scholarly journals Amino acid turnover by elongating cattle blastocysts recovered on days 14-16 after insemination

Reproduction ◽  
2002 ◽  
pp. 667-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
DG Morris ◽  
PG Humpherson ◽  
HJ Leese ◽  
JM Sreenan

Blastocyst elongation from day 14 to day 16 after insemination coincides with a major phase of embryo loss in cattle. Protein synthesis, reflected in protein content, increases markedly over this period but little is known about the amino acid requirement of elongating blastocysts at this time. Cattle blastocysts produced in vivo were recovered on days 14-16 after insemination and cultured individually for up to 8 h in synthetic oviduct fluid containing a physiological mixture of amino acids plus 1 mmol glutamine l(-1) and 0.1% (w/v) polyvinyl alcohol (SOFaaPVA). After 1, 4 and 8 h in culture, an aliquot of culture medium was removed and the rate of amino acid depletion or production was calculated per unit of protein and per hour of culture. Amino acids were depleted or produced at different rates. Arginine was depleted from the medium at a significant rate (P < 0.05) during all culture periods. Alanine and glutamate were produced at a significant rate (P < 0.05) during all culture periods. The rate of alanine production was significantly greater (P < 0.05) in blastocysts recovered on day 14 compared with days 15 or 16 after insemination. Alanine production and arginine depletion tended to be greater in smaller embryos recovered on day 14 compared with larger and later stage embryos, indicating that earlier stage embryos may have higher metabolic activity than later stage embryos. Qualitatively, the pattern of amino acid consumption and production during elongation was similar to that shown from the zygote to early blastocyst stage.

1996 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 945 ◽  
Author(s):  
RJ Partridge ◽  
HJ Leese

Bovine embryos produced in vitro from the putative zygote stage to the blastocyst stage, and blastocysts freshly flushed from the uterus, were cultured in a physiological mixture of amino acids. Depletion of amino acids from the medium and, in a few cases, their appearance, was measured by high performance liquid chromatography. Amino acids were depleted at widely differing rates. The depletion of amino acids was higher when embryos at later developmental stages were cultured, implying an increase in amino acid requirement with development. Threonine was the only amino acid to be depleted at all stages of development; depletion increased from 0.18 +/- 0.07 pmol embryo-1 h-1 at the putative zygote stage to 1.96 +/- 0.49 pmol embryo-1 h-1 at the blastocyst stage. Glutamine was depleted at the putative zygote stage and the 4-cell stage (0.76 +/- 0.05 and 0.94 +/- 0.10 pmol embryo-1 h-1 respectively), but was not significantly depleted at the later stages. Alanine was the only amino acid that appeared consistently in the medium and its production increased progressively throughout development. Aspartate, glutamate, threonine and lysine were depleted significantly by blastocysts derived both in vitro and in vivo; the embryos in vivo also depleted arginine, phenylalanine, isoleucine and tyrosine. These results indicate that individual amino acids are depleted at different rates by bovine preimplantation embryos and suggest that amino acid requirements change during development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 2609
Author(s):  
Michal Ješeta ◽  
Andrea Celá ◽  
Jana Žáková ◽  
Aleš Mádr ◽  
Igor Crha ◽  
...  

The vitrification of human embryos is more and more frequently being utilized as a method of assisted reproduction. For this technique, gentle treatment of the embryos after thawing is crucial. In this study, the balance of amino acids released to/consumed from the cultivation media surrounding the warmed embryos was observed in the context of a cultivation environment, which was with the atmospheric oxygen concentration ≈20% or with a regulated oxygen level—hysiological (5%). It is the first time that total amino acid turnover in human embryos after their freezing at post compaction stages has been evaluated. During this study, progressive embryos (developed to blastocyst stage) and stagnant embryos (without developmental progression) were analyzed. It was observed that the embryos cultivated in conditions of physiological oxygen levels (5% oxygen) showed a significantly lower consumption of amino acids from the cultivation media. Progressively developing embryos also had significantly lower total amino acid turnovers (consumption and production of amino acids) when cultured in conditions with physiological oxygen levels. Based on these results it seems that a cultivation environment with a reduced oxygen concentration decreases the risk of degenerative changes in the embryos after thawing. Therefore, the cultivation of thawed embryos in an environment with physiological oxygen levels may preclude embryonal stagnation, and can support the further development of human embryos after their thawing.


