Characterization of the postacrosomal sheath of bovine spermatozoa

A purified head fraction was prepared from bovine epididymal spermatozoa and was utilized to identify the solubility characteristics and major polypeptide components of the postacrosomal sheath. Sperm heads extracted in nonionic-detergent-containing or high-salt-containing solutions retained an intact postacrosomal sheath, but it was readily solubilized by high pH extraction solutions. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed a major polypeptide of 58,000 daltons (58-kD) in the high pH extract solution. Antibodies to the 58-kD polypeptide specifically reacted with the postacrosomal segment by immunofluorescence and by electron microscopic immunohistochemistry were shown to bind the postacrosomal sheath. We conclude that this 58-kD polypeptide is a constituent of the postacrosomal sheath and that its distribution is restricted to the postacrosomal segment.     

肾上腺皮质激素对心房钠尿肽基因表达的促进作用

给完整的及切除肾上腺的雌性 Wistar 大鼠分別注射地塞米松、去氧皮质酮或地塞米松加去氧皮质酮;冷酚法提取心房总 RNA,用α-~(32P)标记的大鼠心房肽 cDNA 探针与之杂交。完整大鼠接受地塞米松和切除肾上腺后接受地塞米松加去氧皮质酮的大鼠,心房肽基因转录产物增加2倍,其余组无显著变化。结果提示糖皮质激素可促进心房肽基因表达,但此作用依赖于盐皮质激素的同时存在,单纯盐皮质激素不能增强该基因的表达。     

Parathyroid hormone-induced changes of the brush border topography and cytoskeleton in cultured renal proximal tubular cells

Summary In order to examine the possibility of parathyroid hormone-mediated ultrastructural rearrangements in target epithelium, isolated canine renal proximal tubular cells were grown on a collagen-coated semipermeable membrane in a defined medium. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy of these monolayers revealed abundant microvilli. Exposure of the proximal tubular cells to parathyroid hormone resulted in a biphasic changes involving: (1) dramatic shortening and rarefaction of microvilli within 1 min; and (2) recovery of microvillar topography after 5 min. A similar shortening of microvilli was observed following exposure to ionomycin, whereas incubation with cyclic AMP resulted in an elongation of microvilli. Parathyroid hormone stimulated cyclic AMP production and increased cytoplasmic free calcium concentration in cultured proximal tubular cells. Pretreatment of cells with a calmodulin inhibitor abolished the effect of parathyroid hormone on brush border topography. Shortening of microvilli was associated with a disappearance of microvillar core filaments. Staining of F-actin with fluoresceinphalloidin showed that parathyroid hormone resulted in fragmentation of stress fibers. It is concluded that parathyroid hormoneinduced cell activation involves cytoplasmic-free calcium, calmodulin, and the cytoskeleton.     

The structure of epidermal feet during their development

Epidermal cells in Calpodes and other insects form basal processes or feet that at first extend axially and later shorten at the same time as the larval segment shortens to the pupal shape. The feet grow into spaces at the surfaces of other cells to make a basal interlacing meshwork of cellular extensions that are combined mechanically by their desmosomal attachments to cell bodies above and to the basal lamina below. Microtubules and microfilaments are linked to these junctions by a reticular fibrous matrix. Gap junctions on the feet may couple cells that are several cell bodies removed from one another. The meshwork is also a sieve separating the hemolymph from the spaces between cells to form an intercellular compartment. Entry to the intercellular compartment is through the sieve made by the negatively charged basolateral cell surfaces that can prevent the entry of positively charged molecules such as cationic ferritin. As the cells become columnar, coincident with the metamorphic change in segment shape, the feet shorten and pack more densely together. At this time the basal lamina buckles axially as if responding to contraction of the feet. Segment shape change involves cell rearrangement and relative cell movement, necessitating the transient loss of plasma membrane plaque attachments to the cuticle apically and the loss of junctions laterally. Gap junctions involute in characteristic vacuoles. The metamorphic reduction in cell surface area coincides with the loss of basolateral membrane in smooth tubes and vesicles and the turnover of the apical surface in multivesicular bodies. New apical plasma membrane plaques and new lateral and basal junctions stabilize the cells in their pupal positions.     

