Changes in Hepatic Enzymes and Organelles in Alcoholic Liver Disease

1978 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol A. Seymour ◽  
T. J. Peters
Keyword(s):  
Endoplasmic Reticulum ◽  
Plasma Membrane ◽  
Liver Disease ◽  
Fatty Liver ◽  
Density Gradient ◽  
Alcoholic Liver Disease ◽  
Density Gradient Centrifugation ◽  
Gradient Centrifugation ◽  
Equilibrium Density ◽  
Marker Enzyme

1. Liver biopsy specimens obtained from patients with alcoholic liver disease of varying severity were assayed for lysosomal and microsomal enzyme activities, the results being compared with values previously obtained in control subjects. 2. Analytical subcellular fractionation by sucrose-density-gradient centrifugation was performed on extracts of the biopsies and the properties of the lysosomes, plasma membrane, biliary canaliculi and endoplasmic reticulum membranes were determined. Increased activities of plasma membrane marker enzymes, particularly γ-glutamyl transpeptidase believed to be localized to the biliary canalicular membrane, were demonstrated. These findings were most marked in alcoholic cirrhosis. The centrifugation studies revealed no abnormalities in the properties of these membranes. 3. Although the total activities of the endoplasmic reticulum marker enzyme neutral α-glucosidase were unaltered in alcoholic liver disease, centrifugation studies showed a decrease in the density distribution of the membrane-bound enzyme in cirrhosis indicating an increase in the proportion of smooth endoplasmic reticulum membranes. 4. Apart from a small decrease in activity of certain acid hydrolases in fatty liver and in cirrhosis the activities of the lysosomal enzymes were unaffected by alcoholic liver disease. 5. Measurements of lysosomal integrity and density-gradient-centrifugation studies revealed no significant abnormalities in the various patient groups apart from increased stability and reduced equilibrium density of certain lysosomes in fatty liver. It is concluded that lysosomal disruption is not implicated in the pathogenesis of alcoholic liver disease.

scholarly journals Analytical subcellular fractionation of needle-biopsy specimens from human liver

1978 ◽  
Vol 174 (2) ◽  
pp. 435-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
T J Peters ◽  
C A Seymour
Keyword(s):  
Endoplasmic Reticulum ◽  
Plasma Membrane ◽  
Density Gradient ◽  
Needle Biopsy ◽  
Human Liver ◽  
Resolving Power ◽  
Equilibrium Density ◽  
Marker Enzyme ◽  
Acid Hydrolases ◽  
Biopsy Specimens

1. Fragments (2-20 mg wet wt.) of closed needle-biopsy specimens from human liver were disrupted in iso-osmotic sucrose and subjected to low-speed centrifugation. The supernatant was layered on a linear sucrose-density gradient in the Beaufay small-volume automatic zonal rotor. The following organelles, with equilibrium densities (g/ml) and principal marker enzyme shown in parentheses, were resolved: plasma membrane (1.12-1.14; 5′-nucleotidase); lysosomes (1.15-1.20; N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase); mitochondria (1.20; malate dehydrogenase); endoplasmic reticulum (1.17-1.21; neutral alpha-glucosidase); peroxisomes (1.22-1.24; catalase). 2. The distribution of particulate alkaline phosphatase and, to a lesser degree, leucine 2-naphthylamidase followed that of 5′-nucleotidase. gamma-Glutamyltransferase was associated with membranes of significantly higher equilibrium density than was 5′-nucleotidase. 3. The distribution of 12 acid hydrolases was determined in the density-gradient fractions. beta-Glucosidase had a predominantly cytosolic localization, but the other enzymes showed a broad distribution of activity throughout the gradient. Evidence was presented for two populations of lysosomes with equilibrium densities of 1.15 and 1.20 g/ml, but containing differing amounts of each enzyme. Further evidence of lysosomal heterogeneity was demonstrated by studying the distribution of isoenzymes of hexosaminidase and of acid phosphatase. 4. The resolving power of the centrifugation procedure can be further enhanced with membrane perturbants. Digitonin (0.12 mM) selectively disrupted lysosomes, markedly increased the equilibrium density of plasma-membrane components and lowered the density of the endoplasmic reticulum, but did not affect the mitochondria or peroxisomes. Pyrophosphate (15 mM) selectively lowered the equilibrium density of the endoplasmic reticulum.