Parasitology ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 491-496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart D. M. Watts

Few workers have studied the amino acid requirement of larval Digenea in vivo. Cheng (1963) conducted a study of three species of parasites, each from a different host, and suggested that both free and bound host amino acids act as food sources. His assumptions are based on the disappearance of free amino acids from the sera of infected molluscs and the qualitative similarities between parasite and host with respect to both free and bound amino acids. Negus (1968), working on Turritella communis infected with the sporocysts of Cercaria doricha, described an almost identical qualitative composition of both the free amino acid pools and the hydrolysates of host gonad and parasite tissue. He was of the opinion that this was not coincidental. Considerable quantitative similarities between the free amino acids were also evident. Read, Rothman & Simmons (1963), in discussing cestode metabolism and membrane transport, proposed that it is the molar ratios of amino acids in the host which are important to the parasite and that the amino acid requirement may be more subtle than a simple need for certain components. Indeed, they suggest that this may form one basis for physiological host specificity.


1993 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 417 ◽  
Author(s):  
JG Thompson ◽  
AC Bell ◽  
PA Pugh ◽  
HR Tervit

In the first of two experiments, utilization of [1-14C]pyruvate by 8-cell and blastocyst-stage embryos derived in vivo was examined during a 3-h incubation in HEPES-buffered synthetic oviduct fluid (SOF) medium in the presence or absence of other substrates. In the second, a factorial design examined the effect of pyruvate (0, 0.33, 1.0 and 3.3 mM) and lactate (3.3, 10 and 33 mM) on development of 1- and 2-cell sheep embryos cultured in vitro in a modified SOF medium (containing glucose, glutamine and modified Eagle's medium non-essential amino acids). Peak utilization of [1-14C]pyruvate was unaffected by the presence or absence of other energy substrates. In contrast, rate of utilization was affected by the addition of other energy substrates, with half maximal utilization occurring at either 0.4 +/- 0.2 mM or 1.2 +/- 0.2 mM for 8-cells and either 0.2 +/- 0.2 mM or 1.3 +/- 0.3 mM for blastocysts when incubated in the absence or presence of other energy substrates respectively. In the second experiment the proportion of embryos developing to blastocysts was inhibited by high lactate levels (P < 0.001), but was generally not affected by pyruvate concentration. However, there was a significant interaction (P < 0.001) between pyruvate and lactate when both were present in the medium. At 0.33 mM pyruvate, 3.3 mM lactate supported good development (83 +/- 8% blastocysts) whereas 10 mM lactate supported less development (50 +/- 11%). However, at the higher levels of pyruvate this effect was lost.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


1987 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 294-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
D Pilgrim ◽  
E T Young

Alcohol dehydrogenase isoenzyme III (ADH III) in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the product of the ADH3 gene, is located in the mitochondrial matrix. The ADH III protein was synthesized as a larger precursor in vitro when the gene was transcribed with the SP6 promoter and translated with a reticulocyte lysate. A precursor of the same size was detected when radioactively pulse-labeled proteins were immunoprecipitated with anti-ADH antibody. This precursor was rapidly processed to the mature form in vivo with a half-time of less than 3 min. The processing was blocked if the mitochondria were uncoupled with carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone. Mutant enzymes in which only the amino-terminal 14 or 16 amino acids of the presequence were retained were correctly targeted and imported into the matrix. A mutant enzyme that was missing the amino-terminal 17 amino acids of the presequence produced an active enzyme, but the majority of the enzyme activity remained in the cytoplasmic compartment on cellular fractionation. Random amino acid changes were produced in the wild-type presequence by bisulfite mutagenesis of the ADH3 gene. The resulting ADH III protein was targeted to the mitochondria and imported into the matrix in all of the mutants tested, as judged by enzyme activity. Mutants containing amino acid changes in the carboxyl-proximal half of the ADH3 presequence were imported and processed to the mature form at a slower rate than the wild type, as judged by pulse-chase studies in vivo. The unprocessed precursor appeared to be unstable in vivo. It was concluded that only a small portion of the presequence contains the necessary information for correct targeting and import. Furthermore, the information for correct proteolytic processing of the presequence appears to be distinct from the targeting information and may involve secondary structure information in the presequence.


