Quantification of cell nuclei isolated from hepatocytes by cell lysis with nonionic detergent in citric acid

A method was developed for determining the number of nuclei of hepatocytes cultured on collagen gel using a nonionic detergent, Nikkol BO-10TX. The cells were recovered in a test tube after solubilizing the gel by incubating it with the detergent in 0.1 M citric acid and then centrifuging the mixture. Nuclei were isolated from the cells with the same detergent solution and collected by centrifugation. The numbers of nuclei in cultures, scored with a hemocytometer or an electronic particle counter, were proportional to the lactate dehydrogenase activities of the cells. This method was also applicable for scoring the number of nuclei of hepatocytes cultured on collagen-coated plastic.     

Stabilization and enhancement of primary cytostatic factor (CSF) by ATP and NaF in amphibian egg cytosols

Amphibian zygotes microinjected with the cytoplasm or cytosol of unactivated eggs are arrested at metaphase of mitosis. The activity responsible for this effect has been designated primary "cytostatic factor (CSF)." Primary CSF disappears from the cytoplasm after egg activation, as well as from cytosols after addition of Ca2+. In the present study, using fresh cytosols of Rana pipiens eggs, a unit of CSF activity was defined as the dose required to arrest 50% of the recipients, and the specific activity of a cytosol was expressed in units per microgram protein. Specific activities of cytosols prepared with the one-step centrifugation method employed in the present study were double the activities in cytosols obtained by the previously described two-step procedure. During storage at 2 degrees C, CSF specific activity in cytosols fell rapidly within hours of extraction and disappeared completely within 2 days. However, if NaF and ATP were added to fresh cytosols, specific activities increased within hours and remained high for at least several days. Addition of gamma-S-ATP also significantly increased the longevity of the activity during storage at 2 degrees C. Further, it was found that primary CSF activity could be recovered by ATP additions to cytosols in which residual activity was still present, but no activity was recovered by ATP addition if cytosols had completely lost activity. When Ca2+ was added to cytosols to which NaF and ATP had been added, CSF was inactivated more slowly than in control cytosols without NaF and ATP additions. Therefore, it appears that maintenance of primary CSF activity in vitro requires protein phosphorylation and that protein dephosphorylation is involved with its inactivation. Also, we compared the sensitivities to primary CSF of Xenopus laevis and R. pipiens two-cell embryos. In order to arrest 50% of recipients, the concentration of primary CSF in Xenopus blastomeres was three times higher than in Rana blastomeres.     

Cloning in Saccharomyces cerevisiae of a cycloheximide resistance gene from the Candida maltosa genome which modifies ribosomes.

We have previously shown that cycloheximide resistance can be induced in a strain of Candida maltosa by modifying ribosomes (M. Takagi, S. Kawai, Y. Takata, N. Tanaka, M. Sunairi, M. Miyazaki, and K. Yano, J. Gen. Appl. Microbiol. 31:267-275, 1985). The present paper describes the cloning of the gene involved in this resistance (designated RIM-C for ribosome modification by cycloheximide) by using a host-vector system of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.     

Molecular cloning of the cls gene responsible for cardiolipin synthesis in Escherichia coli and phenotypic consequences of its amplification.

The cls gene responsible for cardiolipin synthesis in Escherichia coli K-12 was cloned in a 5-kilobase-pair DNA fragment inserted in a mini-F vector, pML31, and then subcloned into a 2.0-kilobase-pair fragment inserted in pBR322. The initial selection of the gene was accomplished in a cls pss-1 double mutant that had lesions in both cardiolipin and phosphatidylserine synthases and required either the cls or the pss gene product for normal growth at 42 degrees C in a broth medium, NBY, supplemented with 200 mM sucrose. The cloned gene was identified as the cls gene by the recovery and amplification of both cardiolipin and cardiolipin synthase in a cls mutant as well as by the integration of a pBR322 derivative into its genetic locus at 27 min on the chromosome of a polA1 mutant. The maxicell analysis indicated that a protein of molecular weight 46,000 is the gene product. The cls gene is thus most likely the structural gene coding for cardiolipin synthase. Hybrid plasmids of high copy numbers containing the cls gene were growth inhibitory to pss-I mutants under the above selective conditions, whereas they inhibited neither the growth of pss-I mutants at 30 degrees C nor that of pss+ strains at any temperature. Amplification of cardiolipin synthase activity was observed, but was not proportional to the probable gene dosage (the enzyme activity was at most 10 times that in wild-type cells), and cardiolipin synthesis in vivo was at the maximum 1.5 times that in wild-type strains, implying the presence in E. coli cells of a mechanism that avoids cardiolipin overproduction, which is possibly disadvantageous to proper membrane functions.     

