scholarly journals Identification of a transcript predicting an alternative form of sulfated glycoprotein-2 (clusterin) in rat tissues

IUBMB Life ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masao Izawa
1996 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 327-337 ◽  
Author(s):  
C R Morales ◽  
M El-Alfy ◽  
Q Zhao ◽  
S A Igdoura

Sulfated glycoprotein-1 (SGP-1/prosaposin) exists as a sulfated secreted protein or as a lysosomal precursor of four smaller saposin molecules. The protein exhibits ubiquitous expression, evolutionary conservation, and diverse tissue inducibility. The lysosomal form of SGP-1 plays a role in the hydrolysis of glycolipids and sphingomyelin. The function of the secreted form of SGP-1 is still unclear. However, it could act as a glycolipid transfer protein, since several gangliosides (a series) were found to bind with high affinity to prosaposin. To identify cell types that produce SGP-1 mRNA, we constructed an SGP-1 cDNA and used for screening of different rat tissues by Northern blot analysis. To localize the translation product of SGP-1 transcripts, we immunostained the same tissues with an anti-SGP-1 antibody. The SGP-1 cDNA construct was generated by amplifying a rat testicular Zap cDNA library by PCR (polymerase chain reaction) with two synthetic oligonucleotide primers. A positive signal of 1.7 KB was isolated, subcloned into the pGEM-7Zf (+). Sequence analysis showed a near-identical nucleotide and amino acid similarity to a previous rat SGP-1 cDNA. The majority of the heterogeneites were conservative substitutions. Northern blot analysis demonstrated that all examined rat tissue and organs have SGP-1 mRNA. Immunocytochemistry identified two staining patterns in the cytoplasm of positive cells: (a) a granular reaction characteristic of lysosomes in the supranuclear and basal regions of epithelial cells and in the perinuclear region of neurons; and (b) a homogeneous reaction in the cytoplasm of Sertoli cells, Type II pneumocytes, macrophages, and epithelial cells lining the choroid plexus. The latter staining pattern could be characteristic of cells that exhibit a secretory routing of SGP- 1. The production of SGP-1 by a variety of specialized cells lining fluid compartments suggests that its secreted form has a role in the transport of lipids in biological fluids, possibly by the formation of soluble complexes with glycolipids. Similarly, the lysosomal form of SGP-1/prosaposin and their derived saposins also solubilizes certain glycolipids to promote their degradation by specific hydrolases.


Author(s):  
P.J. Lea ◽  
M.J. Hollenberg

Our current understanding of mitochondrial ultrastructure has been derived primarily from thin sections using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). This information has been extrapolated into three dimensions by artist's impressions (1) or serial sectioning techniques in combination with computer processing (2). The resolution of serial reconstruction methods is limited by section thickness whereas artist's impressions have obvious disadvantages.In contrast, the new techniques of HRSEM used in this study (3) offer the opportunity to view simultaneously both the internal and external structure of mitochondria directly in three dimensions and in detail.The tridimensional ultrastructure of mitochondria from rat hepatocytes, retinal (retinal pigment epithelium), renal (proximal convoluted tubule) and adrenal cortex cells were studied by HRSEM. The specimens were prepared by aldehyde-osmium fixation in combination with freeze cleavage followed by partial extraction of cytosol with a weak solution of osmium tetroxide (4). The specimens were examined with a Hitachi S-570 scanning electron microscope, resolution better than 30 nm, where the secondary electron detector is located in the column directly above the specimen inserted within the objective lens.


Author(s):  
José A. Serrano ◽  
Hannah L. Wasserkrug ◽  
Anna A. Serrano ◽  
Arnold M. Seligman

As previously reported (1, 2) phosphorylcholine (PC) is a specific substrate for prostatatic acid phosphatase (PAP) as opposed to other acid phosphatases, e.g., lysosomal acid phosphatase. The specificity of PC for PAP is due to the pentavalent nitrogen in PC, a feature that renders PC resistant to hydrolysis by all other acid phosphatases. Detailed comparative cytochemical results in rat tissues are in press. This report deals with ultracytochemical results applying the method to normal and pathological human prostate gland.Fresh human prostate was obtained from 7 patients having transurethral resections or radical prostatectomies. The tissue was fixed in 3% glutaraldehyde- 0.1 M cacodylate buffer (pH 7.4) for 15 min, sectioned at 50 μm on a Sorvall TC-2 tissue sectioner, refixed for a total of 2 hr, and rinsed overnight in 0.1 M cacodylate buffer (pH 7.4)-7.5% sucrose.


