Active sulfate absorption in rabbit ileum: Dependence on sodium and chloride and effects of agents that alter chloride transport

Summary Unidirectional fluxes of³⁵SO₄ across and into rabbit ileal epithelium were measured under short-circuit conditions, mostly at a medium SO₄ concentration of 2.4mm. Unidirectional mucosa (m)-to-serosa (s) ands-to-m fluxes (J _ms,J _sm) were 0.456 and 0.067 moles hr^–1 cm^–2, respectively.J _ms was 2.7 times higher in distal ileum than in mid-jejunum. Ouabain abolished net SO₄ transport (J _net) by reducingJ _ms. Epinephrine, a stimulus of Cl absorption, had no effect on SO₄ fluxes. Theophylline, a stimulus of Cl secretion, reducedJ _ms without affectingJ _sm, causing a 33% reduction inJ _net. Other secretory stimuli (8-Br-cAMP, heat-stable enterotoxin, Ca-ionophore A23187) had similar effects. Replacement of all Cl with gluconate markedly reducedJ _net through both a decrease inJ _ms and an increase inJ _sm. The anion-exchange inhibitor, 4-acetoamido-4-isothiocyano-2,2-sulfonic acid stilbene (SITS), when added to the serosal side, reducedJ _ms by 94%, nearly abolishingJ _net. SITS also decreasedJ _sm by 75%. Mucosal SITS (50 m) was ineffective. 4,4-diisothiocyano-2,2-sulfonic acid stilbene (DIDS) had effects similar to SITS but was less potent. Measurements of initial rates of epithelial uptake from the luminal side (J _me) revealed the following: (1)J _me is a saturable function of medium concentration with aV _max of 0.94 moles hr^–1 cm^–2 and aK _1/2 of 1.3mm; (2) replacing all Na with choline abolishedJ _me; (3) replacing all Cl with gluconate increasedJ _me by 40%; (4) serosal SITS had no effect onJ _me; and (5) stimuli of Cl secretion had no effect onJ _me or increased it slightly. Determination of cell SO₄ with³⁵SO₄ indicated that, at steady-state, the average mucosal concentration is 1.1 mmoles per liter cell water, less than half the medium concentration. Cell SO₄ was increased to 3.0mm by adding SITS to the serosal side. Despite net transport rates greater than 1.4 Eq hr^–1 cm^–2, neither addition of SO₄ to the SO₄-free medium nor addition of SITS to SO₄-containing medium altered short-circuit current. The results suggest that (1) ileal SO₄ absorption consists of Na-coupled influx (symport) across the brush border and Cl-coupled efflux (antiport) across the basolateral membrane; (2) the overall process is electrically neutral; (3) the medium-to-cell Cl concentration difference may provide part of the driving force for net SO₄ absorption; and (4) since agents affecting Cl fluxes (both absorptive and secretory) have little effect on SO₄ fluxes, the mechanisms for their transcellular transports are under separate regulation.     

Absence of nucleolar dominance in mouse-human heterokaryons

Autoradiographic analysis of [³H]uridine incorporation 48 h after polyethylene glycol-mediated cell fusion indicates that nucleolar RNA synthesis persists in both human and mouse nuclei in interspecific heterokaryons. The absence of nucleolar dominance in heterokaryons has been confirmed by zinc-dithizone nucleolus-specific staining, and is true even when there are considerably more nuclei of one species than of the other in the heterokaryon. Studies of actinomycin D-induced nucleolar segregation indicate that the zinc-binding proteins responsible for zinc-dithizone staining are located in a different nucleolar component than the protein responsible for silver staining.     

Spontaneous cell hybridization of somatic cells present in sperm suspensions

Electron microscopic evidence suggests that sperm can be spontaneously incorporated by cultured cells but cytogenetic and biochemical evidence indicate that sperm do not introduce new genes into such cells with detectable frequency. Sperm suspensions from mouse or Chinese hamster epididymis or human semen were added to cultures of RAG, a mouse cell line which dies in HAT medium because of HPRT deficiency. In EMs, sperm appeared to be readily phagocytized and degraded by the cells. When sperm-treated cultures were transferred to HAT medium resistant clones arose at a frequency of about 10⁻⁶, or at least 25× the reversion rate of RAG. Most HAT-resistant clones had HPRT activity which migrated electrophoretically like HPRT of the sperm donor species, though one was apparently a spontaneous RAG revertant. Most HAT-resistant clones had some chromosomes of the sperm donor species. In human sperm× RAG clones, the array of human chromosomes suggested that the human parent had been diploid rather than haploid; some cells contained both homologues of a polymorphic pair and some contained both X and Y. Furthermore, some sperm suspensions plated alone into flasks generated colonies, thus revealing the presence of low numbers of viable somatic cells. Presence of contaminating somatic cells in a sperm suspension was correlated with ability to induce HAT-resistant colonies when the suspension was added to RAG cells. Taken together, the data suggest that correction of the HPRT deficiency of RAG by sperm suspensions occurs at very low frequency and is probably due to efficient spontaneous fusion of low numbers of contaminating somatic cells with RAG cells.     