Activation of the transformation potential of the cellular fps gene

Chicken cellular-fps (c-fps) sequences were substituted for viral-fps (v-fps) sequences in two retroviral genome structures, one that expressed a c-fps gene product that was indistinguishable from the normal c-fps gene product expressed in chicken bone marrow cells, and another that expressed a gag-fps fusion protein. When c-fps gene sequences (without linked gag gene sequences) were expressed at high levels in a viral vector, no transformation of fibroblasts was detected. It was previously demonstrated that the corresponding v-fps sequences could transform fibroblasts. When the same c-fps sequences were expressed in a form linked to gag gene sequences, transformation of fibroblasts and induction of tumors were observed. The data suggest that the c-fps gene product lacks transformation potential by itself even when overexpressed and that the transformation potential of the c-fps gene can be activated by either mutation (or mutations) in the fps coding region or by fusion with viral gag gene sequences.     

Amplification and expression of a cellular oncogene (c-myc) in human gastric adenocarcinoma cells.

Three of 16 human gastric adenocarcinoma samples, maintained as solid tumors in nude mice, were found to carry amplified c-myc genes. In two samples with a high degree of c-myc DNA amplification (15- to 30-fold), double minute chromosomes were observed in karyotype analysis. The level of c-myc RNA was markedly elevated in a rapidly growing and poorly differentiated tumor, whereas it was only slightly elevated in a slowly growing and more differentiated tumor.     

Insulin uptake by rat liver endothelium studied in fractionated liver cell suspensions

Summary Cellular distribution of insulin receptors was studied in fractionated rat liver cell suspensions using ¹²⁵1-insulin and a visual probe consisting of latex beads covalently linked to insulin (minibeads). Fractionation was done on metrizamide gradients which yielded two cellular fractions. The large cell fraction consisted mostly of hepatocytes and the small cell fraction consisted of 37% endothelial cells as well as Kupffer cells. The magnitude of insulin uptake by the endothelium-rich small cell fraction was at least double that of the uptake by the hepatocyte-rich fraction. The minibead technique demonstrated that in the small cell fraction only endothelial cells, and not Kupffer cells, were responsible for the insulin uptake. Our findings suggest that liver endothelium may be responsible for the uptake of circulating insulin and its transport to hepatocyte. This emphasizes the presence of a tissue-blood barrier in the liver.Abbreviations PRS phosphate-buffered saline - SEM scanning electron microscopy - TEM transmission electron microscopy     

The effect of some drugs on the mitral cell odor-evoked responses in the gecko olfactory bulb

The activity of odor-evoked olfactory mitral cell response of the gecko was recorded extracellularly by glass microelectrodes. The activities of the mitral cell observed during the presentation of the odor (n-amyl acetate) could be described as excitation, suppression or zero. The present experiments were undertaken to study the neural activities of the mitral cell in the olfactory bulb by perfusion application of some drugs (cobalt chloride, carnosine, norepinephrine, GABA and D-L-homocysteate) on the olfactory bulb surface or iontophoretic application of some drugs (carnosine, norepinephrine, GABA and D-L-homocysteate) to the glomerulus and the external plexiform layer to change the physiological environment. The effect of the drugs suggested that the synaptic neurons on the mitral cell have different chemical characteristics.