Penetration of the zona-free or intact eggs by foreign spermatozoa and the fertilization of deer mouse eggs in vitro

Zona-free eggs were introduced to fresh or preincubated sperm suspensions and the penetration of eggs by foreign spermatozoa was examined, as evidenced by enlargement of the sperm head and formation of the male pronucleus. It was found that zona-free hamster eggs can be penetrated by guinea-pig, deer mouse and rabbit spermatozoa but zona-free rat, mouse and rabbit eggs cannot be penetrated by guinea-pig spermatozoa. Furthermore, zona-free rat and mouse eggs cannot be penetrated by spermatozoa from two species of deer mice and the Mongolian gerbil. The zona pellucida of a few intact rat eggs can be penetrated by mouse (6%) and by P. leucopus spermatozoa (14%) but enlargement of the sperm head and formation of pronuclei were observed in the former but not in the latter. It seems that (1) sperm capacitation is required for the penetration of zona-free eggs, (2) the attachment of foreign spermatozoa to eggs may indicate their potential ability of penetration in some cases, (3) there is a certain affinity between the vitellus of one species and spermatozoa from another species, (4) the block to the entry of foreign spermatozoa is not only in the zona pellucida but also in the vitelline membrane, (5) zona-free hamster eggs can be penetrated by spermatozoa of six species, (6) mouse spermatozoa can penetrate zona-free eggs of three species, and (7) fertilization of intact P. maniculatus eggs can be achieved in vitro.     

Isolation and identification of pathogenic Naegleria from Florida lakes.

Five cases of primary amoebic meningoencephalitis associated with swimming in freshwater lakes have been recorded in Florida over the past 14 years. The present study demonstrated that pathogenic Naegleria, the causative agent, is relatively widespread. Twelve of 26 lakes sampled only once yielded the amoeba. Populations in three of five lakes sampled routinely reached levels of one amoeba per 25 ml of water tested during the hot summer months. Overwintering in freshwater lake bottom sediments was demonstrated, showing that thermal-discharge pollution of waters plays a miniscule, if any, role in the maintenance of pathogenic Naegleria in nature in this semitropical area.     

Stimulative effect of prostaglandins on production of hexosamine-containing substances by cultured fibroblasts (2) early effect of various prostaglandins at various doses

Early effects of various prostaglandins on the production of hexosamine-containing substances by cultured fibroblasts, which were derived from a rat carrageenin granuloma, were studied. At the stationary phase, the cells were exposed for 6 h to one of the prostaglandin A₁ (PGA₁), A₂, B₁, B₂, D₂, F_1α, F_2α, E₁, E₂ or arachidonic acid in various concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 10 μg/ml for all the stimuli and from 10 pg to 10 μg/ml for PGF_2α. The activity of the cells in incorporating ³H-glucosamine into hexosamine-containing substances (acidic) glycosaminoglycans and glycoproteins) during this period was compared with that of control cells. All the stimuli tested showed more or less stimulative effect on the synthesis of hexosamine-containing substances at their specific concentrations. PGF_2α was found to be the most potent stimulant and its stimulative effect was found significant even at the low concentration of 100 pg/ml. PGD₂, F_1α and E₂ were the next potent stimuli. Their optimum dose were around 1 μg/ml but they still had significant stimulation at the concentration of 0.01 μg/ml. Effect of PGE₂ was rather mild. Stimulation by PGA₁, A₂, B₁ and B₂ or arachidonic acid was seen at high dose, and its seemed to be non-specific. The results suggested that these prostaglandins such as PGF_2α, D₂, F_1α and E₂ play some important role on regulating the production of intercellular ground substances.     

Stimulation by prostaglandin F2α of acidic glycosaminoglycan production in cultured fibroblasts

The effect of PGF2α on the synthesis of hexosamine-containing substances (acidic glycosaminoglycans and glycoproteins) was studied in cultured fibroblasts derived from a rat carrageenin granuloma. Treatment with PGF2α ranging from 0.01 μg/ml to 20 μg/ml resulted in a significant increase of the production of these macromolecules by the cells. The stimulatory effect was found significant even at the low concentration of 10 ng/ml, and could be seen as early as 3h after exposure to PGF2α. The hexosamine-containing substances increased by PGF2α revealed that 80% of the increase was due to acidic glycosaminoglycans and the rest was due to glycoproteins.     