1972 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Shephard ◽  
Wendy B. Levin

The ability of chloroplasts isolated from Acetabulana mediterranea to synthesize the protein amino acids has been investigated. When this chloroplast isolate was presented with 14CO2 for periods of 6–8 hr, tracer was found in essentially all amino acid species of their hydrolyzed protein Phenylalanine labeling was not detected, probably due to technical problems, and hydroxyproline labeling was not tested for The incorporation of 14CO2 into the amino acids is driven by light and, as indicated by the amount of radioactivity lost during ninhydrin decarboxylation on the chromatograms, the amino acids appear to be uniformly labeled. The amino acid labeling pattern of the isolate is similar to that found in plastids labeled with 14CO2 in vivo. The chloroplast isolate did not utilize detectable amounts of externally supplied amino acids in light or, with added adenosine triphosphate (ATP), in darkness. It is concluded that these chloroplasts are a tight cytoplasmic compartment that is independent in supplying the amino acids used for its own protein synthesis. These results are discussed in terms of the role of contaminants in the observed synthesis, the "normalcy" of Acetabularia chloroplasts, the synthetic pathways for amino acids in plastids, and the implications of these observations for cell compartmentation and chloroplast autonomy.


2000 ◽  
Vol 167 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Wang ◽  
H Wolosker ◽  
J Pevsner ◽  
SH Snyder ◽  
DJ Selkoe

Little evidence is available for the physiological function of D-amino acids in species other than bacteria. Here we demonstrate that naturally occurring freed -aspartate (D-Asp) is present in all magnocellular neurons of rat hypothalamus. The levels of this naturally occurring D-amino acid were elevated during lactation and returned to normal thereafter in the magnocellular neurosecretory system, which produces oxytocin, a hormone responsible for milk ejection during lactation. Intraperitoneal injections of D-Asp reproducibly increased oxytocin gene expression and decreased the concentration of circulating oxytocin in vivo. Similar changes were observed in the vasopressin system. These results provide evidence for the role(s) of naturally occurring free D-Asp in mammalian physiology. The findings argue against the conventional concept that only L-stereoisomers of amino acids are functional in higher species.


1973 ◽  
Vol 51 (12) ◽  
pp. 933-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Njanoor Narayanan ◽  
Jacob Eapen

The effect of cycloheximide in vitro and in vivo on the incorporation of labelled amino acids into protein by muscles, liver, kidneys, and brain of rats and pigeons was studied. In vitro incorporation of amino acids into protein by muscle microsomes, myofibrils, and myofibrillar ribosomes was not affected by cycloheximide. In contrast, administration of the antibiotic into intact animals at a concentration of 1 mg/kg body weight resulted in considerable inhibition of amino acid incorporation into protein by muscles, liver, kidneys, and brain. This inhibition was observed in all the subcellular fractions of these tissues during a period of 10–40 min after the administration of the precursor. Tissue homogenates derived from in vivo cycloheximide-treated animals did not show significant alteration in in vitro amino acid incorporation with the exception of brain, which showed a small but significant enhancement.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Wu ◽  
Qi-Juan Yuan ◽  
Li Wang ◽  
Jun Huang ◽  
Wei Zhao

Amino acid-based poly(ester amide) (PEA) has been utilized for various biomedical applications for its tunable mechanical property, good biocompatibility, and biodegradability. However, bioactive components have rarely been incorporated into the...


1994 ◽  
Vol 189 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-67
Author(s):  
R Parthasarathy ◽  
W R Harvey

The time-dependent fluorescence intensity of an intravesicular potential-sensitive dye was used to probe the real-time kinetics of potential difference (PD)-dependent amino acid/Na+ symport at pH9 into brush-border membrane vesicles obtained from larval Manduca sexta midgut. Neutral amino acids (alanine, proline) are symported at higher rates as the vesicles are hyperpolarized. The symport rates of acidic (glutamate) and basic (arginine) amino acids are almost PD-independent. The half-saturation constant of alanine is PD-independent between -108 and -78 mV, although the maximal symport velocity increases by half as the voltage is increased. Amino acid throughput is evidently enhanced as the relatively high transmembrane PDs (&gt; 150 mV, lumen positive) measured in vivo are approached. The half-saturation concentrations of Na+ were in the range 15-40 mmol l-1 for most of the amino acids examined and increased with voltage for alanine. The Vmax observed as a function of cation or amino acid concentration increased as the vesicle was hyperpolarized in the case of leucine and alanine. The data support the hypothesis that carrier and substrates are at equilibrium inasmuch as substrate translocation seems to be the rate-determining step of symport.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document