Radiation effects on breast cancer risk: a pooled analysis of eight cohorts

Breast cancer incidence rates after radiation exposure in eight large cohorts are described and compared. The nature of the exposures varies appreciably, ranging from a single or a small number of high-dose-rate exposures (Japanese atomic bomb survivors, U.S. acute post-partum mastitis patients, Swedish benign breast disease patients, and U.S. infants with thymic enlargement) to highly fractionated high-dose-rate exposures (two U.S. tuberculosis cohorts) and protracted low-dose-rate exposure (two Swedish skin hemangioma cohorts). There were 1,502 breast cancers among 77,527 women (about 35,000 of whom were exposed) with 1.8 million woman-years of follow-up. The excess risk depends linearly on dose with a downturn at high doses. No simple unified summary model adequately describes the excess risks in all groups. Excess risks for the thymus, tuberculosis, and atomic bomb survivor cohorts have similar temporal patterns, depending on attained age for relative risk models and on both attained age and age at exposure for excess rate models. Excess rates were similar in these cohorts, whereas, related in part to the low breast cancer background rates for Japanese women, the excess relative risk per unit dose in the bomb survivors was four times that in the tuberculosis or thymus cohorts. Excess rates were higher for the mastitis and benign breast disease cohorts. The hemangioma cohorts showed lower excess risks suggesting ameliorating dose-rate effects for protracted low-dose-rate exposures. For comparable ages at exposure (approximately 0.5 years), the excess risk in the hemangioma cohorts was about one-seventh that in the thymus cohort, whose members received acute high-dose-rate exposures. The results support the linearity of the radiation dose response for breast cancer, highlight the importance of age and age at exposure on the risks, and suggest a similarity in risks for acute and fractionated high-dose-rate exposures with much smaller effects from low-dose-rate protracted exposures. There is also a suggestion that women with some benign breast conditions may be at elevated risk of radiation-associated breast cancer.     

Nickel Affects Activity More Than Expression of Hydrogenase Protein in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Frankia</Emphasis>

The effects of nickel on hydrogen uptake and the post-translational processing of the large subunit of the hydrogenase protein in three Frankia strains (one isolated from an Alnus-Frankia symbiosis and two from Casuarina-Frankia associations) were investigated. All three strains responded to the addition of nickel with an increase in hydrogen uptake. Additional nickel did not affect nitrogenase activity, however evolved hydrogen was detected in Frankia KB5 in the absence of additional nickel, indicating that hydrogenase was not active. No increase in the processing rate of the hydrogenase large subunit was found with increasing nickel concentrations for any of the strains, indicating that the strategy for regulating hydrogenase in Frankia is different from that in other microorganisms. Received: 23 April 2001 / Accepted: 29 May 2001     

Inability of 50 Hz magnetic fields to regulate PKC- and Ca(2+)-dependent gene expression in Jurkat cells

We have previously reported that the T cell line Jurkat registers the exposure of a sinusoidal extremely low frequency magnetic field at the level of the plasma membrane, resulting in activation of the tyrosine kinase p56(lck), increase in inositol-3-phosphate levels and increase in intracellular calcium concentration within minutes. To elucidate if these events associated with changes in intracellular calcium ion levels were biologically significant, transient transfections of Jurkat cells were performed with calcium-ion dependent reporter constructs. Three different enhancer/promoter constructs were studied coupled to the luciferase reporter gene. The luciferase activity of each construct was measured after treatment of transfected cells to EMF exposure alone, or in combination with ionomycin, phorbol ester or cross-linking anti-CD3 antibodies. There was no indication that the used EMFs could influence any of these reporter constructs.     

Identification of two protein-binding and functional regions of curli,a surface organelle and virulence determinant of Escherichia coli

Curli are surface organelles of Escherichia coli. These fibrous proteins, formed by polymerization of a 15-kDa subunit, are expressed by E. coli strains associated with severe infections in humans. A remarkable property of curli is their ability to interact with a wide range of human proteins, interactions that contribute to the enhanced virulence of curli-expressing E. coli. To define the protein-binding region(s) of curli, we investigated the binding properties of overlapping synthetic peptides covering the curli subunit. Two peptides, one covering a 24-amino acid residue sequence in the NH(2)-terminal half of the subunit (NNS24) and one corresponding to the 26 COOH-terminal residues (VDQ26), were found to bind a number of human proteins. Physiochemical analysis revealed that NNS24 adopts a thermally stable beta-structure, and in solution the peptide forms soluble multimers, predominantly octamers. Intact curli are known to activate the proinflammatory and procoagulant contact system, and when added to human plasma, the NNS24 and VDQ26 peptides induced the release of the potent vasoactive peptide bradykinin. The results map important curli functions to the regions corresponding to the NNS24 and VDQ26 sequences.     

Identification of phosphorylation sites within the SH3 domains of Tec family tyrosine kinases

Tec family protein tyrosine kinases (TFKs) play a central role in hematopoietic cellular signaling. Initial activation takes place through specific tyrosine phosphorylation situated in the activation loop. Further activation occurs within the SH3 domain via a transphosphorylation mechanism, which for Bruton's tyrosine kinase (Btk) affects tyrosine 223. We found that TFKs phosphorylate preferentially their own SH3 domains, but differentially phosphorylate other member family SH3 domains, whereas non-related SH3 domains are not phosphorylated. We demonstrate that SH3 domains are good and reliable substrates. We observe that transphosphorylation is selective not only for SH3 domains, but also for dual SH3SH2 domains. However, the dual domain is phosphorylated more effectively. The major phosphorylation sites were identified as conserved tyrosines, for Itk Y180 and for Bmx Y215, both sites being homologous to the Y223 site in Btk. There is, however, one exception because the Tec-SH3 domain is phosphorylated at a non-homologous site, nevertheless a conserved tyrosine, Y206. Consistent with these findings, the 3D structures for SH3 domains point out that these phosphorylated tyrosines are located on the ligand-binding surface. Because a number of Tec family kinases are coexpressed in cells, it is possible that they could regulate the activity of each other through transphosphorylation.     

