Calorimetric studies of the structural transitions of the human erythrocyte membrane. Studies of the B and C transitions

Differential scanning calorimetry has been used to study several structural transitions of the human erythrocyte membrane. Earlier studies have shown that one of these transitions (the A transition) is due to the thermal unfolding of spectrin on the membrane. In this paper, it is shown that two of the other transitions (B and C) exhibit a high sensitivity to a local anesthetic, benzyl alcohol. Increasing the ionic strength of the suspending medium results in a splitting of the B transition into two independent transitions (B₁ and B₂). It is found that one of these (B₂) is associated with titrating groups, since the midpoint for the transitions shifts by about 20°C, with an apparent $\text{p}\text{K}$ near 7.5. Extensive bilateral proteolysis by papain causes a drastic decrease in the size of all transitions except the C transition, which remains unaltered. On the other hand, treatment with phospholipase A₂ largely affects the C transition, causing its disappearance. Because of the lack of sensitivity to proteolysis and the high sensitivity to phospholipase, it appears that the C transition has a large extent of ‘lipid involvement’. It might result from the melting of a small fraction of phospholipid which exists in a crystalline state under physiological conditions. Alternatively, the C transition could arise from changes in protein-lipid interactions or from lipid-dependent changes in protein-protein interactions, providing one assumes that only protease-resistant portions of membrane proteins are participating.     

Unusual presentation of choriocarcinoma

Background  

Choriocarcinoma is an aggressive neoplasm arising in the body of the uterus. The disease normally spreads to lung and brain.     

Synthesis and antioxidant activity of azole derivatives of hemin

New derivatives of proto- and deuterohemin IX containing tri- and tetrazole rings were synthesized and characterized. A pronounced antioxidant activity was found for these compounds in the Fe(II)/ascorbate-dependent system of lipid peroxidation in murine liver homogenates.     

Differential expression level of cytokeratin 8 in cells of the bovine nucleus pulposus complicates the search for specific intervertebral disc cell markers

Introduction  

Development of cell therapies for repairing the intervertebral disc is limited by the lack of a source of healthy human disc cells. Stem cells, particularly mesenchymal stem cells, are seen as a potential source but differentiation strategies are limited by the lack of specific markers that can distinguish disc cells from articular chondrocytes.     

Conformation and reduction-oxidation properties of cytochrome c incorporated into reversed micelles of a surfactant in an organic solvent

Changes observed in CD- and absorption spectra of cytochrome c solubilized in reversed micelles AOT showed significant structural transformations of protein in the region of the active centre and particularly revealed a replacement of the sixth ligand of heme iron. These changes also affected the redox properties of cytochrome c.     

Frequent Seizures Are Associated with a Network of Gray Matter Atrophy in Temporal Lobe Epilepsy with or without Hippocampal Sclerosis

Objective

Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with hippocampal sclerosis (HS) have diffuse subtle gray matter (GM) atrophy detectable by MRI quantification analyses. However, it is not clear whether the etiology and seizure frequency are associated with this atrophy. We aimed to evaluate the occurrence of GM atrophy and the influence of seizure frequency in patients with TLE and either normal MRI (TLE-NL) or MRI signs of HS (TLE-HS).

Methods

We evaluated a group of 172 consecutive patients with unilateral TLE-HS or TLE-NL as defined by hippocampal volumetry and signal quantification (122 TLE-HS and 50 TLE-NL) plus a group of 82 healthy individuals. Voxel-based morphometry was performed with VBM8/SPM8 in 3T MRIs. Patients with up to three complex partial seizures and no generalized tonic-clonic seizures in the previous year were considered to have infrequent seizures. Those who did not fulfill these criteria were considered to have frequent seizures.

Results

Patients with TLE-HS had more pronounced GM atrophy, including the ipsilateral mesial temporal structures, temporal lobe, bilateral thalami and pre/post-central gyri. Patients with TLE-NL had more subtle GM atrophy, including the ipsilateral orbitofrontal cortex, bilateral thalami and pre/post-central gyri. Both TLE-HS and TLE-NL showed increased GM volume in the contralateral pons. TLE-HS patients with frequent seizures had more pronounced GM atrophy in extra-temporal regions than TLE-HS with infrequent seizures. Patients with TLE-NL and infrequent seizures had no detectable GM atrophy. In both TLE-HS and TLE-NL, the duration of epilepsy correlated with GM atrophy in extra-hippocampal regions.

Conclusion

Although a diffuse network GM atrophy occurs in both TLE-HS and TLE-NL, this is strikingly more evident in TLE-HS and in patients with frequent seizures. These findings suggest that neocortical atrophy in TLE is related to the ongoing seizures and epilepsy duration, while thalamic atrophy is more probably related to the original epileptogenic process.     

Neisseria gonorrhoeae cell envelope: permeability to hydrophobic molecules.

Isogenic variants of antibiotic-resistant and -sensitive Neisseria gonorrhoeae were examined for differences in the inhibition of oxygen uptake by steroid hormones. Mutants designated as env, which possessed cell envelope mutations allowing phenotypic suppression of low-level antibiotic resistance, were more sensitive to steroid hormone inhibition of oxygen uptake than the wild-type parental strains. Possession of an mtr locus, which confers nonspecific resistance to multiple antibiotics, dyes, and detergents, was also associated with an increase in resistance to steroid hormone inhibition of oxygen uptake. The penA2 locus, which confers an eightfold increase in resistance to penicillin, was not responsible for the increased resistance to steroid hormones. Phospholipids in the outer membrane of intact env-2 cells were susceptible to digestion by phospholipase C, indicating exposure of phospholipid head groups on the outer surface. Cells of a wild-type and mtr-2 strain were not susceptible to phospholipase C digestion unless they were pretreated with mixed exoglycosidases. This pretreatment also increased the sensitivity of mtr-2 cells to progesterone inhibition of O2 uptake. These data suggest that the permeability of the gonococcus to hydrophobic antibiotic and steroid molecules is mediated by the degree of phospholipid exposure on the outer membrane.