Specific interaction of vitronectin with the cell-secreted protease inhibitor glia-derived nexin and its thrombin complex.

Interaction of vitronectin with glia-derived nexin (GDN), thrombin, and the complex GDN-thrombin was demonstrated in direct binding assays that indicated the formation of binary and ternary complexes. The concentration of vitronectin necessary to obtain 50% saturation of the immobilized GDN-thrombin complex binding sites (EC50) was about 1 nM. Under similar experimental conditions, the EC50 of vitronectin for the immobilized antithrombin-III-thrombin complex was about fivefold higher. A tight complex was also formed between vitronectin and immobilized GDN (EC50 approximately 1.5 nM) but when vitronectin was immobilized, GDN displayed a reduced affinity for vitronectin (EC50 approximately 10 nM). These results suggest differences between the immobilized and free conformations of GDN and/or vitronectin. In contrast, vitronectin displayed negligible affinity for antithrombin III. Biotinylated GDN was used to characterize further the binding of GDN or the GDN-thrombin complex to vitronectin. The interaction of the biotinylated GDN-thrombin complex with immobilized vitronectin (EC50 approximately 2 nM) was completely blocked by nonbiotinylated complexes of thrombin with either GDN or antithrombin III, whereas free GDN, free thrombin and the GDN-trypsin complex were only weak competitors. Active-site-blocked urokinase and the complex GDN-urokinase also strongly competed for binding of the biotinylated GDN-thrombin complex to vitronectin. Binding of biotinylated GDN to immobilized vitronectin was specific, saturable and was competed with decreasing efficiency by the GDN-thrombin complex, free GDN and free antithrombin III. These interactions between the adhesive component vitronectin and the serine protease inhibitor GDN may relate to localized control of thrombin and/or urokinase action at certain extravascular sites. These results are discussed in terms of binding sites for vitronectin on GDN, thrombin, and the GDN-thrombin complex.     

Filicidal Ring-Y Chromosomes in D. MELANOGASTER

Ring-Y chromosomes are recovered infrequently from crosses of ring-Y-bearing males to females of certain strains (Oster 1964). Experiments described here have unveiled a diverse class of genes that exert a maternal effect on the behavior during cleavage of these "filicidal" ring chromosomes. Cytological observations of inviable embryos have revealed that the ring-Y chromosome causes gross disorganization of the cleavage nuclei. This inviability may be equivalent to the "dominant lethality" attributed to unstable ring-X chromosomes (Hinton 1955; Pasztor 1971). Mapping studies indicate that no single region of the normal Y is solely responsible for the unusual behavior of ring-Y chromosomes.     

Myeloperoxidase-catalyzed inactivation of alpha 1-protease inhibitor by human neutrophils

We have examined the effect of the myeloperoxidase-hydrogen peroxide-halide system and of activated human neutrophils on the ability of serum alpha 1-protease inhibitor (alpha 1-PI) to bind and inhibit porcine pancreatic elastase. Exposure to the isolated myeloperoxidase system resulted in nearly complete inactivation of alpha 1-PI. Inactivation was rapid (10 to 20 s); required active myeloperoxidase, micromolar concentrations of H2O2 (or glucose oxidase as a peroxide generator), and a halide cofactor (Cl- or I-); and was blocked by azide, cyanide, and catalase. Intact neutrophils similarly inactivated alpha 1-PI over the course of 5 to 10 min. Inactivation required the neutrophils, a halide (Cl-), and a phorbol ester to activate secretory and metabolic activity. It was inhibited by azide, cyanide, and catalase, but not by superoxide dismutase. Neutrophils with absent myeloperoxidase or impaired oxidative metabolism (chronic granulomatous disease) failed to inactivate alpha 1-PI, and these defects were specifically corrected by the addition of myeloperoxidase or H2O2, respectively. Thus, stimulated neutrophils secrete myeloperoxidase and H2O2 which combine with a halide to inactivate alpha 1-PI. We suggest that leukocyte-derived oxidants, especially the myeloperoxidase system, may contribute to proteolytic tissue injury, for example in elastase-induced pulmonary emphysema, by oxidative inactivation of protective antiproteases.     

Radioimmunoassay of cytidine 3',5' monophosphate (cCMP). I. Development of the assay.

A method is presented for the production of reagents for a radioimmunoassay for cCMP. cCMP was succinylated at the 2′0 position with [1,4 ¹⁴C] succinic anhydride, and the monosuccinyl cCMP coupled to Keyhole limpet hemocyanin and injected into rabbits. Antibodies to cCMP were produced that showed minimal crossreactivity with other cyclic nucleotides. Monosuccinyl cCMP was coupled to tyrosine methyl ester, then labeled with ¹²⁵I, and used as the radiolabeled ligand in the immunoassay of cCMP. By use of this assay, the concentration of cCMP in various tissues of rat and guinea pig have been determined.     

Interaction of fluorinated ether anesthetics with artificial membranes.

Fluorine-19 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is applied to the study of the environment of dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine-bound fluorinated ether anesthetics (enflurane, fluoroxene and methoxyflurane) both below and above the lipid gel to liquid crystal phase transition temperature. Line widths and spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) measurements are consistent with substantial immobilization of the lipid-bound anesethetic molecules. Heating anesthetic/lipid mixtures above the lipid transition temperature leads to narrowing of the lipid-bound anesthetic fluorine resonances accompanied by little or no change in anesthetic fluorine-19 chemical shifts, suggesting that although the mobility of the bound anesthetic increases at the higher temperature, the nature of the anesthetic-lipid interaction changes little as a result of this phase change. Differential scanning calorimetric studies of the effects of these anesthetics on the phase transition behavior of the phospholipid indicate that the regions of the bilayer in which volatile anesthetics partition at lower concentrations are different from the regions in which they partition at higher concentrations.