Succession and soil development in man-made coastal ecosystems at the Baltic Sea

By the creation of Køge Bay Seaside Park in 1978 the opportunity was given to study the establishment of vegetation and primary succession in a man-made coastal area. As the soil consists of marine material from the Baltic Sea, no organic matter or seedbank was present. The first steps of primary succession were followed in 1980, when the initial inventories of flora immigration and soil development were carried out in coastal grasslands and plantings. The surveys were repeated in 1992 and 1993. Except for the planted woody species and a few sown grasses, all other species of plants have reached the area through natural dispersal of diaspores. The total number of species in the permanent plots has increased from 26 in 1980 to 91 in 1993. The results indicate that this number will continue to increase in the coming years until a certain level. Then it will probably decrease as a result of competition from woody species, unless the vegetation is kept in a steady state by disturbances or management. Today the area is very far from the initial situation, and the off-shore barrier has changed towards a landscape dominated by small groves and grasslands of an urban common type.     

Hydrocortisone regulation of hyaluronan metabolism in human skin organ culture

We studied the influence of hydrocortisone (HC) on hyaluronan (HA) metabolism in explants of human skin, a model retaining normal three-dimensional architecture of dermal connective tissue and dynamic growth and stratification of epidermal keratinocytes. The synthesis of hyaluronan and proteoglycans (PGs), and DNA, were determined with ³H-glucosamine and ³H-thymidine labelings, respectively. The total content and histological distribution of hyaluronan was studied utilizing a biotinylated aggrecan-link protein complex. A low concentration of HC (10^?9 M) stimulated the incorporation of ³H-glucosamine into hyaluronan in epidermis by 23% and reduced the disappearance rate of hyaluronan by 25% in chase experiments, resulting in a 74% increase in total hyaluronan (per epidermal dry weight) after a 5-day culture in 10^?9 M HC. On the other hand, a high concentration of HC (10^?5 M) reduced both synthesis (-42%) and degradation (-46%) of epidermal hyaluronan during 24 h labeling and chase periods. The cumulative effect of a 5-day treatment was a 24% decrease of total epidermal hyaluronan. The high dose (10^?5 M) also reduced keratinocyte DNA synthesis and epidermal thickness. In dermis, only the high (10^?5 M) concentration of HC was effective, inhibiting the incorporation of ³H-glucosamine into hyaluronan by 28%. No significant influences on total hyaluronan content or the disappearance rate of hyaluronan in dermal tissue was found. All HC concentrations lacked significant effects on newly synthesized PGs in epidermal and dermal tissues, but reduced the labeled PGs diffusing into culture medium. A low physiological concentration of HC thus maintains active synthesis and high concentration of hyaluronan in epidermal tissue, while high pharmacological doses of HC slows hyaluronan turnover and reduces its content in epidermis, an effect correlated with enhanced terminal differentiation, reduced proliferation rate and reduced number of vital keratinocyte layers. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Prothrombin cleavage by human vascular smooth muscle cells: A potential alternative pathway to the coagulation cascade

Thrombin is a potent mitogen for human vascular smooth muscle cells (HVSMC) and its enzymatic activity is required for this function. The present study demonstrates that prothrombin is also mitogenic for HVSMC due to the generation of enzymatically active thrombin which occurs upon incubation of prothrombin with the cells. Analysis by SDS-PAGE, immunoblotting, and amino acid sequencing revealed that prothrombin incubated with HVSMC undergoes limited proteolysis. Prethrombin 1 was formed through cleavage at R¹⁵⁵-S¹⁵⁶. Cleavage at R²⁷¹-T²⁷² generated fragment 1.2 and prethrombin 2 whilst cleavage at R²⁸⁴-T²⁸⁵ yielded truncated prothrombin 2 (prethrombin 2′). However, cleavage at R³²⁰-I³²¹ which, during prothrombin activation produces two-chain α-thrombin, was not detectable. Studies on HVSMC-conditioned medium revealed that a similar pattern of prothrombin cleavage occurred by a cell-secreted factor(s). Amidolytic activity analysis indicated that 1–3% catalytically active thrombin-like activity was generated upon incubation of prothrombin with HVSMC-conditioned medium. By treating conditioned medium with various classes of proteinase inhibitors or hirudin, it was determined that prothrombin is cleaved by a cell-derived serine proteinase-like factor(s) at R²⁷¹-S²⁷² and by α-thrombin at R¹⁵⁵-S¹⁵⁶ and R²⁸⁴-T²⁸⁵. Antibodies neutralising the activity of either urokinase, tissue plasminogen activator, or factor Xa failed to alter the prothrombin cleaving activity of conditioned medium. This activity which may catalyse an alternative pathway for the generation of thrombin, was eluted from a gel filtration column as a single peak with apparent molecular mass of 30–40 kDa. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Transplantation of a time-signal in honeybees

