Tumor necrosis factor-α accelerates apoptosis of steatotic hepatocytes from a murine model of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) develops in a subset of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), but the exact mechanisms involved in the progression of NAFLD to NASH remain poorly understood. We investigated the role of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in the apoptosis of hepatocytes that is related to the severity of NASH. We separated primary hepatocytes from the NAFLD liver caused by a high-fat diet. The production of intracellular reactive oxygen species was increased in steatotic hepatocytes, which were also sensitive to TNF-α. This factor induced significant apoptosis through the signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) pathway. We describe here a novel culture model of steatotic hepatocytes separated from the NAFLD liver, and demonstrate that TNF-α induces their apoptosis in vitro.     

cDNA cloning of an alginate lyase from abalone, Haliotis discus hannai

An alginate lyase, termed HdAly in the present paper, was isolated from the hepatopancreas of abalone, Haliotis discus hannai, by ammonium sulfate fractionation, followed by TOYOPEARL CM-650M column chromatography. Enzymatic properties of HdAly were similar to those of previously reported Haliotis and Turbo poly(M) lyases, e.g., it preferentially degraded a poly(beta-D-mannuronate)-rich substrate with an optimal pH and temperature at pH 8.0 and 45 degrees C, respectively. In order to determine the primary structure of abalone lyase that is still poorly understood, cDNAs for HdAly were cloned by PCR from the abalone hepatopancreas cDNA library and sequenced. From the nucleotide sequences of the cDNAs, the sequence of 909 bp in total was determined, and the amino acid sequence of 273 residues was deduced from the translational region of 822 bp locating at nucleotide positions 27-848. The N-terminal region of 16 residues, except for the initiation Met in the deduced sequence, was regarded as the signal peptide since it was absent in the HdAly protein and showed high similarity to the consensus sequence for signal peptides of eukaryote secretary proteins. This suggests that HdAly is initially produced as a precursor possessing the signal peptide in hepatopancreatic cells and then secreted into digestive tract as the mature form. Thus, the mature HdAly was regarded to consist of 256 residues with the calculated molecular mass of 28895.5 Da. The amino acid sequence of HdAly showed 85 and 28% identity to those of Turbo cornutus alginate lyase SP2 and the C-terminal region of Chlorella virus lyase-like protein CL2, respectively, while it showed no significant identity to those of any bacterial alginate lyases. In order to provide the basis for the structure-function studies and various applications of the abalone lyase, a bacterial expression system was constructed by means of the HdAly-cDNA and pET-3a expression plasmid. Although the active recombinant HdAly was hardly produced at a cultivation temperature 37 degrees C in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3), a small amount of soluble and active enzyme could be produced when the temperature was lowered to 19 degrees C.     

Processing of DNA lesions by archaeal DNA polymerases from Sulfolobus solfataricus

Spontaneous damage to DNA as a result of deamination, oxidation and depurination is greatly accelerated at high temperatures. Hyperthermophilic microorganisms constantly exposed to temperatures exceeding 80°C are endowed with powerful DNA repair mechanisms to maintain genome stability. Of particular interest is the processing of DNA lesions during replication, which can result in fixed mutations. The hyperthermophilic crenarchaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus has two functional DNA polymerases, PolB1 and PolY1. We have found that the replicative DNA polymerase PolB1 specifically recognizes the presence of the deaminated bases hypoxanthine and uracil in the template by stalling DNA polymerization 3–4 bases upstream of these lesions and strongly associates with oligonucleotides containing them. PolB1 also stops at 8-oxoguanine and is unable to bypass an abasic site in the template. PolY1 belongs to the family of lesion bypass DNA polymerases and readily bypasses hypoxanthine, uracil and 8-oxoguanine, but not an abasic site, in the template. The specific recognition of deaminated bases by PolB1 may represent an initial step in their repair while PolY1 may be involved in damage tolerance at the replication fork. Additionally, we reveal that the deaminated bases can be introduced into DNA enzymatically, since both PolB1 and PolY1 are able to incorporate the aberrant DNA precursors dUTP and dITP.     

Efflux of sphingomyelin, cholesterol, and phosphatidylcholine by ABCG1

Cholesterol and phospholipids are essential to the body, but an excess of cholesterol or lipids is toxic and a risk factor for arteriosclerosis. ABCG1, one of the half-type ABC proteins, is thought to be involved in cholesterol homeostasis. To explore the role of ABCG1 in cholesterol homeostasis, we examined its subcellular localization and function. ABCG1 and ABCG1-K120M, a WalkerA lysine mutant, were localized to the plasma membrane in HEK293 cells stably expressing ABCG1 and formed a homodimer. A stable transformant expressing ABCG1 exhibited efflux of cholesterol and choline phospholipids in the presence of BSA, and the cholesterol efflux was enhanced by the presence of HDL, whereas cells expressing ABCG1-K120M did not, suggesting that ATP binding and/or hydrolysis is required for the efflux. Mass and TLC analyses revealed that ABCG1 and ABCA1 secrete several species of sphingomyelin (SM) and phosphatidylcholine (PC), and SMs were preferentially secreted by ABCG1, whereas PCs were preferentially secreted by ABCA1. These results suggest that ABCA1 and ABCG1 mediate the lipid efflux in different mechanisms, in which different species of phospholipids are secreted, and function coordinately in the removal of cholesterol and phospholipids from peripheral cells.     

