, which were used as representative gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, respectively. These results demonstrate that baculoviral Polh can provide an efficient and facile platform for the production or functional study of target AMPs.     

Protein transport in Archaea: Sec and twin arginine translocation pathways

The transport of proteins into and across hydrophobic membranes is an essential cellular process. The majority of proteins that are translocated in an unfolded conformation traverse the membrane by way of the universally conserved Sec pathway, whereas the twin arginine translocation pathway is responsible for the transport of folded proteins across the membrane. Structural, biochemical and genetic analyses of these processes in Archaea have revealed unique archaeal features, and have also provided a better understanding of these pathways in organisms of all domains. Further study of these pathways in Archaea might elucidate fundamental principles involved in each type of transport and could help determine their relative costs and benefits as well as evolutionary adaptations in protein secretion strategies.     

Allene oxide cyclase is essential for theobroxide-induced jasmonic acid biosynthesis in Pharbitis nil

Theobroxide, a natural product, strongly stimulates the biosynthesis of jasmonic acid (JA) in Pharbitis nil. In this study, we investigated the accumulation of protein by the immunoblot analysis of lipoxygenase (LOX), allene oxide synthase (AOS), and allene oxide cyclase (AOC), key enzymes in JA biosynthesis, and how the endogenous levels of JA in P. nil are affected by theobroxide. The effect of JA on the accumulations of these proteins was monitored simultaneously. The results show that theobroxide treatment led to a high level accumulation of JA, which is due to high accumulations of LOX, AOS, and AOC proteins induced by theobroxide treatment both under short day (SD) and long day (LD) conditions. However, under SD conditions AOS and AOC proteins are not enhanced by JA treatment. Kinetic analysis of protein levels shows that a biphasic activation of AOC protein by theobroxide is displayed and the first activation of AOC protein together with elevated JA levels is observed within 30min after treatment. Meanwhile, AOS and LOX proteins are activated by theobroxide later than AOC protein, suggesting that AOC plays an essential role in the initial JA formation induced by theobroxide. Since theobroxide-increased JA levels also show a biphasic manner similar to AOC activation and AOS, LOX proteins are activated later than AOC, and thus we propose a positive JA feedback regulation. Interestingly, AOS protein, which is also the enzyme for the biosynthesis of 9,10-ketol-octadecadienoic acid (KODA, a flowering inducing factor), accumulates markedly due to the simultaneous involvement of theobroxide and SD conditions, suggesting that AOS probably plays a role in flower bud formation in P. nil.