A catalogue of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Triticum monococcum</Emphasis> genes encoding toxic and immunogenic peptides for celiac disease patients

The celiac disease (CD) is an inflammatory condition characterized by injury to the lining of the small-intestine on exposure to the gluten of wheat, barley and rye. The involvement of gluten in the CD syndrome has been studied in detail in bread wheat, where a set of “toxic” and “immunogenic” peptides has been defined. For wheat diploid species, information on CD epitopes is poor. In the present paper, we have adopted a genomic approach in order to understand the potential CD danger represented by storage proteins in diploid wheat and sequenced a sufficiently large number of cDNA clones related to storage protein genes of Triticum monococcum. Four bona fide toxic peptides and 13 immunogenic peptides were found. All the classes of storage proteins were shown to contain harmful sequences. The major conclusion is that einkorn has the full potential to induce the CD syndrome, as already evident for polyploid wheats. In addition, a complete overview of the storage protein gene arsenal in T. monococcum is provided, including a full-length HMW x-type sequence and two partial HMW y-type sequences. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Selective Vulnerability of Spinal and Cortical Motor Neuron Subpopulations in delta7 SMA Mice

Loss of the survival motor neuron gene (SMN1) is responsible for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the most common inherited cause of infant mortality. Even though the SMA phenotype is traditionally considered as related to spinal motor neuron loss, it remains debated whether the specific targeting of motor neurons could represent the best therapeutic option for the disease. We here investigated, using stereological quantification methods, the spinal cord and cerebral motor cortex of ∆7 SMA mice during development, to verify extent and selectivity of motor neuron loss. We found progressive post-natal loss of spinal motor neurons, already at pre-symptomatic stages, and a higher vulnerability of motor neurons innervating proximal and axial muscles. Larger motor neurons decreased in the course of disease, either for selective loss or specific developmental impairment. We also found a selective reduction of layer V pyramidal neurons associated with layer V gliosis in the cerebral motor cortex. Our data indicate that in the ∆7 SMA model SMN loss is critical for the spinal cord, particularly for specific motor neuron pools. Neuronal loss, however, is not selective for lower motor neurons. These data further suggest that SMA pathogenesis is likely more complex than previously anticipated. The better knowledge of SMA models might be instrumental in shaping better therapeutic options for affected patients.     

Autoactivation of human plasma prekallikrein

Incubation of purified human plasma prekallikrein with sulfatides or dextran sulfate resulted in spontaneous activation of prekallikrein as judged by the appearance of amidolytic activity toward the chromogenic substrate H-D-Pro-Phe-Arg-p-nitroanilide. The time course of generation of amidolytic activity was sigmoidal with an apparent lag phase that was followed by a relatively rapid activation until finally a plateau was reached. Soybean trypsin inhibitor completely blocked prekallikrein activation whereas corn, lima bean, and ovomucoid trypsin inhibitors did not. The Ki of the reversible inhibitor benzamidine for autoactivation (240 microM) was identical to the Ki of benzamidine for kallikrein. Thus, spontaneous prekallikrein activation and kallikrein showed the same specificity for a number of serine protease inhibitors. This indicates that prekallikrein is activated by its own enzymatically active form, kallikrein. Immunoblotting analysis of the time course of activation showed that, concomitant with the appearance of amidolytic activity, prekallikrein was cleaved. However, prekallikrein was not quantitatively converted into two-chain kallikrein since other polypeptide products were visible on the gels. This accounts for the observation that in amidolytic assays not all prekallikrein present in the reaction mixture was measured as active kallikrein. Kinetic analysis showed that prekallikrein activation can be described by a second-order reaction mechanism in which prekallikrein is activated by kallikrein. The apparent second-order rate constant was 2.7 X 10(4) M-1 s-1 (pH 7.2, 50 microM sulfatides, ionic strength I = 0.06, at 37 degrees C). Autocatalytic prekallikrein activation was strongly dependent on the ionic strength, since there was a considerable decrease in the second-order rate constant of the reaction at high salt concentrations. In support of the autoactivation mechanism it was found that increasing the amount of kallikrein initially present in the reaction mixture resulted in a significant reduction of the lag period and a rapid completion of the reaction while the second-order rate constant was not influenced. Our data support a prekallikrein autoactivation mechanism in which surface-bound kallikrein activates surface-bound prekallikrein.     

Mapping of a restriction fragment length polymorphism within the human aldolase B gene

Summary Peripheral blood DNA was hybridized to the full-length cDNA and the cloned structural gene of human aldolase B. With PvuII endonuclease a restriction fragment length polymorphism was detected that was present in the heterozygous state in about 21% of the individuals tested. A map of the human aldolase gene was constructed for the two groups of individuals found to produce different fragments after PvuII digestion. This allowed the localization of the polymorphic site within the gene, which was found to be due to the loss of a PvuII site in the last intron upstream from the 3 end. This polymorphism may be used as a genetic marker to study individuals affected by hereditary fructose intolerance.     

Altered growth factor sensitivity in EL2 rat fibroblasts: influence of this biological characteristic on cell growth

Extensive evidence indicate that platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) play a key role in the stimulation of the 3T3 fibroblast replication: in this connection, PDGF and EGF act as a competence and a progression factor, respectively. We have previously demonstrated that EGF alone leads density-arrested EL2 rat fibroblasts to synthesize DNA and proliferate in serum-free cultures. Here, we have analyzed the role of EGF in the control of EL2 cell proliferation. Our data show a dose-related effect of EGF on DNA synthesis and cell growth, with maximal stimulation for both parameters at 20 ng/ml. On the other hand, autocrine production of PDGF or PDGF-like substances by EL2 cells is seemingly excluded by experiments with anti-PDGF serum or medium conditioned by EL2 fibroblasts. EGF binding studies show that EL2 cells possess high affinity EGF receptors, at a density level 3 to 4-fold higher than other fibroblastic lines. In addition, EL2 cells show a normal down-regulation of EGF receptors, following exposure to EGF, but PDGF, fibroblast growth factor (FGF), transforming growth factor beta (TGF beta) and bombesin have not decreased the affinity of EGF receptor for its ligand. Moreover, in EL2 cells, the EGF is able to induce the synthesis of putative intracellular regulatory proteins that govern the PDGF-induced competence in 3T3 cells. Our data indicate that EGF in EL2 cells may act as both a competence and a progression factor, via induction of the mechanisms, regulated in other cell lines by cooperation between different growth factors.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Manic depressive illness not linked to factor IX region in an independent series of pedigrees

We studied seven informative kindreds segregating for manic depressive illness (MDI), consistent with X-chromosome transmission of the trait (families do not show affective disease in both a father and a son), using markers mapped to the region of Xq27-Xq28. The lod scores were consistently below -2 in the region extending from about 10 cM centromeric from the Factor IX locus (F9) to the colorblindness region. This study does not replicate previous reports of linkage of MDI to Factor IX (Xq27) and colorblindness region (Xq28) chromosomal markers in other kindreds.