Conformation of full-length Bruton tyrosine kinase (Btk) from synchrotron X-ray solution scattering

Brutons's tyrosine kinase (Btk) is a non-receptor protein tyrosine kinase (nrPTK) essential for the development of B lymphocytes in humans and mice. Like Src and Abl PTKs, Btk contains a conserved cassette formed by SH3, SH2 and protein kinase domains, but differs from them by the presence of an N-terminal PH domain and the Tec homology region. The domain structure of Btk was analysed using X-ray synchrotron radiation scattering in solution. Low resolution shapes of the full-length protein and several deletion mutants determined ab initio from the scattering data indicated a linear arrangement of domains. This arrangement was further confirmed by rigid body modelling using known high resolution structures of individual domains. The final model of Btk displays an extended conformation with no, or little, inter-domain interactions. In agreement with these results, deletion of non-catalytic domains failed to enhance the activity of Btk. Taken together, our results indicate that, contrary to Src and Abl, Btk might not require an assembled conformation for the regulation of its activity.     

Immunoglobulin-secreting cells of maternal origin can be detected in B cell-deficient mice

It is well known that the transfer of immunoglobulins (Igs) from mother to young via milk contributes to the offspring's immune defense. The present study suggests that not only is IgG transmitted to progeny, but that functional maternal Ig-secreting cells (or B cells) can also be transferred to the neonate. We have used B cell-deficient (micro(-/-)) mice and found that a high proportion of them obtain long-lasting, partial reconstitution of their serum Ig levels if born to micro(+/-) mothers. In some of these serum IgG-positive micro(-/-) mice, Ig-secreting cells were detected in spleen and bone marrow. To ensure that cells of maternal origin were present in the progeny, micro(-/-) offspring born to micro(+/-) dams transgenic for green fluorescent protein (GFP) were used. In spleens and bone marrow from some of these micro(-/-)GFP(-/-) offspring, GFP-positive cells were detected, which demonstrated that cells of maternal origin could infiltrate the progeny. In addition, splenic Ig-secreting cells were detected in micro(-/-) mice that were born to micro(-/-) dams and transferred to a lactating micro(+/+) foster dam at birth. This indicates that maternal Ig-secreting cells can be transferred postnatally via milk.     

Vascular continuity and auxin signals

Plant vascular tissues form systems of interconnected cell files throughout the plant body. Vascular tissues usually differentiate at predictable positions but the wide range of functional patterns generated in response to abnormal growth conditions or wounding reveals partially self-organizing patterning mechanisms. Signals ensuring aligned cell differentiation within vascular strands are crucial in self-organized vascular patterning, and the apical-basal flow of indole acetic acid has been suspected to act as an orienting signal in this process. Several recent advances appear to converge on a more precise definition of the role of auxin flow in vascular tissue patterning.     

Arabidopsis ATP A2 peroxidase. Expression and high-resolution structure of a plant peroxidase with implications for lignification

Lignins are phenolic biopolymers synthesized by terrestrial, vascular plants for mechanical support and in response to pathogen attack. Peroxidases have been proposed to catalyse the dehydrogenative polymerization of monolignols into lignins, although no specific isoenzyme has been shown to be involved in lignin biosynthesis. Recently we isolated an extracellular anionic peroxidase, ATP A2, from rapidly lignifying Arabidopsis cell suspension culture and cloned its cDNA. Here we show that the Atp A2 promoter directs GUS reporter gene expression in lignified tissues of transgenic plants. Moreover, an Arabidopsis mutant with increased lignin levels compared to wild type shows increased levels of ATP A2 mRNA and of a mRNA encoding an enzyme upstream in the lignin biosynthetic pathway. The substrate specificity of ATP A2 was analysed by X-ray crystallography and docking of lignin precursors. The structure of ATP A2 was solved to 1.45 Å resolution at 100 K. Docking of p-coumaryl, coniferyl and sinapyl alcohol in the substrate binding site of ATP A2 were analysed on the basis of the crystal structure of a horseradish peroxidase C-CN-ferulic acid complex. The analysis indicates that the precursors p-coumaryl and coniferyl alcohols are preferred by ATP A2, while the oxidation of sinapyl alcohol will be sterically hindered in ATP A2 as well as in all other plant peroxidases due to an overlap with the conserved Pro-139. We suggest ATP A2 is involved in a complex regulation of the covalent cross-linking in the plant cell wall.     

Arabidopsis map kinase 4 negatively regulates systemic acquired resistance

Transposon inactivation of Arabidopsis MAP kinase 4 produced the mpk4 mutant exhibiting constitutive systemic acquired resistance (SAR) including elevated salicylic acid (SA) levels, increased resistance to virulent pathogens, and constitutive pathogenesis-related gene expression shown by Northern and microarray hybridizations. MPK4 kinase activity is required to repress SAR, as an inactive MPK4 form failed to complement mpk4. Analysis of mpk4 expressing the SA hydroxylase NahG and of mpk4/npr1 double mutants indicated that SAR expression in mpk4 is dependent upon elevated SA levels but is independent of NPR1. PDF1.2 and THI2.1 gene induction by jasmonate was blocked in mpk4 expressing NahG, suggesting that MPK4 is required for jasmonic acid-responsive gene expression.