Revertants of a Chinese hamster ovary cell mutant resistant to suppression by an analogue of cholesterol: isolation and partial biochemical characterization

A highly efficient selection procedure was developed for isolating revertants of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cell mutants resistant to suppression by 25-hydroxy-cholesterol. The procedure is based on the fact that the specific polyene antibiotic amphotericin B caused a lethal porous complex formation with membrane cholesterol only in cholesterol-rich cells. The wild-type cells and the revertant cells switched to grow from fetal calf serum medium to delipidated fetal calf serum medium for approximately 1 day became deficient in cellular cholesterol content. These cells, unlike the cholesterol-rich mutant cells, became much less sensitive to amphotericin B cytotoxicity. The spontaneous reversion frequency of a previously reported 25-hydroxycholesterol-resistant cell clone, 25-RA [Chang, T.-Y., & Limanek, J.S. (1980) J. Biol. Chem. 255, 7787-7795], was found to be approximately 3 X 10(-6), a frequency comparable to other single gene mutations of CHO cells. Biochemical analyses of three of these revertants showed that all defects manifested in 25-RA cells reverted back in parallel, a result suggesting that these observed defects in 25-RA cells are due to a single mutation event, thus supporting the hypothesis (Chang & Limanek, 1980) that a common controlling factor may be involved in mediating the suppressive action(s) of the cholesterol analogue on various cholesterogenic enzyme activities. The function of this common controlling factor is rendered abnormal in 25-RA cells by mutation.     

Predicted secondary and tertiary structures of carp gamma-crystallins with high methionine content: role of methionine residues in the protein stability.

A systematic structural comparison of several carp gamma-crystallins with high methionine contents was made by the secondary-structure prediction together with computer model-building based on the established X-ray structure of calf gamma-II crystallin. The overall surface hydrophilicity profile and the distribution of helices, beta-sheets, and beta-turns along the polypeptide chains are very similar among these carp gamma-crystallins. In addition, their general polypeptide packing is close to the characteristic 2 domain/4 motif Greek key three-dimensional conformation depicted for the calf gamma-II crystallin. Interestingly, most hydrophobic methionine residues are located on the protein surface with only a few buried inside the protein surface or in the interface between two motifs of each domain. The exposed hydrophobic and polarizable methionine cluster on the protein surface may have a bearing on the crystallin stability and dense packing in the piscine species, and probably also provides a malleable nonpolar surface for the interaction with other crystallin components for the maintenance of a clear and transparent lens.     

Autoregulation of androgen receptor expression in rodent prostate: immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization analysis

Autoregulation of androgen receptor mRNA and protein was investigated by immunohistochemical and in situ hybridization techniques. In both mouse and rat prostate, the epithelial cell nuclei were stained with the monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies raised against human androgen receptor. It was observed that 3 days after castration, nuclear staining of the epithelium was greatly reduced, while androgen treatment restored the staining intensity to a normal level. In situ hybridization using an androgen receptor cDNA fragment as probe demonstrated that the change in androgen receptor mRNA level correlated with the change in antibody staining intensity. These data suggested an up-regulation of androgen receptor expression by androgen.     

Effects of periodic backflushing on ultrafiltration performance.

Periodic backflushing was introduced to a membrane separation process to improve the performance. Hemoglobin (M.W. = 62,500) and dextran (M.W. = 10,000) were used as model compounds. Filtration performance of an ultrafiltration membrane system (Amicon hollow fiber membrane, H1P30-43, molecular weight cutoff = 30,000) was measured in terms of apparent permeability and retention coefficient of dextran to determine the effects of backflushing frequency and duration of one cycle. An optimum frequency around 0.2 min-1 existed to give a maximum permeability while the retention of dextran decreased with increasing frequencies. The improvement in permeability by periodic backflush was more than doubled. The retention of dextran decreased as backflushing duration was increased in one cycle. With the duration of 33.75 s, the retention of dextran was less than 50% and dextran output was 1.14 g/h, which was 1.3 times the value without backflushing. Also, periodic backflush made possible the long-term filtration of yeast cells for more than 20 h.     

Novel UGA-suppressors in Escherichia coli K-12

UGA-specific nonsense suppressors from Escherichia coli K-12 were isolated and characterized. One of them (Su+UGA-11) was identified as a mutant of the prfB gene for the peptide releasing factor RF2. It appears that in this strain, while peptide release at sites of UGA mutations is retarded, the UGA stop codon is read through even in the absence of a tRNA suppressor, exhibiting a novel type of passive nonsense suppression. Three suppressors (Su+UGA-12, -16 and -34) were capable of restoring the streptomycin sensitive phenotype in resistant bacteria (strAr). Because of their drug-related phenotype, these are possibly mutations in the components of the ribosomal machinery, particularly those concerned with peptide release at UGA nonsense codons. A tRNA suppressor was also obtained which was derived from the tRNA(Trp) gene. In this strain, a long region between rrnC (84.5 min) and rrnB (89.5 min) was duplicated and one of the duplicated genes of tRNA(Trp) was mutated to the suppressor. The mechanism of UGA-suppression is discussed in terms of translation termination at the nonsense codon in both active and passive fashions.