Enzyme最新文献

We measured a tubular brush-border enzyme (alanine aminopeptidase, AAP) and a lysosomal hydrolase (N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase, NAG) in morning urines from 15 healthy normal subjects to check if different storage times and temperatures could modify enzyme concentrations. Short-term (24 h) storage time at room temperature or 4 degrees C does not affect AAP and NAG activities. Both enzymes are well preserved at -70 degrees C. AAP dramatically falls after 1 month at -20 degrees C, lowering to about 8% of the initial value after only 4 days of storage. On the contrary, NAG is well preserved at these storage conditions. Centrifugation has revealed not critical for measurement of these two enzymes.

Aminopeptidase B (EC 3.4.11.6; L-arginyl-beta-naphthylamidase) was purified 1,800-fold from human placental cytoplasm and characterized. The enzyme was subjected to ammonium sulfate fractionation and a series of chromatographies on DE-52, hydroxylapatite, Bio-gel A 0.5 m and L-arginine-Sepharose. The native molecular mass of the enzyme was estimated to be 220,000 by gel filtration. The molecular mass was estimated to be about 83,000 by SDS/PAGE in the absence of 2-mercaptoethanol, suggesting that the enzyme exists in a polymeric form. The isoelectric point of the enzyme was 5.4. The purified enzyme was most active at pH 7.2 with L-arginyl-beta-naphthylamide as substrate and the Km value for this enzyme was 0.3 mmol/l. Human placental aminopeptidase B was markedly activity by Cl-. Bestatin and arphamenin, low molecular weight peptides, showed appreciable inhibition of this enzyme. However, amastatin and puromycin did not inhibit the enzyme. Bacitracin markedly activated this enzyme.

A radioimmunoassay (RIA) for the determination of human group-II phospholipase A2 (M-PLA2) has been developed. M-PLA2 was purified from human spleen. Monoclonal antibody (IgG) was prepared by fusion of splenic cells from immunized mice with M-PLA2 and the mouse myeloma cell line NS-1. The RIA was carried out by a single antibody method. The assay is sensitive (0.78 micrograms/l), reproducible and specific. In healthy individuals, the serum M-PLA2 concentration ranges from 1.4 to 4.2 micrograms/l, the average being 2.2 +/- 0.1 micrograms/l (mean +/- SE). Using the RIA, we found increased serum M-PLA2 in patients with various infections and malignant tumors. We also showed the postoperative transient elevation of serum M-PLA2 in cases without any infectious complications. The elevation was independent of the surgical procedure or site. The maximum serum M-PLA2 level was seen on the 2nd to 4th postoperative day. In these patients, the serum M-PLA2 and C-reactive protein levels were significantly correlated. The present study indicated that serum M-PLA2 is an acute phase reactant.

Furin, the translational product of the recently discovered fur gene, appears to be the first known mammalian member of the subtilisin family of serine proteases and the first known mammalian proprotein-processing enzyme with cleavage selectivity for paired basic amino acid residues. Structurally and functionally, it resembles the prohormone-processing enzyme, kexin (EC 3.4.21.61), which is encoded by the KEX2 gene of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Most likely, furin is primarily involved in the processing of precursors of proteins that are secreted via the constitutive secretory pathway. Here, we review the discovery of the fur gene and describe the isolation of cDNA clones corresponding to human and mouse fur and to two fur-like genes of Drosophila melanogaster, Dfur1 and Dfur2. We also compare the structural organization of the various deduced furin proteins to that of yeast kexin, and of other members of the subtilisin family of serine proteases. Furthermore, the biosynthesis of biologically active human and mouse furin is evaluated. Finally, the cleavage specificity for paired basic amino acid residues of human and mouse furin is demonstrated by the correct processing of the precursor for von Willebrand factor.

Hyperammonemia interferes with normal brain function. The effect of ammonia on free and membrane-bound lysosomal enzymes and on mucopolysaccharide metabolism was studied in cultured rat brain cells (ROC-1, hybridoma between C6-astrocytoma and oligodendrocytes). Intralysosomal ammoniagenesis was achieved from urea by endocytosed Jackbean urease followed by incubation of the cultures with urea. The intralysosomal location of urease was evidenced by the protective effects of leupeptin and urea on the stability of intracellular urease. Ammonia formed from urea resulted in an increased secretion of lysosomal arylsulfatase-A (AS-A), but not of the membrane-bound lysosomal beta-glucosidase into the culture medium, thus intralysosomal AS-A activity decreased. Lysosomal, membrane-bound beta-glucosidase activity increased, presumably due to intralysosomal proteolytic protection following an increased lysosomal pH. Intralysosomal ammoniagenesis temporarily impaired 35SO4-glycosaminoglycan degradation of prelabeled cells. The results support the hypothesis that hyperammonemic states may interfere with lysosomal functions in vivo as well in cultured cells.

Ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) is one of 5 enzymes in the detoxification of ammonia to urea, and its deficiency, an X-linked disease, is the most common inborn error of urea genesis in humans. Because of the devastating nature of the disease there is a strong demand for reliable and rapid molecular analyses in OTC families in order to offer carrier detection and prenatal diagnosis. This paper presents the efficiency of direct and indirect mutation analyses in 22 OTC families using Southern blotting and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. For 89% of the mothers with an affected child, at least 1 RFLP of the OTC locus was informative concerning prenatal diagnosis. 100% informativity was reached by using the additional flanking markers 754 and LI.28. In total, 3 deletions (14%) and 1 TaqI site mutation (4.5%) in exon 3 were detected. 13 (60%) of our 22 mothers were found to be carriers, 9 of them being obligate carriers and 4 detected by biochemical testing. 4 mothers were excluded as carriers by DNA analyses, and in 5 mothers the carrier status could not be assessed positively. DNA analyses permitted carrier detection in 32% and carrier exclusion in 55% of 22 female relatives. Prenatal diagnosis was performed in 4 families: in 1 family by direct mutation detection and in 3 families by linkage analyses. It was possible to determine the mutation origin in 6 families, all of them with male probands. In 4 families the mutation had occurred during grandpaternal spermiogenesis, suggesting higher mutation rates in males, but in 2 cases it was the result of an event during maternal oogenesis, proving that new mutations in the OTC gene do also occur in eggs. Our recommended strategy for carrier detection and prenatal diagnosis in OTC deficiency is to examine routinely Southern blots of BamHI, EcoRI, HindIII, MspI, PstI and TaqI digestions using the OTCcDNA probe pH0731 and the flanking markers 754 and LI.28, as well as the TaqI-digested PCR products of exons 3, 5 and 9.

An activator protein that stimulates the enzymic hydrolysis of sialic acid from gangliosides by ganglioside sialidase was fractionated from human liver. This fraction was distinct from those stimulating the hydrolysis of galactose from GM1 ganglioside by beta-galactosidase and the hydrolysis of N-acetylgalactosamine from GM2 ganglioside by hexosaminidase A. This fraction was highly specific for the hydrolysis of sialic acid from GM3 ganglioside, and was equally effective in fibroblasts from patients with mucolipidosis IV and in fibroblasts from controls.

The kinetic properties of sheep brain glutathione reductase (GSSGR) were investigated. The enzyme showed Ping-Pong kinetics with double substrate inhibition in the forward direction. Km values for NADPH and GSSG were found to be 60.9 and 116.9 mumol/l, and Ki values were found to be 42.1 and 347.3 mumol/l, respectively. NADP+ inhibition at low fixed concentration of NADPH was mixed-type with a Ki of 281.5 mumol/l and alpha of 0.048. It is concluded that the enzyme shows a hybrid Ping-Pong-ordered branched mechanism.

Adrenalectomized and intact rats were given constant high-dose infusions of glucagon, 0.3 mg/kg per day for 7 days, with or without low-dose dexamethasone, 0.01 mg/kg daily, to test whether glucocorticoids potentiate glucagon induction of the 5 urea cycle enzymes as they do in cultured rat hepatocytes. Glucagon did not induce any of the urea cycle enzymes in adrenalectomized Sprague-Dawley rats and only induced argininosuccinate lyase (EC 4.3.2.1) in adrenalectomized inbred Wistar-Furth rats. Dexamethasone alone induced arginase in adrenalectomized and in intact Wistar-Furth rats and restored the other enzymes to normal levels in adrenalectomized rats. In intact Wistar-Furth rats, the combination of hormones gave synergistic increases of all 5 enzymes over the responses to each hormone alone, but in adrenalectomized rats the combination was only additive or less than additive compared with the sum of single hormone responses. The lack of synergism between the two hormones in adrenalectomized rats suggest that other factors play a role in glucagon induction of this cycle.

Fractionation of bone and liver alkaline phosphatase (EC 3.1.3.1; ALP) in serum by serial lectin affinity chromatography has demonstrated differences in the sugar chain structure of bone and liver ALP in serum from that previously reported in the corresponding tissues, with a lower content of high mannose or hybrid-type sugar chains and a higher content of biantennary complex-type chains. Furthermore, the bone and liver ALPs were found to differ in the latter with the bone fraction showing a greater content of fucose residues.