Summary It has been possible — by transplantation of brain tissue (i.e. mushroom-bodies) — to perform an interindividual transfer of a learned time-signal in honeybees. The information of the donor bees becomes determinative for the temporal activity pattern of the recipients about 3 to 4 days following transplantation.As seen from histological investigations done in parallel, the donor tissue is treated as a xenograft by the recipient's organism including disintegration and encapsulation processes. These observations give evidence for a humoral transfer of information.The results are discussed from the point of view of the analysis of the mechanism of time reception.Dedicated to Prof. Dr. H. Autrum on the occasion of his 70th birthdaySupported by the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur zu Mainz, the Stiftung Volkswagenwerk and the Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftAll observations done were individual per hand registrations. We want to give thanks to all people in the department who helped us to do the experiments.     

Nitrogenase from Rhodospirillum rubrum Relation between ‘switch-off’ effect and the membrane component. Hydrogen production and acetylene reduction with different nitrogenase component ratios

Nitrogenase activity of ‘membrane-free’ extracts, produced from nitrogenstarved Rhodospirillum rubrum to which 4 mM NH⁺₄ had been added is only about 10% of the activity in the control. The activity could be restored to 80% by including the membrane component, earlier found to activate R. rubrum nitrogenase, in the reaction mixture. The relation between this ‘switch-off/switch-on’ effect and the function of the membrane component is discussed.Hydrogen production catalyzed by R. rubrum nitrogenase is also dependent on activation by the membrane component. Hydrogen production is inhibited by acetylene but the degree of inhibition is dependent on the nitrogenase component ratio. The strongest inhibition is achieved at low MoFe protein/Fe protein ratios. The $\text{ATP}\text{2 e}{}^{\mathrm{?}}$ values are 4–5 at the component ratios giving the highest activity and increase at high MoFe protein/Fe protein ratios. CO inhibits acetylene reduction but has no effect on the hydrogen production.     

Purification and reaction mechanism of the primary inhibitor of plasmin from human plasma

The primary inhibitor of plasmin in human plasma was purified by a four-step procedure involving fractional (NH(4))(2)SO(4) precipitation, ion-exchange chromatography on a column of DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B and affinity chromatography on both a plasminogen-CH-Sepharose 4B column and a column of 6-aminohexanoic acid covalently coupled through the carboxylate function to AH-Sepharose 4B. No impurities in the final preparation could be detected when tested by immunoelectrophoresis against a range of specific antisera or against rabbit anti-human serum. On polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis the inhibitor preparation showed a single band. The dissociation constant for the inhibitor-plasminogen complex was determined to be approx. 3mum at pH7.8. The reactions of the inhibitor with human plasmin and with bovine trypsin were studied. Comparison of the results obtained confirms the hypothesis previously presented, namely that the reaction of the inhibitor with plasmin involves at least two steps, the initial rapid formation of an enzyme-inhibitor complex followed by a slow irreversible transition to another complex. The results also indicate that the reaction of the inhibitor with trypsin involves just a single, irreversible step, so that this reaction seems to be less complicated than that of the inhibitor with plasmin. The ways in which 6-aminohexanoic acid influences the reactions were studied. The same value for the dissociation constant (approx. 26mum) for 6-aminohexanoic acid is obtained for both its effect on the reaction of the inhibitor with trypsin and for competitive inhibition of trypsin. The inhibitory effect of 6-aminohexanoic acid thus seems to be due to its blocking of the active site of trypsin. In contrast with this, the inhibitory effects of l-lysine and 6-aminohexanoic acid on the inhibitor-plasmin reaction occur at concentrations much too low to affect the active site of plasmin. The possible dependence of the reaction of the inhibitor with plasmin on a second site(s) on plasmin is discussed.     

Characterization of a rat yolk sac carcinoma cell line

A continuous cell line was established from an experimentally induced rat yolk sac carcinoma. In the early passages both visceral and parietal yolk sac carcinoma were present (designated L1). When the cell line was reestablished in culture after serial transplantations in rats, only parietal yolk sac carcinoma could be identified (designated L2). This cell line expresses parietal yolk sac endoderm characteristics in that it synthesizes basement membrane components, in particular, laminin, but also entactin, collagen IV, and heparan sulfate proteoglycan. In addition, a noncartilage chondrotin sulfate proteoglycan is synthesized. This rat yolk sac carcinoma cell line L2 will be a valuable model for the study of basement membrane components.