A cortical granule-specific enzyme,B-1,3-glucanase,in sea urchin eggs

The ultrastructural localization of B-1,3-glucanase in three species of sea urchin eggs was determined using a monospecific antibody in an electronmicroscopic immunogold procedure. In all three species, Lytechinus variegatus, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, and Arbacia punctulata, B-1,3-glucanase was localized specifically to the cortical granules. No other organelle within the egg contained significant label. During the fertilization reaction, B-1,3-glucanase was released from cortical granules into the perivitelline space and became associated with the hyaline layer. No significant label was found in association with the fertilization envelope.     

Visualization of cytoskeletal changes through the life cycle inAcetabularia

Summary The cytoskeleton in the siphonous, marine green algaAcetabularia is visualized by immunocytochemistry using antibodies against plant alfa tubulin and animal smooth muscle actin. In the vegetative phase of the life cycle, when the cell grows a cylindrical stalk and until the reproductive cap is completed, actin forms continuous, parallel bundles that extend through the entire length of the stalk and cap rays respectively. Microtubules (MTs) cannot be detected until the primary nucleus, located in the rhizoid of the giant cell, divides to form thousands of secondary nuclei. MTs can then be seen radiating from each secondary nucleus that is encountered in the stalk on its migration upwards into the cap rays. They are oriented mostly parallel to the long axis of the cell. At arrival in the cap rays up to the white spot stage, when nuclei assume equidistant positions in the cap ray cytoplasm, a radiating system of MTs forms around each nucleus and dramatically increases until impressive radial arrays have developed. This phase coincides with a disappearance of actin bundles in the cap rays, but they are retained in the stalk cytoplasm. Shortly after that additional MTs appear around the disk like partitions of cap ray cytoplasm. Concomitantly, bundles of actin reappear colinearly with the circumferrential MTs eventually forming complete rings around each disk of cap ray cytoplasm. During this process the compartments of the future cysts are gradually bulging outwards and simultaneously the rings of actin sink inwards until domes are formed with the nuclei fixed in the top centers of the domes. At this stage the peripheral areas of the radiating MT systems around the nuclei start to break down, whereas the circumferrential MT systems remain intact. Subsequently, the rings of both actin and MTs decrease in diameter, and finally contract to a spot opposite the nucleus, while the cysts continue to develop their oval shape. After the cysts have become separated, they round up and enter several rounds of nuclear divisions. MTs form short radial arrays around each nucleus with minor changes due to a reduction of MTs during division followed by a reappearance after completion of each division. Actin is rearranged in the cysts to a cortical network of randomly oriented, short bundles, that is maintained until gamete formation sets in.These findings accentuate the involvement of Cytoskeletal elements in the key steps of morphogenesis inAcetabularia to an extent that is unknown in higher plants.     

Mechanisms of cytoskeletal regulation: functional and antigenic diversity in human erythrocyte and brain beta spectrin

A study of human erythrocyte and brain spectrin with particular emphasis on the beta subunits revealed a structural homology but functional dissimilarity between these two molecules. Six monoclonal antibodies raised to human erythrocyte beta spectrin identify three of the four proteolytically defined domains of erythrocyte beta spectrin. Five of these monoclonal antibodies cross-react with human brain spectrin. None of a previously identified set of alpha erythrocyte spectrin monoclonal antibodies [Yurchenco et al: J Biol Chem 257:9102, 1982] reacted with brain spectrin. A domain map generated by limited tryptic digestion shows that brain spectrin is composed of proteolytically resistant domains analogous to erythrocyte spectrin, but the brain protein is more basic. The binding of brain spectrin to erythrocyte ankyrin, both in solution and on erythrocyte IOVs, yielded an association constant approximately 100 time weaker than for erythrocyte spectrin. The binding of azido-calmodulin under native conditions was specific for the erythrocyte beta subunit but was not calcium dependent. In contrast, azido-calmodulin bound only to the alpha subunit of brain spectrin in a calcium-dependent manner. The similarity of structure but modified functional characteristics of the brain and erythrocyte beta spectrins suggest that these proteins serve different cellular roles.     

Cortical bone growth and dietary stress among subadults from Nubia's Batn el Hajar

Cortical bone growth is analyzed for 174 children from a Medieval Christian population at Kulubnarti in the Batn el Hajar of Sudanese Nubia (550–1450 AD ). Using the tibia as a representative long bone, total subperiosteal area, cortical area, medullary area, and percent cortical area at midshaft were calculated. While growth in total and cortical areas, as well as in length, appear to be fairly well maintained, percent cortical area reveals unusual growth patterns which reflect excessive endosteal resorption. Compared to the relative reduction in bone mass which has been observed in malnourished living children, as well as with previously reported evidence for stress in the Kulubnarti population, the present data support an interpretation of nutritionally related stress and of no major diachronic dietary change.     