2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Alliano ◽  
Kimberly Herriger ◽  
Anthony D. Koutsoftas ◽  
Theresa E. Bartolotta

Abstract Using the iPad tablet for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) purposes can facilitate many communicative needs, is cost-effective, and is socially acceptable. Many individuals with communication difficulties can use iPad applications (apps) to augment communication, provide an alternative form of communication, or target receptive and expressive language goals. In this paper, we will review a collection of iPad apps that can be used to address a variety of receptive and expressive communication needs. Based on recommendations from Gosnell, Costello, and Shane (2011), we describe the features of 21 apps that can serve as a reference guide for speech-language pathologists. We systematically identified 21 apps that use symbols only, symbols and text-to-speech, and text-to-speech only. We provide descriptions of the purpose of each app, along with the following feature descriptions: speech settings, representation, display, feedback features, rate enhancement, access, motor competencies, and cost. In this review, we describe these apps and how individuals with complex communication needs can use them for a variety of communication purposes and to target a variety of treatment goals. We present information in a user-friendly table format that clinicians can use as a reference guide.


1979 ◽  
Vol 42 (02) ◽  
pp. 726-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Utako Okamoto ◽  
Jun-ichiro Yamamoto ◽  
Yoko Nagamatsu ◽  
Noboru Horie

SummaryProtease-like activity which split plasminogen-free fibrin was demonstrated in 2 M KSCN extracts of the lung and spleen of conventional rats. The activity was virtually undetectable in tissue extracts from germ-free rats. The extracts from the conventional rat tissues split fibrin and fibrinogen remarkably at neutral pH, but not casein, when examined using fibrin, fibrinogen-agar and casein-agar plates. The fibrinolytic activity was inhibited by STI and DFP, indicating a serine protease nature. The activity was not inhibited by TLCK, t-AMCHA or dansyl-L-arginine-methylpiperidine amide (a selective synthetic thrombin inhibitor, OM189). It was neither activated nor inhibited by cysteine, KCN or iodoacetic acid. The results obtained indicate that the protease-like activity of the lung and spleen extracted with 2 M KSCN from conventional rats has properties which differ from those of trypsin, plasmin, plasminogen-activator, thrombin, and cathepsin A, B and C.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darío Acuña-Castroviejo ◽  
Maria T Noguiera-Navarro ◽  
Russel J Reiter ◽  
Germaine Escames

Due to the broad distribution of extrapineal melatonin in multiple organs and tissues, we analyzed the presence and subcellular distribution of the indoleamine in the heart of rats. Groups of sham-operated and pinealectomized rats were sacrificed at different times along the day, and the melatonin content in myocardial cell membranes, cytosol, nuclei and mitochondria, were measured. Other groups of control animals were treated with different doses of melatonin to monitor its intracellular distribution. The results show that melatonin levels in the cell membrane, cytosol, nucleus, and mitochondria vary along the day, without showing a circadian rhythm. Pinealectomized animals trend to show higher values than sham-operated rats. Exogenous administration of melatonin yields its accumulation in a dose-dependent manner in all subcellular compartments analyzed, with maximal concentrations found in cell membranes at doses of 200 mg/kg bw melatonin. Interestingly, at dose of 40 mg/kg b.w, maximal concentration of melatonin was reached in the nucleus and mitochondrion. The results confirm previous data in other rat tissues including liver and brain, and support that melatonin is not uniformly distributed in the cell, whereas high doses of melatonin may be required for therapeutic purposes.


CounterText ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Rooney

The initial part of Caroline Rooney's essay offers an incisive account of the author's experience of Cairo in the years leading up to the 2011 uprisings that led to the end of Hosni Mubarak's rule. Rooney's narrative evinces an active Downtown cosmopolitan spirit characterised by a burgeoning sense of ‘audacity’ in forms of arts activism, and its attendant collective spirit of perseverance that increasingly rendered ineffective the repressive manoeuvres of Egypt's disciplinary State. Criticising the impulse to construe the Egyptian revolution in terms of a mimetic desire for a secular democracy on Western lines, Rooney insists that the Arab uprisings consisted, in many respects, of a revolution against Western-style free market neoliberalism. Countering the perpetual cynicism attendant to the latter, Rooney argues, requires a form of politicisation that maintains ‘the ongoing presence of the real as a matter of collective spirit’ – one that can outlast the colonial interlude by resisting the absolutist self-assertion of market fundamentalism and its collusions with ‘diplo-economic cosmopolitanism’ as a mode of class-discriminatory privilege, as well as the compromising nature of right-wing Islam. Rooney moves on to locate a counter-movement based on an alternative form of consciousness that manifests itself ‘as solidarity, as resoluteness, as genuine comradeship, as collective consciousness, as revolutionary faith and [as] festiveness.’ In the last part of her essay, Rooney raises the intriguing case of Sufism, and specifically its mulid rituals and its important role in the Egyptian revolutionary effort, as a relational cultural mode that can survive the will-to-dominance as a persistent and liberatory collective gesture.


Diabetes ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 44 (10) ◽  
pp. 1196-1201 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Vidal ◽  
D. Auboeuf ◽  
M. Beylot ◽  
J. P. Riou

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