Changes in glycosylated haemoglobin after poor control in insulin-dependent diabetics.

Glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1) was measured in seven insulin-dependent diabetic patients before, during, and after a seven-day period of monitored poor control. There was considerable individual variation in the pattern and degree of change in HbA1 concentration induced by poor control and the time when it occurred. Greater increases in HbA1 were seen during the period of metabolic derangement than in the subsequent two months. More information is required before HbA1 estimations are widely used clinically to monitor control in individual diabetics.     

Photochemical covalent binding of urocanic acid to polynucleic acids

Photolysis of E-[ring-2-14C]urocanic acid (UA) with native or denatured calf thymus DNA leads to covalent binding of the radiolabel to the nucleic acid. A similar observation is made upon photolysis of the labeled UA with the polyribonucleotides, in which case a strong preference is observed for binding to poly[U]. DNA or poly[U], which had been reacted with UA and purified by dialysis and multiple precipitations, releases UA upon further irradiation with 254 nm light (as expected for cyclobutane adducts). Quantum efficiencies for binding of the UA to native DNA have been measured at 308 and 266 nm and are 0.30 x 10(-5) and 1.3 x 10(-4), respectively, at comparable reactant concentrations. The large increase at the shorter wavelength (where DNA absorption is more competitive) is taken as evidence for the primary role of a DNA excited state in initiating the binding reaction(s).     

Mapping the site of interaction between murine IgE and its high affinity receptor with chimeric Ig

We have investigated the interaction of mouse (m) IgE with its Fc epsilon RI on rat basophilic leukemia cells using a set of chimeric Ig that were constructed by exchanging homologous H chain C domains between human (hu) IgG1 and mIgE. Binding affinities were examined with equilibrium and kinetic measurements, and we found that epsilon/C gamma 3 (mIgE with C epsilon 4 replaced by C gamma 3) was indistinguishable from mIgE. The huIgG1 and the other chimeric Ig, which did not contain both C epsilon 2 and C epsilon 3, did not bind detectably to rat basophilic leukemia cells (Ka less than 10(6) M-1). The ability of these chimeric Ig to stimulate a cellular response (degranulation) in the presence of multivalent Ag was also tested. The epsilon/C gamma 3 was indistinguishable from mIgE in eliciting a high level of degranulation, whereas the other chimeric Ig stimulated no response even when they were preaggregated to enhance their binding avidity. These results demonstrate that C epsilon 4 may be replaced by C gamma 3 without affecting the binding and cell activating properties of mIgE. The lack of binding by the other chimeric Ig indicates that both C epsilon 2 and C epsilon 3 are necessary for the binding interaction.     

Synthesis and in vitro bioactivity of C-terminal deleted analogs of human growth hormone-releasing factor

A series of C-terminal deleted analogs of human growth hormone-releasing factor (hGRF) with either an amidated or a free carboxylic acid C-terminus were synthesized by solid phase methodology. Their capacity to release growth hormone was tested on rat anterior pituitary cells in monolayer culture. A gradual decrease of bioactivity down to 23% relative to hGRF was noted when the C-terminal amino acids were deleted to hGRF (1-34)OH. Further deletions, however, did not decrease the bioactivity because the potencies of the fragments, hGRF(1-31)NH2, (1-30)NH2 and (1-29)NH2 remained at about 50% of that of hGRF. Continual deletion of residues to hGRF(1-23)NH2, (1-22)NH2 and (1-21)NH2 still yielded bioactive fragments with full intrinsic activity despite very low potency. Only with the deletion down to hGRF(1-19)NH2 did the bioactivity completely disappear. Thus, together with the data published in a previous paper (1), the minimal biologically active core of hGRF with full intrinsic activity comprises the fragment (3-21).     

A retrospective study of 932 second trimester terminations using gemeprost (16,16 dimethyl-trans delta 2 PGE1 methyl ester).

A retrospective study of 932 second trimester terminations between 12-27 weeks gestation was carried out to determine the efficacy of gemeprost for second trimester termination. A single course of 5 x 1 mg gemeprost pessaries was administered every three hours. If abortion had not occurred after the first course of pessaries, a further course of 5 x 1 mg pessaries was administered. Intravenous oxytocin was administered after 36 hours if abortion had not occurred. Eighty per cent and ninety five per cent of patients aborted within 24 and 48 hours respectively. Of the remaining 5 per cent of women, 3 per cent aborted with escalating doses of oxytocin. In the remaining 18 (2 per cent) women, the pregnancies were electively terminated with an alternative method. The median induction-abortion interval was 18.0 hours and 15.0 hours in nulliparous and parous women respectively (P less than 0.0001). The number of pessaries required to induce abortion was not influenced by parity. Significantly more parous women bled more than 500 ml. The incidence of pelvic sepsis (0.1 per cent) and cervical tear (0.1 per cent) was low. Twenty six per cent of women had diarrhoea and 23 per cent vomited following administration of prostaglandin. This study confirmed the efficacy of gemeprost for second trimester termination of pregnancy. This method of termination is safe, non-invasive, simple and has a low complication rate.     

The effect of receptor density on the forward rate constant for binding of ligands to cell surface receptors.

For monovalent ligands interacting with cell surface receptors we have directly observed the functional dependence of the forward rate constant on the number of receptors per cell (N). The experimental system we studied consisted of monovalent ligand, 2,4-dinitrophenyl (DNP)-aminocaproyl-L-tyrosine (DCT), binding to bivalent, monoclonal anti-DNP immunoglobulin E (IgE) anchored to its high affinity receptor on rat basophilic leukemia (RBL) cells. To measure the fractional occupation of antibody combining sites by DNP we employed a recently developed fluorescence technique (Erickson, J., Kane, B. Goldstein, D. Holowka, and B. Baird, 1986, Mol. Immunol., 72:769-781). Our results are well fitted by the equation (Berg and Purcell, 1977, Biophys. J., 20:193-219) konc = 4 pi DaN kappa on/[4 pi Da + N kappa on] where konc is the forward rate constant for binding to the cell, D is the diffusion constant of the ligand, a is the radius of the cell, and kappa on is the intrinsic forward rate constant describing a single IgE combining site-DNP interaction. If D is fixed at 10(-5) cm2/s, the best fit of accumulated data predicts an average cell radius of approximately 4 microns and kappa on of approximately 1.8 x 10(-13) cm3/s [1.1 x 10(8)(M . s)-1]; both in excellent agreement with RBL cell size and the single-site forward rate constant for the binding of DCT to IgE in solution, respectively. We believe this is the first report of experimental evidence that directly illustrates the effect of surface density in determining the rates of binding for small molecules to membrane receptors.