Human arterial smooth muscle cells in culture: Inverse relationship between proliferation and expression of contractile proteins

Summary Human arterial smooth muscle cells (hASMC) from explants of the inner media of uterine arteries were studied in secondary culture. We had previously found that these cells depend on exogenous platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) for proliferation in vitro. Deprivation of the serum mitogen(s) by culture in plasma-derived serum or bovine serum albumin (BSA) caused a true growth arrest that was reversible upon reexposure to the mitogen(s). When added to serum-containing medium, heparin caused a reversible growth arrest which could be competed for by increasing concentrations of serum. In the current study we used a set of smooth muscle-specific actin and myosin, antibodies to study the expression of contractile proteins in stress fibers under indirect immunofluorescence on hASMC in culture. Even in sparse culture, grwoth-arrested hASMC expressed stress fibers containing these actin and myosin epitopes. This was true irrespective of whether growth arrest was achieved by culture in media containing only BSA or a combination of heparin and whole blood serum. hASMC proliferating in whole blood serum in sparse culture did not express such strees fibers, as judged by immunofluorescent staining. This was true also for cells that were restimulated to proliferate in serum after a growth arrest. Utilizing a monoclonal antibody against a nuclear antigen expressed in proliferating human cells, we were able to demonstrate an inverse relationship between the expression of this antigen and the SMC-specific contractile proteins, respectively. Under these culture conditions, the reversible transition between defifferentiated and differentiated hASMC was almost complete and terminated about 1 wk after the change in culture condition. We conclude that hASMC in vitro respond, to exogenous PDGF by proliferation and dedifferetiation as a single population of cells. We also conclude that this modulation is reversible, because the cells become uniformly quiescent and differentiated when the mitogenic stimulus is blocked or removed. This study was supported by grants from the Swedish Medical Research Council (Project no. 4531 and 6816), the Swedish Association against Heart and Chest Diseases, the King Gustaf V and Queen Victoria Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (grant HL 29873) and the Swedish National Board for Laboratory Animals.     

Interactions between anion exchange and other membrane proteins in rabbit kidney medullary collecting duct cells

Summary In separated outer medullary collecting duct (MCD) cells, the time course of binding of the fluorescent stilbene anion exchange inhibitor, DBDS (4,4-dibenzamido-2,2-stilbene disulfonate), to the MCD cell analog of band 3, the red blood cell (rbc) anion exchange protein, can be measured by the stopped-flow method and the reaction time constant, _DBDS, can be used to report on the conformational state of the band 3 analog. In order to validate the method we have now shown that the ID_50,DBDS,MCD (0.5±0.1 m) for the H₂-DIDS (4,4-diisothiocyano-2,2-dihydrostilbene disulfonate) inhibition of _DBDS is in agreement with the ID_50,Cl ^–,_MCD (0.94±0.07 m) for H₂-DIDS inhibition of MCD cell Cl^– flux, thus relating _DBDS directly to anion exchange. The specific cardiac glycoside cation transport inhibitor, ouabain, not only modulates DBDS binding kinetics, but also increases the time constant for Cl^– exchange by a factor of two, from _Cl=0.30±0.02 sec to 0.56±0.06 sec (30mm NaHCO₃). The ID_50,DBDS,MCD for the ouabain effect on DBDS binding kinetics is 0.003±0.001 m, so that binding is about an order of magnitude tighter than that for inhibition of rbc K⁺ flux (K _I,K ⁺,_rbc=0.017 m). These experiments indicate that the Na⁺,K^–-ATPase, required to maintain cation gradients across the MCD cell membrane, is close enough to the band 3 analog that conformational information can be exchanged. Cytochalasin E (CE), which binds to the spectrin/actin complex in rbc and other cells, modulates DBDS binding kinetics with a physiological ID_50,DBDS,MCD (0.076±0.005 m); 2 m CE also more than doubles the Cl^– exchange time constant from 0.20±0.04 sec to 0.50±0.08 sec (30mm NaHCO₃). These experiments indicate that conformational information can also be exchanged between the MCD cell band 3 analog and the MCD cell cytoskeleton.