Potent inhibition of microRNA in vivo without degradation

Chemically modified antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) are widely used as a tool to functionalize microRNAs (miRNAs). Reduction of miRNA level after ASO inhibition is commonly reported to show efficacy. Whether this is the most relevant endpoint for measuring miRNA inhibition has not been adequately addressed in the field although it has important implications for evaluating miRNA targeting studies. Using a novel approach to quantitate miRNA levels in the presence of excess ASO, we have discovered that the outcome of miRNA inhibition can vary depending on the chemical modification of the ASO. Although some miRNA inhibitors cause a decrease in mature miRNA levels, we have identified a novel 2′-fluoro/2′-methoxyethyl modified ASO motif with dramatically improved in vivo potency which does not. These studies show there are multiple mechanisms of miRNA inhibition by ASOs and that evaluation of secondary endpoints is crucial for interpreting miRNA inhibition studies.     

Optimization of the method of progressive hypercapnia by determination of the sensitivity threshold

Ventilatory response to CO2 rebreathing is a method which allows to evaluate the reactivity of chemoreceptors. However this method doesn't study the sensibility threshold, i.e. the Pe.t.CO2 value for which the ventilatory response appears clearly. This sensibility threshold was measured in 10 healthy subjects by rebreathing a gas mixture: 7% CO2 and 50% O2 to avoid hypoxy. It was defined as the value of Pe.t.CO2 for which the ventilation was above the tidal ventilation + 2 standard deviations. The sensibility threshold (51 +/- 4.35 mm Hg) was independent of the reactivity slope represented by the slope of the linear relation between minute ventilation (VE) and Pe.t.CO2 (1.34 +/- 0.60 l/min/mm Hg/m2) and consequently appears as an interesting parameter in order to evaluate the ventilatory response to CO2 by rebreathing.     

Optimized Null Model for Protein Structure Networks

Much attention has recently been given to the statistical significance of topological features observed in biological networks. Here, we consider residue interaction graphs (RIGs) as network representations of protein structures with residues as nodes and inter-residue interactions as edges. Degree-preserving randomized models have been widely used for this purpose in biomolecular networks. However, such a single summary statistic of a network may not be detailed enough to capture the complex topological characteristics of protein structures and their network counterparts. Here, we investigate a variety of topological properties of RIGs to find a well fitting network null model for them. The RIGs are derived from a structurally diverse protein data set at various distance cut-offs and for different groups of interacting atoms. We compare the network structure of RIGs to several random graph models. We show that 3-dimensional geometric random graphs, that model spatial relationships between objects, provide the best fit to RIGs. We investigate the relationship between the strength of the fit and various protein structural features. We show that the fit depends on protein size, structural class, and thermostability, but not on quaternary structure. We apply our model to the identification of significantly over-represented structural building blocks, i.e., network motifs, in protein structure networks. As expected, choosing geometric graphs as a null model results in the most specific identification of motifs. Our geometric random graph model may facilitate further graph-based studies of protein conformation space and have important implications for protein structure comparison and prediction. The choice of a well-fitting null model is crucial for finding structural motifs that play an important role in protein folding, stability and function. To our knowledge, this is the first study that addresses the challenge of finding an optimized null model for RIGs, by comparing various RIG definitions against a series of network models.     

RNA Splicing Is Responsive to MBNL1 Dose

Myotonic dystrophy (DM1) is a highly variable, multi-system disorder resulting from the expansion of an untranslated CTG tract in DMPK. In DM1 expanded CUG repeat RNAs form hairpin secondary structures that bind and aberrantly sequester the RNA splice regulator, MBNL1. RNA splice defects resulting as a consequence of MBNL1 depletion have been shown to play a key role in the development of DM1 pathology. In patient populations, both the number and severity of DM1 symptoms increase broadly as a function of CTG tract length. However significant variability in the DM1 phenotype is observed in patients encoding similar CTG repeat numbers. Here we demonstrate that a gradual decrease in MBNL1 levels results both in the expansion of the repertoire of splice defects and an increase in the severity of the splice alterations. Thus, MBNL1 loss does not have an all or none outcome but rather shows a graded effect on the number and severity of the ensuing splice defects. Our results suggest that once a critical threshold is reached, relatively small dose variations of free MBNL1 levels, which may reflect modest changes in the size of the CUG tract or the extent of hairpin secondary structure formation, can significantly alter the number and severity of splice abnormalities and thus contribute to the phenotype variability observed in DM1 patients.     

Way out of Africa: Early Pleistocene paleoenvironments inhabited by Homo erectus in Sangiran, Java

A sequence of paleosols in the Solo Basin, Central Java, Indonesia, documents the local and regional environments present when Homo erectus spread through Southeast Asia during the early Pleistocene. The earliest human immigrants encountered a low-relief lake-margin landscape dominated by moist grasslands with open woodlands in the driest landscape positions. By 1.5 Ma, large streams filled the lake and the landscape became more riverine in nature, with riparian forests, savanna, and open woodland. Paleosol morphology and carbon isotope values of soil organic matter and pedogenic carbonates indicate a long-term shift toward regional drying or increased duration of the annual dry season through the early Pleistocene. This suggests that an annual dry season associated with monsoon conditions was an important aspect of the paleoclimate in which early humans spread from Africa to Southeast Asia.