人血红蛋白β-链基因AvaⅡ位点扩增片断长度多态性

目的：为了研究日本人群β-链基因AvaⅡ酶切位点的遗传多态性以及该位点等位基因频率的分布。方法：采用PCR- RFLP技术,对35例无血缘关系的健康日本大学生的70条染色体进行检测,然后用X~2检验进行统计学处理。结果：等位基因B_1频率为0．4715,等位基因B_2频率为0．5287,杂合度H=0．5429,期望杂合度h=0．4986,多态信息量PIC=0．7635;B_1、B_2的传递规律和理论上预计的完全符合,认为日本人群β-链基因AvaⅡ酶切位点也具有遗传多态性,表明β-链基因AvaⅡ酶切位点具有适合信息,并且与国外报道的无显著性差异。结论：这对遗传制图、基因分离、疾病的关联研究,法医学个体识别和双生子的卵性鉴定有一定的价值。     

Performance bonuses and the quality of primary health care delivered by family health teams in Brazil: A difference-in-differences analysis

BackgroundPay-for-performance (P4P) programmes to incentivise health providers to improve quality of care have been widely implemented globally. Despite intuitive appeal, evidence on the effectiveness of P4P is mixed, potentially due to differences in how schemes are designed. We exploited municipality variation in the design features of Brazil’s National Programme for Improving Primary Care Access and Quality (PMAQ) to examine whether performance bonuses given to family health team workers were associated with changes in the quality of care and whether the size of bonus mattered.Methods and findingsFor this quasi-experimental study, we used a difference-in-differences approach combined with matching. We compared changes over time in the quality of care delivered by family health teams between (bonus) municipalities that chose to use some or all of the PMAQ money to provide performance-related bonuses to team workers with (nonbonus) municipalities that invested the funds using traditional input-based budgets. The primary outcome was the PMAQ score, a quality of care index on a scale of 0 to 100, based on several hundred indicators (ranging from 598 to 660) of health care delivery. We did one-to-one matching of bonus municipalities to nonbonus municipalities based on baseline demographic and economic characteristics. On the matched sample, we used ordinary least squares regression to estimate the association of any bonus and size of bonus with the prepost change over time (between November 2011 and October 2015) in the PMAQ score. We performed subgroup analyses with respect to the local area income of the family health team. The matched analytical sample comprised 2,346 municipalities (1,173 nonbonus municipalities; 1,173 bonus municipalities), containing 10,275 family health teams that participated in PMAQ from the outset. Bonus municipalities were associated with a 4.6 (95% CI: 2.7 to 6.4; p < 0.001) percentage point increase in the PMAQ score compared with nonbonus municipalities. The association with quality of care increased with the size of bonus: the largest bonus group saw an improvement of 8.2 percentage points (95% CI: 6.2 to 10.2; p < 0.001) compared with the control. The subgroup analysis showed that the observed improvement in performance was most pronounced in the poorest two-fifths of localities. The limitations of the study include the potential for bias from unmeasured time-varying confounding and the fact that the PMAQ score has not been validated as a measure of quality of care.ConclusionsPerformance bonuses to family health team workers compared with traditional input-based budgets were associated with an improvement in the quality of care.

Nasser Fardousi and colleagues investigate the association between performance bonuses and the quality of primary health care delivered by family health teams in Brazil.     

Nucleotide sequence of a functional cDNA for human thymidylate synthase.

We have determined the nucleotide sequence of a cDNA clone, pcHTS-1, encoding human thymidylate synthase (5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate: dUMP C-methyltransferase, EC 2.1.1.45) which was previously isolated from a human fibroblast expressible cDNA library and functional in mouse cells. The 1.6 kilobase cDNA insert of pcHTS-1 encodes a subunit protein of 313 amino acid (Mr = 35,706) and its predicted amino acid sequence is highly conserved in many regions including folylpolyglutamate and 5-fluoro-2'-deoxyuridylate binding sites, when compared with those of Lactobacillus casei, Escherichia coli, and bacteriophage T4. The cDNA contains in its 5'-untranslated region a triple tandemly repeated sequence consisting of 90 nucleotides, which starts immediately upstream of the ATG initiator codon, is very high in G+C content (80%), and can form three possible interconvertible stem-loop structures.     

Activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase by ultraviolet is mediated through Src-dependent epidermal growth factor receptor phosphorylation. Its implication in an anti-apoptotic function.

Ultraviolet (UV) irradiation stimulates stress-activated protein kinase/c-Jun N-terminal kinase (SAPK/JNK), which is a member of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) superfamily and implicated in stress-induced apoptosis. UV also induces the activation of another MAPK member, extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), which is typically involved in a growth-signaling cascade. However, the UV-induced signaling pathway leading to ERK activation, together with the physiological role, has remained unknown. Here we examined the molecular mechanism and physiological function of UV-induced ERK activation in human epidermoid carcinoma A431 cells that retain a high number of epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptors. UV-induced ERK activation was accompanied with the Tyr phosphorylation of EGF receptors, and both responses were completely abolished in the presence of a selective EGF receptor inhibitor (AG1478) or the Src inhibitor PP2 and by the expression of a kinase-dead Src mutant. On the other hand, SAPK/JNK activation by UV was partially inhibited by these inhibitors. UV stimulated Src activity in a manner similar to the ERK activation, but the Src activation was insensitive to AG1478. UV-induced cell apoptosis measured by DNA fragmentation and caspase 3 activation was enhanced by AG1478 and an ERK kinase inhibitor (U0126) but inhibited by EGF receptor stimulation by the agonist. These results indicate that UV-induced ERK activation, which provides a survival signal against stress-induced apoptosis, is mediated through Src-dependent Tyr phosphorylation of EGF receptors.