scholarly journals Quantification of common and planar bile acids in tissues and cultured cells

2020 ◽  
Vol 61 (11) ◽  
pp. 1524-1535
Author(s):  
Stephanie J. Shiffka ◽  
Jace W. Jones ◽  
Linhao Li ◽  
Ann M. Farese ◽  
Thomas J. MacVittie ◽  
...  

Bile acids (BAs) have been established as ubiquitous regulatory molecules implicated in a large variety of healthy and pathological processes. However, the scope of BA heterogeneity is often underrepresented in current literature. This is due in part to inadequate detection methods, which fail to distinguish the individual constituents of the BA pool. Thus, the primary aim of this study was to develop a method that would allow the simultaneous analysis of specific C24 BA species, and to apply that method to biological systems of interest. Herein, we describe the generation and validation of an LC-MS/MS assay for quantification of numerous BAs in a variety of cell systems and relevant biofluids and tissue. These studies included the first baseline level assessment for planar BAs, including allocholic acid, in cell lines, biofluids, and tissue in a nonhuman primate (NHP) laboratory animal, Macaca mulatta, in healthy conditions. These results indicate that immortalized cell lines make poor models for the study of BA synthesis and metabolism, whereas human primary hepatocytes represent a promising alternative model system. We also characterized the BA pool of M. mulatta in detail. Our results support the use of NHP models for the study of BA metabolism and pathology in lieu of murine models. Moreover, the method developed here can be applied to the study of common and planar C24 BA species in other systems.

Author(s):  
Anne F. Bushnell ◽  
Sarah Webster ◽  
Lynn S. Perlmutter

Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is an important mechanism in development and in diverse disease states. The morphological characteristics of apoptosis were first identified using the electron microscope. Since then, DNA laddering on agarose gels was found to correlate well with apoptotic cell death in cultured cells of dissimilar origins. Recently numerous DNA nick end labeling methods have been developed in an attempt to visualize, at the light microscopic level, the apoptotic cells responsible for DNA laddering.The present studies were designed to compare various tissue processing techniques and staining methods to assess the occurrence of apoptosis in post mortem tissue from Alzheimer's diseased (AD) and control human brains by DNA nick end labeling methods. Three tissue preparation methods and two commercial DNA nick end labeling kits were evaluated: the Apoptag kit from Oncor and the Biotin-21 dUTP 3' end labeling kit from Clontech. The detection methods of the two kits differed in that the Oncor kit used digoxigenin dUTP and anti-digoxigenin-peroxidase and the Clontech used biotinylated dUTP and avidinperoxidase. Both used 3-3' diaminobenzidine (DAB) for final color development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Jo Rademacher ◽  
Anahi Cruz ◽  
Mary Faber ◽  
Robyn A. A. Oldham ◽  
Dandan Wang ◽  
...  

AbstractInterleukin-12 (IL-12) is an inflammatory cytokine that has demonstrated efficacy for cancer immunotherapy, but systemic administration has detrimental toxicities. Lentiviral transduction eliciting IL-12-producing human sarcoma for autologous reintroduction provides localized delivery for both innate and adaptive immune response augmentation. Sarcoma cell lines and primary human sarcoma samples were transduced with recombinant lentivirus engineering expression of human IL-12 (hu-IL-12). IL-12 expressing sarcomas were assessed in vitro and in vivo following implantation into humanized NSG and transgenic human IL-15 expressing (NSG.Tg(Hu-IL-15)) murine models. Lentiviral transduction (LV/hu-IL-12) of human osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines, as well as low-passage primary human sarcomas, engendered high-level expression of hu-IL-12. Hu-IL-12 demonstrated functional viability, eliciting specific NK cell-mediated interferon-γ (IFN-γ) release and cytotoxic growth restriction of spheroids in vitro. In orthotopic xenograft murine models, the LV/hu-IL-12 transduced human sarcoma produced detectable IL-12 and elicited an IFN-γ inflammatory immune response specific to mature human NK reconstitution in the NSG.Tg(Hu-IL-15) model while restricting tumor growth. We conclude that LV/hu-IL-12 transduction of sarcoma elicits a specific immune reaction and the humanized NSG.Tg(Hu-IL-15) xenograft, with mature human NK cells, can define in vivo anti-tumor effects and systemic toxicities. IL-12 immunomodulation through autologous tumor transduction and reintroduction merits exploration for sarcoma treatment.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 2116
Author(s):  
Xiaoyong Wang ◽  
Lijuan Zhang ◽  
Qi Dai ◽  
Hongzong Si ◽  
Longyun Zhang ◽  
...  

The high concentrations of individual phytochemicals in vitro studies cannot be physiologically achieved in humans. Our solution for this concentration gap between in vitro and human studies is to combine two or more phytochemicals. We screened 12 phytochemicals by pairwise combining two compounds at a low level to select combinations exerting the synergistic inhibitory effect of breast cancer cell proliferation. A novel combination of luteolin at 30 μM (LUT30) and indole-3-carbinol 40 μM (I3C40) identified that this combination (L30I40) synergistically constrains ERα+ breast cancer cell (MCF7 and T47D) proliferation only, but not triple-negative breast cancer cells. At the same time, the individual LUT30 and I3C40 do not have this anti-proliferative effect in ERα+ breast cancer cells. Moreover, this combination L30I40 does not have toxicity on endothelial cells compared to the current commercial drugs. Similarly, the combination of LUT and I3C (LUT10 mg + I3C10 mg/kg/day) (IP injection) synergistically suppresses tumor growth in MCF7 cells-derived xenograft mice, but the individual LUT (10 mg/kg/day) and I3C (20 mg/kg/day) do not show an inhibitory effect. This combination synergistically downregulates two major therapeutic targets ERα and cyclin dependent kinase (CDK) 4/6/retinoblastoma (Rb) pathway, both in cultured cells and xenograft tumors. These results provide a solid foundation that a combination of LUT and I3C may be a practical approach to treat ERα+ breast cancer cells after clinical trials.


Author(s):  
Yoshino Tanaka ◽  
Yoshihiko Nanasato ◽  
Kousei Omura ◽  
Keita Endoh ◽  
Tsuyoshi Kawano ◽  
...  

Abstract Polyhistidine peptides (PHPs), sequences comprising only histidine residues (>His8), are effective cell-penetrating peptides for plant cells. Using PHP-fusion proteins, we aimed to deliver proteins into cultured plant cells from Nicotiana tabacum, Oryza sativa, and Cryptomeria japonica. Co-cultivation of cultured cells with fusion proteins combining maltose-binding protein (MBP), red fluorescent protein (RFP), and various PHPs (MBP-RFP-His8–His20) in one polypeptide showed the cellular uptake of fusion proteins in all plant cell lines. Maximum intracellular fluorescence was shown in MBP-RFP-His20. Further, adenylate cyclase (CyaA), a synthase of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) activated by cytosolic calmodulin, was used as a reporter for protein delivery in living cells. A fusion protein combining MBP, RFP, CyaA, and His20 (MBP-RFP-CyaA-His20) was delivered into plant cells and increased intracellular fluorescence and cAMP production in all cell lines. The present study demonstrates that PHPs are effective carriers of proteins into the intracellular space of various cultured plant cells.


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