Variation of glycine-activated conductivity of the membranes of spinal cord neurons in the chick embryo in culture

The method of leading off whole-cell currents is used to study the neuron responses elicited by applications of glycine at different stages of culturing of the chick embryo dissociated spinal cord. For two types of cells described earlier [4] differently directed shifts of the concentration dependence curves of the transmitter effect are shown to be characteristic. "Mature" cells, surviving several days in culture and represented by motoneurons, typically show a lowered sensitivity to glycine. The sensitivity of little-differentiated neurons increases more than tenfold by the end of the second week of culturing. The desensitization kinetics of the glycine-activated current also slows down with age. Blocking of the spontaneous electrical activity during development prevented these changes, and the presence of agonist in the culture medium did not affect them. Analogous patterns of formation of transmitter sensitivity are assumed to be exhibited by differentiating neurons of the intact nervous system.A. A. Bogomolets Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 23, No. 5, pp. 580–587, September–October, 1991.     

Synthesis and cytotoxic properties of anomeric 5-substituted 3'-azido-2',3'-dideoxyuridines]

Glycosylation of trimethylsilyl derivatives of 5-benzyloxymethyl- and 5-hydroxymethyluracil with 3-azido-2,3-dideoxy-5-O-benzoyl-D-ribofuranosyl chloride (prepared from ethyl 3-azido-2,3-dideoxy-5-O-benzoyl-D-ribofuranoside) and subsequent deacylation gave in both cases a mixture of anomeric 3'-azido-2',3'-dideoxy-5-benzyloxymethyl-or 5-hydroxymethyluridines. The anomers were separated by preparative TLC and their structures were studied by UV, IR and 1H-NMR spectroscopy. It is shown that 1-(3-azido-2,3-dideoxy-alpha-D-ribofuranosyl)-5-benzyloxymethyluracil has cytotoxic activity in vitro: in 10(-5)-10(-4) M concentrations it inhibits the thymidine incorporation into DNA of CaOv cells on 78.6-95.2%.     

European checkerspots (Melitaeini: Lepidoptera,Nymphalidae) are not aposematic – the point of view of great tits (Parus major)

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Plants in urbanized natural environment: florogenesis,coenogenesis and population structure

Published data on both flora and phytocoenosis genesis and plant population dynamics are reviewed. Urbanized environment is rated as a stress factor for single plants and their communities. The change of plant population structure in cities and towns is analysed as the important indicator of the environment quality. The problems of phytoindication of environment quality in cities and towns for its optimization are considered.     

Inhibiting properties of stable nitroxyl radicals in reactions of linoleic acid and linoleyl alcohol oxidation catalyzed by 5-lipoxygenase

The inhibiting effects of 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO) and its 4-substituted derivatives in reactions of linoleyl acid or linoleyl alcohol oxidation catalyzed by potato tuber 5-lipoxygenase were investigated. Inhibiting properties of stable nitroxyl radicals in presence of lubrol and SDS were reduced at the transition from TEMPO to 4-hydroxy-TEMPO or 4-amino-TEMPO and increased at use of adamantane-1-carboxylic or 3-methyladamantane-1-carboxylic acid 1-oxyl-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-4-yl esters. Enzyme activity at saturating concentrations of inhibitor was not suppressed completely, and decreased up to the certain level determined by the substrate nature. The dependence of partial inhibition efficiency on rotational correlation time of stable nitroxides in model micellar systems were analysed. It was supposed that 5-lipoxygenase inhibition includes the interaction of hydrophobic nitroxide with radical intermediate formed in enzymatic process.     

The difference between protein structures that are obtained by X-ray analysis and magnetic resonance spectroscopy

We have analyzed the proteins whose structures were determined both by X-ray analysis (X-ray) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) on condition that these structures do not differ greatly when spatially superimposed on each other (61 pairs of protein structures). Atom-atomic contacts (contact distances varied from 2 to 8 A) have been analyzed and it has been found that NMR structures (in comparison with X-ray ones) have more contacts in the range below 3.5 A and above 5.5 A. In the case of residue-residue contacts NMR structures have more contacts below 3 A and between 4.5 and 6.5 A. At all the other contact distances analyzed the X-ray structures have more contacts. The difference in the number of atom-atomic and residue-residue contacts is greater for internal residues, that are concealed from water, as compared to the surface residues. The other, not less important difference deals with the number of hydrogen bonds in the main chain: it is larger for the X-ray structures. The correlation between the hydrogen bonds identified in the structures obtained by both methods is no more than 32%. The consideration of a complete set of protein structures obtained by NMR results in the fact that the number of hydrogen bonds grows 1.2 times as compared to those obtained with the X-ray analysis, whereas the correlation increases only by 65%. We have also demonstrated that alpha-helices in the NMR structures are more distorted in comparison with the ideal alpha-helix, than alpha-helices in the X-ray structures.     

Comparative study of the virulence of the Shigella isolated from bacterial carriers and from acute dysentery patients]

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Role of the cytosolic factor in the interaction of [3H] alpha-tocopherol with rat liver nuclei

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