Human kidney tumour cells in culture incorporated 3Hglucosamine and 35SO4 into glycoprotein products, which were secreted into the culture medium. The effects of sodium butyrate, a known ...differentiation-inducing agent, on the production of these sulphated glycoproteins were studied. Cells were cultured in the absence or presence of butyrate (2 mM) in serum-containing medium, for various times, and the labelled glycoproteins were partially purified by DEAE-cellulose chromatography. Treatment of these cells with butyrate resulted in an increase in the synthesis of secreted 3Hglucosamine- and 35SO4-labelled glycoproteins over several days of culture. This same increase in levels of 35SO4 incorporation was not observed with B16 melanoma cells. Sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS)/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed that five major glycoproteins labelled with 3Hglucosamine also were labelled with 35SO4. The major secreted glycoproteins from cells cultured in the absence or presence of butyrate over a 3-day period were similar by SDS/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Analyses of Pronase-derived glycopeptides indicated that these secreted 3H/35S-labelled glycoproteins contained sulphated oligosaccharides with terminal sialic acid---Gal---GlcNAc residues similar to glycoproteins secreted by vascular endothelial cells.
Cytochalasin B (CB) prevents cytokinesis in animal cells. In normal cells nuclear division and DNA synthesis are also blocked and the cells, held in the G1 phase of the cell cycle, remain either ...mononucleate or binucleate. In transformed cell lines DNA synthesis and nuclear division continue and the cells become multinucleate. We have examined the response to CB in two sets of somatic cell hybrids made between cells that display multinucleation after CB treatment and cells that do not. In a cross between transformed mouse LMTK cells and normal rat embryo lung cells, very little multinucleation was observed after treatment with CB for 7 days. The ability of the LMTK cells to form clones in soft agar was also significantly reduced in these hybrids. Segregant sub-clones that re-expressed both of these transformation phenotypes were isolated. These had reduced chromosome numbers. A second cross was made between two variants of the BHK cell line, one of which displayed a high level of multinucleation in CB while the other did not. Again the hybrids showed a response similar to that of the non-multinucleating parent. From the results obtained with these two hybrids we conclude that the multinucleation induced in transformed cells by CB behaves as a recessive character in crosses with normal cells.
Pulmonary surfactant is a mixture of phospholipids, neutral lipids and proteins that controls the surface tension of the fluid lining the lung. It is critical for lung stability and function. The ...amount and composition of surfactant are influenced by physiological variables such as metabolic rate, body temperature and ventilation. We investigated the plasticity of the pulmonary surfactant system in the microchiropteran bat Nyctophilus geoffroyi throughout a natural 24 h cycle. Bats were housed at 24 degrees C on a fixed (8 h:16 h) light:dark photoperiod. At 4 h intervals throughout the 24 h period, bats were lavaged and the surfactant analysed for absolute and relative amounts of total phospholipid (PL), disaturated phospholipid (DSP) and cholesterol (Chol). N. geoffroyi experienced two peaks of activity, at 18:00 h and 06:00 h. The amount of surfactant increased 1.5-fold upon arousal from torpor. The proportion of DSP to PL in the surfactant remained constant. Similarly, the Chol/PL and Chol/DSP ratios remained relatively constant. Surfactant cholesterol content did not increase during torpor in N. geoffroyi. Cholesterol does not appear to control surfactant fluidity during torpor in these bats, but instead the cholesterol content exactly mirrored the diurnal changes in body temperature.
We examined the presence of small molecular mass GTP-binding proteins of the Rab3 family in different insulin-secreting cells. Rab3B and Rab3C were identified by western blotting in rat and in human ...pancreatic islets, in two rat insulin-secreting cell lines, RINm5F and INS-1, as well as in the hamster cell line HIT-T15. In contrast, Rab3A was detected in rat pancreatic islets as well as in the two insulin-secreting rat cell lines but not in human pancreatic islets and was only barely discernible in HIT-T15 cells. These findings were confirmed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis followed by GTP-overlay of homogenates of pancreatic islets and of the purified protein. Northern blotting analysis revealed that Rab3D is expressed in the same insulin-secreting cells as Rab3A. Separation of the cells of the rat islets by fluorescence-activated cell sorting demonstrated that Rab3A was exclusively expressed in beta-cells. Rab3A was found to be associated with insulin-containing secretory granules both by immunofluorescence, immunoelectron microscopy and after sucrose density gradient. Overexpression in HIT-T15 cells of a Rab3A mutant deficient in GTP hydrolysis inhibited insulin secretion stimulated by a mixture of nutrients and bombesin. Insulin release triggered by these secretagogues was also slightly decreased by the overexpression of wild-type Rab3A but not by the overexpression of wild-type Rab5A and of a Rab5A mutant deficient in GTP hydrolysis. Finally, we studied the expression in insulin-secreting cells of rabphilin-3A, a putative effector protein that associates with the GTP-bound form of Rab3A. This Rab3A effector was not detectable in any of the cells investigated in the present study. Taken together these results indicate an involvement of Rab3A in the control of insulin release in rat and hamster. In human beta-cells, a different Rab3 isoform but with homologous function may replace Rab3A.
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