Incorporation of amino acids into soluble and membrane protein fractions of dystrophic hamsters.

The incorporation of labelled leucine was measured in protein fractions of muscle in intact control and dystrophic female hamsters and also in cell-free preparations obtained from these animals. The labelling of the soluble sarcoplasmic protein fraction, the microsomal protein fraction and the sarcolemma protein fraction was increased in the dystrophic hindleg muscle. The specific radioactivities of the sarcolemma protein fraction and other fractions were increased markedly relative to that of free leucine in the dystrophic muscle.

The nature of the calcium ion efflux induced in rat liver mitochondria by the oxidation of endogenous nicotinamide nucleotides.

Ca2+ efflux from rat liver mitochondria can occur when endogenous nicotinamide nucleotides are oxidized. It is suggested that nicotinamide nucleotide induced by acetoacetate sensitizes the mitochondria to damaage resulting from the accumulation of Ca2+ in the presence of Pi. Thus, acetoacetate-induced Ca2+ efflux is associated with a loss of respiratory control.

The regulation of brain mitochondrial calcium-ion transport. The role of ATP in the discrimination between kinetic and membrane-potential-dependent calcium-ion efflux mechanisms.

Mitochondria from guinea-pig cerebral cortex incubated in the presence of Pi or acetate are unable to regulate the extramitochondrial free Ca2+ at a steady-state which is independent of the Ca2+ accumulated in the matrix. This is due to the superimposition on kinetically regulated Ca2+ cycling of a membrane-potential-dependent reversal of the Ca2+ uniporter. The latter efflux is a consequence of a low membrane potential, which correlates with a loss of adenine nucleotide loss from the matrix, enable the mitochondria to maintain a high membrane potential and allow the mitochondria to buffer the extramitochondrial free Ca2+ precisely when up to 200 nmol of Ca2+/mg of protein is accumulated in the matrix.

Comparison of labetalol and propranolol in hypertension.

1 Labetalol has been compared with propranolol in a double-blind, double-dummy study of 24 patients with mild or moderate essential hypertension. 2 Two patients were unable to tolerate propranolol and five labetalol, because of symptom side effects; this difference was not significant (P greater than 0.1).

Determination of the mitochondrial protonmotive force in isolated hepatocytes.

The intracellular distribution of lipophilic ions and weak acids and bases was studied in intact hepatocytes as indicators of gradients of pH and membrane potential. Mitochondrial and plasma membrane potentials of 161 and 32.8 mV (negative inside), respectively, were calculated from the intracellular accumulation of triphenylmethylphosphonium (TPMP+) and thiocyanate in the intact hepatocyte, assuming a two-compartment model.

Energy transduction in intact synaptosomes. Influence of plasma-membrane depolarization on the respiration and membrane potential of internal mitochondria determined in situ.

A method is described, based on the differential accumulation of Rb+ and methyltriphenylphosphonium, for the simultaneous estimation of the membrane potentials across the plasma membrane of isolated nerve endings (synaptosomes), and across the inner membrane of mitochondria within the synaptosomal cytoplasm. These determinations, together with measurements of respiratory rates, and ATP and phosphocreatine concentrations, are used to define the bioenergetic behaviour of isolated synaptosomes under a variety of conditions. Under control conditions, in the presence of glucose, the plasma and mitochondrial membrane potentials are respectively 45 and 148mV.

Protein synthesis in muscles from normal and dystrophic hamsters.

Homogenates of hindleg muscle were obtained from control and dystrophic male hamsters, 30 and 190 days of age, and were used to prepare the postmicrosomal pH5-supernatant fraction. The activity of this fraction in the incorporation of [14C]phenylalanyl-tRNA into peptides was increased in the dystrophic-muscle preparations. No such increase was found in brain or liver preparations from dystrophic hamsters.

Transmembrane electrical potential and transmembrane pH gradient in the acidophile Thiobacillus ferro-oxidans.

Thiobacillus ferro-oxidans is capable of using the oxidation of Fe2+ by O2 at pH 2.0 as the sole source of energy for growth and CO2 fixation. The bacterium maintains an intracellular pH of 6.

Studies of a factor from dystrophic mouse muscle inhibitory towards protein synthesis.

A substance inhibitory to protein synthesis was purified from mouse skeletal muscle by gel filtration and ion-exchange chromatography, as well as by centrifugation on sucrose gradients. The molecular weight of the inhibitor, determined by sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis, was 71000. The inhibitory activity was insensitive to ribonuclease A, deoxyribonuclease I and phospholipase C.

The regulation of extramitochondrial free calcium ion concentration by rat liver mitochondria.

The mechanism whereby rat liver mitochondria regulate the extramitochondrial concentration of free Ca(2+) was investigated. At 30 degrees C and pH7.0, mitochondria can maintain a steady-state pCa(2+) (0) (the negative logarithm of the free extramitochondrial Ca(2+) concentration) of 6.

Liver enzyme induction by 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis-(p-chlorophenyl)ethane (DDT) is accompanied by an increase in the specific activity of elongation factor 1.

Homogenates of liver were obtained from control rats and from rats that had received DDT [1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane]. The postmicrosomal supernatant fractions were used for the purification of elongation factor 1 by hydroxyapatite chromatography and phosphocellulose chromarography. The amount of binding factor present was essentially the same for both groups of animals, but the specific activity, as measured by the binding assay, was about twice as high in the DDT-treated preparations.

Calcium transport and porton electrochemical potential gradient in mitochondria from guinea-pig cerebral cortex and rat heart.

A method is described for the preparation of ;free' and ;synaptosomal' brain mitochondria from fractions of guinea-pig cerebral cortex respectively depleted and enriched in synaptosomes. Both preparations of mitochondria have a low membrane H(+) conductance, a high capacity to phosphorylate ADP, and a capacity to accumulate Ca(2+) at rates limited by the activity of the respiratory chain. Ca(2+) transport by ;free' brain mitochondria is compared with that of heart mitochondria.

Brown-adipose-tissue mitochondria: photoaffinity labelling of the regulatory site of energy dissipation.

Brown-adipose-tissue mitochondria possess an energy-dissipating ion uniport which is inhibited by purine nucleotides. The regulatory nucleotides bind to a high-affinity site on the outer face of the inner membrane which is independent of the adenine nucleotide translocator. A direct correlation between affinity for the regulatory site and ability to inhibit the ion uniport is demonstrated for a number of nucleotide analogues.

The identification of the component in the inner membrane of brown adipose tissue mitochondria responsible for regulating energy dissipation.

The proton conductance of the inner membrane of hamster brown adipose tissue mitochondria can be regulated in vitro by exogenous purine nucleotides, which bind to a component on the outer face of the inner membrane. This unique mechanism has been proposed to represent the molecular site of non-shivering thermogenesis in this tissue. Using a photo-affinity analogue of ATP, we have identified the nucleotide binding component as a protein of 32,000 daltons.

Effect of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene on the binding of aminoacyl transfer RNA in rat liver.

Homogenates of the liver of female rats obtained 2 or 7 days or 3 months after the i.v. injection of 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene were used to prepare ribosomes and postmicrosomal supernatant fractions and to prepare 0.

Acid phosphatase activity in carcinoma of the bronchus.

, , 472-477. Two cases are presented in which an undifferentiated small-cell carcinoma of the bronchus was associated with a considerably raised serum tartrate-labile acid phosphatase concentration. In neither case was there any evidence of a carcinoma of the prostate which, with a few rare exceptions, is the only condition associated with such increased enzyme activity.