Patterns of early and late discharges in somatotopically identified precentral neurons in awake monkeys in response to somatic inputs.

Extracellular recordings were made of single neurons in precentral cortex of awake monkeys. These neurons were somatotopically identified with respect to their responses to inputs from single joints or their somatic surround. Many of these neurons exhibited early (less than 50 ms) and late (greater than 50 ms) discharges in response to flexion or extension torques delivered about the wrist. With the monkey in a mode requiring opposition to the injected torque, all responsive neurons showed a parallel excitatory or inhibitory modification in the early and late discharges. This was true both for cells identified as wrist (flexion-extension) neurons and those identified as nonwrist (flexion-extension) neurons. These findings indicate that the reflex and voluntary components of percentral discharge invariably show a congruent functional response to a torque disturbance, for this particular instruction set.     

Uridine diphosphate galactose 4-epimerase: nucleotide and 8-anilino-1-naphthalenesulfonate binding properties of the substrate binding site.

Escherichia coli UDP-galactose 4-epimerase in its native form (epimerase.NAD) binds 8-anilino-1-naphthalenesulfonate (ANS) at one tight binding site per dimer with a dissociation constant of 25.9 +/- 2.1 micrometer at pH 8.5 and 27 degrees C. This appears to be the substrate binding site, as indicated by the fact that ANS is a kinetically competitive reversible inhibitor with a Ki of 27.5 micrometer and by the fact that ANS competes with UMP for binding to the enzyme. Upon binding at this site the fluorescence quantum yield of ANS is enhanced 185-fold, and its emission spectrum is blue shifted from a lambdamax of 515 to 470.nm, which suggests that the binding site is shielded from water and probably hydrophobic. Competitive binding experiments with nucleosides and nucleotides indicate that nucleotide binding at this site involves coupled hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions. The reduced form of the enzyme (epimerase.NADH) has no detectable binding affinity for ANS. The marked difference in the affinities of the native and reduced enzymes for ANS is interpreted to be a manifestation of a conformational difference between these enzyme forms.     

A simple dichromatic densitometer for repeated measurements of cardiac output in small animals.

The construction of a simple device for continuous monitoring and recording of plasma indocyanine green concentration in small animals is described. The apparatus is designed to hold a vascular bed such as the ear or the omentum and to transilluminate it with white light from a fiber optic bundle. The transmitted light is divided by a dichroic mirror. Appropriate filters select a narrow band of frequencies from each segment. There are two photovoltaic cells, one sensitive to the dye and the other insensitive to it. Both are approximately equally reactive to changes in transilluminence caused by changes in blood content or hematocrit and are relatively insensitive to changes in oxygen saturation of the transilluminated blood. Reproducible estimates of cardiac output have been obtained with the injection of 300 mug indocyanine green in a volume of 20 mul with the densitometer applied to the small intestine or to the ear of the animal. The device responds linearly to increasing plasma indocyanine green concentrations and can be calibrated with less than 0.1 ml of blood.     

Specific conversion of s4 U to U in Escherichia coli tRNA by iodate oxidation.

The minor nucleoside 4-thiouridine in Escherichia coli tRNA is transformed selectively to uridine by iodate oxidation at acidic pH. The four major nucleotides were found to be inert under these conditions. The iodate oxidation appears to be more specific than the previous conversion methods reported, and has the advantage that it does not affect the chargeability of most tRNA.     

Simultaneous tissue profiling of eicosanoid and endocannabinoid lipid families in a rat model of osteoarthritis

We describe a novel LC method for the simultaneous and quantitative profiling of 43 oxylipins including eicosanoids, endocannabinoids, and structurally related bioactive lipids with modified acyl groups. The LC-MS/MS method uses switching at a defined time between negative and positive electrospray ionization modes to achieve optimal detection sensitivity for all the lipids. The validated method is linear over a range of 0.01–5 nmol/g (0.1–50 nmol/g for 2-arachidonoyl glycerol) with intra- and interday precision and accuracy between 1.38 and 26.76% and 85.22 and 114.3%, respectively. The method successfully quantified bioactive lipids in different tissue types in the rat, including spinal cord, dorsal root ganglia (DRGs), knee joint, brain, and plasma. Distinct regional differences in the pattern of lipid measured between tissue types were observed using principle component analysis. The method was applied to analyze tissue samples from an established preclinical rat model of osteoarthritis (OA) pain and showed that levels of 12-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid were significantly increased in the OA rat knee joint compared with controls, and that 15-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid was significantly increased in the DRGs in the model of OA compared with controls. The developed LC-MS/MS method has the potential to provide detailed pathway profiling in tissues and biofluids where the disruption of bioactive oxylipins may be involved in disease states.     

The mushroom ribosome-inactivating protein lyophyllin exerts deleterious effects on mouse embryonic development in vitro

Earlier investigations disclose that some plant ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs) adversely affect mouse embryonic development. In the present study, a mushroom RIP, namely lyophyllin from Lyophyllum shimeji, was isolated, partially sequenced, and its translation inhibitory activity determined. Its teratogenicity was studied by using a technique entailing microinjection and postimplantation whole-embryo culture. It was found that embryonic abnormalities during the period of organogenesis from E8.5 to E9.5 were induced by lyophyllin at a concentration as low as 50 μg/ml, and when the lyophyllin concentration was raised, the number of abnormal embryos increased, the final somite number decreased, and the abnormalities increased in severity. The affected embryonic structures included the cranial neural tube, forelimb buds, branchial arches, and body axis, while optic and otic placodes were more resistant. Lyophyllin at a concentration higher than 500 μg/ml also induced forebrain blisters within the cranial mesenchyme. When the abnormal embryos were examined histologically, an increase of cell death was found to be associated with abnormal structures, indicating that cell death may be one of the underlying causes of teratogenicity of the mushroom RIP. This constitutes the first report on the teratogenicity of a mushroom RIP.     

Technologies for integrating biological data

The process of building a new database relevant to some field of study in biomedicine involves transforming, integrating and cleansing multiple data sources, as well as adding new material and annotations. This paper reviews some of the requirements of a general solution to this data integration problem. Several representative technologies and approaches to data integration in biomedicine are surveyed. Then some interesting features that separate the more general data integration technologies from the more specialised ones are highlighted.     

A differential medium for the identification of races 1 and 4 of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense

Three distinctive colony types were produced when Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense (Foc ) races 1 and 4 were cultured on a defined basal medium containing an appropriate carbon source and bromothymol blue as a pH indicator. These distinctive cultural characteristics have been used as a specific and reliable method for the differentiation of races 1 and 4 of Foc from other species of Fusarium.     

Detection by high pressure infrared spectrometry of hydrogen-bonding between water and triacetyl glycerol

The barotropic behavior of neat and aqueous 1,2,3-triacetyl glycerol was investigated by FT-IR spectroscopy over the pressure range 0.001 to 35 kbar. The infrared spectrum in the presence of water shows bands characteristic of hydrogen bonded carbonyl groups. An increase in hydrostatic pressure leads to a strengthening of the intermolecular hydrogen bond between water and the lipid ester C = O groups. The pressure-induced formation of ice VI at 9 kbar does not affect this hydrogen bond, however, the formation, at 20 kbar, of ice VII in which the water/water hydrogen bonds are stronger than the lipid C = O/water hydrogen bonds, frees the lipid carbonyl groups from the hydrogen-bonding to water.