Replacement of Fhit in cancer cells suppresses tumorigenicity.

The candidate tumor suppressor gene, FHIT, encompasses the common human chromosomal fragile site at 3p14.2, the hereditary renal cancer translocation breakpoint, and cancer cell homozygous deletions. Fhit hydrolyzes dinucleotide 5',5"'-P1,P3-triphosphate in vitro and mutation of a central histidine abolishes hydrolase activity.

Saturable ethanol binding in rat liver microsomes.

The binding of ethanol to rat liver microsomes is shown to be saturable at clinically relevant ethanol concentrations, whereas this effect is not observed in extracted microsomal phospholipids. Brief exposure of the microsomes to heat abolishes saturable ethanol binding. Equilibrium binding data analysis, although only approximate in this context, suggests the presence of at least two groups of specific sites: high capacity sites with affinities near the pharmacological range and low capacity sites at lesser levels.

Alcohol binding to liposomes by 2H NMR and radiolabel binding assays: does partitioning describe binding?

Implicit within the concept of membrane-buffer partition coefficients of solutes is a nonspecific solvation mechanism of solute binding. However, (2)H NMR studies of the binding of (2)H(6)-ethanol and [1-(2)H(2)] n-hexanol to phosphatidylcholine vesicles have been interpreted as evidence for two distinct alcohol binding modes. One binding mode was reported to be at the membrane surface.

Quantitative determination of phospholipids using the dyes Victoria blue R and B.

Different phospholipids, except the choline-containing phospholipids phosphatidylcholine, lysophosphatidylcholine, and sphingomyelin, formed complexes with the dye Victoria blue R, which selectively partitioned into the chloroform phase of chloroform/ethylene glycol/glycerol biphasic solvent system, and were quantitatively estimated at 590 nm. Considerable amounts of water, alcohols, nonlipid phosphates, neutral lipids, free fatty acids, and some detergents did not interfere with the formation of phospholipid-dye complexes. This special advantage of the method described allowed combined phospholipid extraction and estimation procedures in one test tube.