Lilioside C,a glycerol glucoside from Lilium lancifolium

A new glycerol glucoside, lilioside C, has been isolated from the leaves and stems of Lilium lancifolium. Its structure including the configuration of the aglycone moiety has been elucidated by chemical and spectroscopic means and by its synthesis.     

Eurycomanone and eurycomanol,quassinoids from the roots of Eurycoma longifolia

From the roots of Eurycoma longifolia, used as an Indonesian folk medicine, two highly oxygenated quassinoids, named eurycomanone and eurycomanol were isolated. The structures of both new bitter principles were elucidated by NMR, MS, UV and IR.     

Lymphocyte-increasing action and hypocalcemic action of parotid gland extract.

It has previously been shown in our laboratory that the hypocalcemic substances purified from the thymus have a potent lymphocyte-increasing action in mice. Then, lymphocyte-increasing activity was examined with bovine parotid gland extracts, which showed a hypocalcemic activity as potent as that of the thymus extracts. The lymphocyte-increasing activity was assayed in the littermates of neonatal mice of Swiss-Webster strain; the materials used for this experiment were purified preparations and several fractions obtained from the parotid gland extracts in the course of purification. It was found that the potency of lymphocyte-increasing activity rose approximately in parallel with the rise in hypocalcemic activity with progress in purification. The final product, which was purified from the gland by isoelectric precipitation at pH 5.4, fractional precipitation with ammonium sulfate, chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, gel filtration on Sepharose 6B and preparative disc electrophoresis, gave a single band in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Its intravenous injection in rabbits, in a dose of 10 mug/kg, produced a significant lowering in serum calcium (percent decrease 10.24 +/- 1.06%) compared with control animals given an injection of physiological saline. Intraperitoneal injection of this purified product, in a dose of 0.5 mug/mouse, in the littermates of neonatal mice, also produced a significant increase (ratio of lymphocytes to polymorphs 2.47 +/- 0.07) in lymphocytes compared with control animals injected with physiological saline (L/P ratio 1.57 +/- 0.05). These facts suggest that this purified protein fraction inherently contains both activities, but the possibility cannot be ruled out of slight contamination by a substance having a high activity. On the other hand, a fraction having no activity for lowering serum calcium but which had activity for increasing the lymphocytes was obtained. This is the first paper to report the presence of lymphocyte-increasing substances in the bovine parotid gland and the purification of one of the substances from the gland.     

13C-N.M.R. Spectroscopy of α- and β-anomeric series of alkyl l-arabinopyranosides

Anomeric pairs of l-arabinopyranosides of a variety of aliphatic alcohols were prepared, and their n.m.r. spectroscopy, especially the glycosylation shift of their ¹³C signals, was investigated in comparison with those of d-glucopyranosides, d-mannopyranosides, and l-rhamnopyranosides reported previously. It was found that the glycosylation shift of the l-arabinopyranosides in the present study is almost the same as that of d-glucopyranosides, and the conformational equilibrium of each of these l-arabinopyranosides is very similar to that of the corresponding anomer of methyl l-arabinopyranoside, namely, a preponderance of the ⁴C₁, form, regardless of the structure of the aglycon alcohol. The present results are also useful for structural study of naturally occurring arabinopyranosides.     

Purification and partial characterization of cell surface glycoprotein from extremely halophilic archaeon Haloarcula japonica strain TR-1

Summary Haloarculajaponica has a glycoprotein on its cell surface. The cell surface glycoprotein of H. japonica was purified and characterized. It had an apparent molecular mass of 180 kDa in sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The carbohydrate content was about 12% (wt/wt). The polypeptide portion contained a large proportion of acidic amino acids, and the sequence of 18 N-terminal amino acids was determined.     

A morphometric analysis of the subcellular distribution of LHβ and FSHβ in secretory granules in the pituitary gonadotrophs of the frog (Rana japonica)

Immunohistochemical localization of lutropin (LH) and follitropin (FSH) in the pituitary gland of the frog Rana japonica was studied by the peroxidase-anti-peroxidase method and the two-face, double-labeling method with different-sized gold particles at the light-and electron-microscopic levels, respectively, using monoclonal antibodies against bullfrog LH and FSH. Light-microscopic immunohistochemistry indicated that approximately 66.0% of all the gonadotrophs in the pituitary contained both LH and FSH, whereas 33.4% of gonadotrophs contained only LH, and 0.6% contained only FSH. The staining intensity of LH and FSH varied from cell to cell. The gonadotrophs were classified into four types (Types I–IV) in terms of their ultrastructural and immunolabeling characteristics. Moreover, several secretory granule types were recognized according to differences in their shape and electron density. In all the cell types, both LH and FSH were often seen in the same secretory granules, but the proportion of granules bearing both hormones ranged from 5.5% in Type I to 32.7% in Type IV. Most secretory granules in Types I and II were immunolabeled with LH alone, whereas a small number of granules were immunolabeled with FSH alone. More immunolabeled FSH granules were present in Types III and IV than in Types I and II.     

Isolation and identification of lepidimoide, a new allelopathic substance from mucilage of germinated cress seeds

A new allelopathic substance that promoted the shoot growth of different plant species but inhibited the root growth was isolated as an amorphous powder from mucilage of germinated cress (Lepidium sativum L.) seeds. This substance was identified as sodium 2-O-rhamnopyranosyl-4-deoxy-threo-hex-4-enopyranosiduronate (designated lepidimoide) from the mass and the nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared spectra coupled with some chemical evidence. Lepidimoide promoted the hypocotyl growth of etiolated Amaranthus caudatus L. at concentrations higher than 3 μm and inhibited the root growth at concentrations higher than 100 μm. The growth-promoting activity in hypocotyls was 20 or 30 times as much as that of gibberellic acid.     

Concerted Movement of Prestalk Cells in Migrating Slugs of Dictyostelium Revealed by the Localization of Myosin

Localization of myosin in slugs of the cellular slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum was investigated by an immunofluorescence technique. Myosin is thought to provide the molecular machinery for cellular movement. We found that myosin could be visualized as c-shaped fluorescence at the cortex of prestalk cells in a migrating slug, and that the open regions of all c-shaped fluorescence point in the direction of the slug's migration. We reported previously that the c-shaped fluorescence of myosin can be seen at the cortex of the tail region of actively locomoting cells at the unicellular stage (39, 41). These results suggest that prestalk cells move actively in the slug, and that their direction of movement, which can be identified from the polarity of c-shaped fluorescence, correspond with the direction of the slug's migration. The distribution of c-shaped fluorescence in slugs during migration, phototaxis and avoidance of ammonia strongly suggests that the slug's behavior is controlled by the concerted movement of prestalk cells.