scholarly journals Proteoglycans of the intervertebral disc. Absence of degradation during the isolation of proteoglycans from the intervertebral disc

1979 ◽  
Vol 179 (3) ◽  
pp. 573-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
R L Stevens ◽  
P G Dondi ◽  
H Muir
Keyword(s):  
Intervertebral Disc ◽  
Density Gradient ◽  
Core Protein ◽  
Density Gradient Centrifugation ◽  
Chondroitin Sulphate ◽  
Gradient Centrifugation ◽  
Equilibrium Density ◽  
Hydrodynamic Size ◽  
Laryngeal Cartilage ◽  
Cartilage Proteoglycans

Proteoglycans extracted with 4M-guanidinium chloride from pig intervetebral discs, and purified by equilibrium density-gradient centrifugation in CsCl, were of smaller hydrodynamic size than those extracted and purified in the same way from the laryngeal cartilage of the same animal. Whether this difference in size arose from degradation during the extraction and purification of the proteoglycans of the disc was investigated. Purified proteoglycans labelled either in the chondroitin sulphate chains or in the core protein were obtained from laryngeal cartilage by short-term organ culture. These labelled proteoglycans were added at the beginning of the extraction of the disc proteoglycans, and labelled cartilage and unlabelled disc proteoglycans were isolated and purified together. There was no appreciable loss of radioactivity after density-gradient centrifugation nor decrease in hydrodynamic size of the labelled cartilage proteoglycans on chromatography on Sepharose 2B, when these were present during the extraction of disc proteoglycans. It is concluded that disc proteoglycans are intrinsically of smaller size than cartilage proteoglycans and this difference in size does not arise from degradation during the extraction.

scholarly journals Biosynthesis of proteoglycans in cartilage slices. Fractionation by gel chromatography and equilibrium density-gradient centrifugation

1972 ◽  
Vol 126 (4) ◽  
pp. 791-803 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. E. Hardingham ◽  
Helen Muir
Keyword(s):  
Density Gradient ◽  
Density Gradient Centrifugation ◽  
Chondroitin Sulphate ◽  
Gradient Centrifugation ◽  
Guanidine Hydrochloride ◽  
Specific Radioactivity ◽  
Equilibrium Density ◽  
Gel Chromatography ◽  
Sulphate Content

The kinetics of incorporation of [35S]sulphate into slices of pig laryngeal cartilage in vitro was linear with time up to 6h. The specific radioactivities of the extracted proteoglycans (containing about 80% of the uronic acid of the cartilage) and the glycosaminoglycans remaining in the tissue after extraction were measured after various times of continuous and ‘pulse–chase’ radioactivity incorporation. Radioactivity was present in the isolated chondroitin sulphate after 2 min, but there was a 35min delay in its appearance in the extractable proteoglycan fraction. Fractionation of the proteoglycans by gel chromatography showed that the smallest molecules had the highest specific radioactivity, but ‘pulse–chase’ experiments over 5h did not demonstrate any precursor–product relationships between fractions of different size. Equilibrium density-gradient centrifugation in 4m-guanidine hydrochloride showed that among the proteoglycan fractions the specific radioactivity increased as the chondroitin sulphate content decreased, but with preparations from ‘pulse–chase’ experiments there was again no evidence for precursor–product relationships between the different fractions. Differences in radioactive incorporation would seem to reflect metabolic heterogeneity within the proteoglycans extracted from cartilage. This may be due either to a partial separation of different types of proteoglycans or to differences in the rates of degradation of the molecules of different size and composition as a result of the nature and specificity of the normal degrading enzymes. The results suggest that molecules of all sizes were formed at the same time.

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