1,721,001 research outputs found

    Ultrastructural and functional study of the liver pigment cells from Rana esculenta L. liver

    No full text
    A study of the liver pigment cells of Rana esculenta L. has been performed on both liver in tote and cells in culture. Ultrastructural and cytochemical analyses showed a close relationship between this visceral pigment cell system and the cells of hepatic macrophage lineage. Like the latter, the liver pigment cells present phagocytic activity, in the sinusoids and in vitro, and give a positive response to tests for peroxidase and lipase. The liver pigment cells are isolated, together with the Kupffer cells, from the sinusoidal cell fraction of the liver. In culture, they maintain their melanogenetic ability, demonstrated by the presence of dopaoxidase activity in the soluble, membranous, and melanosome fractions. Analysis of the cultures showed that as culture time increased, so did melanosome dopaoxidase activity, the number of pigmented fields; and the level of pigmentation of the cells. The values of dopaoxidase activity of the pigment cells in culture show the same seasonal oscillations as the system in tote, indicating that the cells maintain an internal clock, at least in the first 72 h of culture. There is evidence that the pigment cells are macrophages which can express a melanogenetic function. Our results and other experimental data provide a basis for hypothesizing that the pigment cells in Rana esculenta L. liver may derive from, or have a common origin with, the Kupffer cells

    A nonsense mutation in the NDUFS4 gene encoding the 18 kDa (AQDQ) subunit of complex I abolishes assembly and activity of the complex in a patient with Leigh-like syndrome

    No full text
    Sequence analysis of mitochondrial and nuclear candidate genes of complex I in children with deficiency of this complex and exhibiting Leigh-like syndrome has revealed, in one of them, a novel mutation in the NDUFS4 gene encoding the 18 kDa subunit. Phosphorylation of this subunit by cAMP-dependent protein kinase has previously been found to activate the complex. The present mutation consists of a homozygous G-->A transition at nucleotide position +44 of the coding sequence of the gene, resulting in the change of a tryptophan codon to a stop codon. Such mutation causes premature termination of the protein after only 14 amino acids of the putative mitochondrial targeting peptide. Fibroblast cultures from the patient exhibited severe reduction of the rotenone-sensitive NADH-->UQ oxidoreductase activity of complex I, which was insensitive to cAMP stimulation. Two-dimensional electrophoresis showed the absence of detectable normally assembled complex I in the inner mitochondrial membrane. These findings show that the expression of the NDUFS4 gene is essential for the assembly of a functional complex I

    The mechanism of transmembrane delta muH+ generation in mitochondria by cytochrome c oxidase.

    No full text
    In rat liver mitochondria treated with rotenone, N-ethylmaleimide or oligomycin the expected alkalinization caused by proton consumption for aerobic oxidation of ferrocyanide was delayed with respect to ferrocyanide oxidation, unless carbonyl cyanide p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone was present. 2. When valinomycin or valinomycin plus antimycin were also present, ferricyanide, produced by oxidation of ferrocyanide, was re-reduced by hydrogenated endogenous reductants. Under these circumstances the expected net proton consumption caused by ferrocyanide oxidation was preceded by transient acidification. It is shown that re-reduction of formed ferricyanide and proton release derive from rotenone- and antimycin-resistant oxidation of endogenous reductants through the proton-translocating segments of the respiratory chain on the substrate side of cytochrome c. The number of protons released per electron flowing to ferricyanide varied, depending on the experimental conditions, from 3.6 to 1.5. 3. The antimycin-insensitive re-reduction of ferricyanide and proton release from mitochondria were strongly depressed by 2-n-heptyl-4-hydroxyquinoline N-oxide. This shows that the ferricyanide formed accepts electrons passing through the protonmotive segments of the respiratory chain at the level of cytochrome c and/or redox components of the cytochrome b-c1 complex situated on the oxygen side of the antimycin-inhibition site. Dibromothymoquinone depressed and duroquinol enhanced, in the presence of antimycin, the proton-release process induced by ferrocyanide respiration. Both quinones enhanced the rate of scalar proton production associated with ferrocyanide respiration, but lowered the number of protons released per electron flowing to the ferricyanide formed. 4. Net proton consumption caused by aerobic oxidation of exogenous ferrocytochrome c by antimycin-supplemented bovine heart mitochondria was preceded by scalar proton release, which was included in the stoicheiometry of 1 proton consumed per mol of ferrocytochrome c oxidized. This scalar proton production was associated with transition of cytochrome c from the reduced to the oxidized form and not to electron flow along cytochrome c oxidase. 5. It is concluded that cytochrome c oxidase only mediates vectorial electron flow from cytochrome c at the outer side to protons that enter the oxidase from the matrix side of the membrane. In addition to this consumption of protons the oxidase does not mediate vectorial proton translocation

    Tyrosinase gene expression in the Kupffer Cells of Rana esculentaL

    No full text
    The liver of Amphibia and Reptilia shows a dark-brown pigmentation due to the presence of particular melanin-containing cells that are different from melanocytes and derive from cells of macrophage lineage (Kupffer Cells), which have been shown to have an autonomous capacity to synthesize melanins. To date, as far as we know, there are no reports in the literature about the genetic system of tyrosinase as regards these melanin-synthesizing cells; we carried out the present study to analyze how the tyrosinase gene may function. We showed that the Kupffer cells of Rana esculenta L. do indeed have a transcriptionally active tyrosinase gene. Evidence of this was obtained by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis carried out on both the liver tissue and the Kupffer cells in culture. Moreover, analysis of the cells in culture enabled us to observe that, by increasing the culture time from 0 to 72 hr, an appreciable increase occurred in the amplification products of the tyrosinase gene, as well as in the level of dopa oxidase activity and in the quantity of melanin in the cells. The results of the present study demonstrate that frog Kupffer cells possess an active tyrosinase gene and that the increase of the tyrosinase mRNA accumulation closely correlates with phenotypic differentiation, in terms of increased dopa oxidase activity and melanosome content. This provides further strong support of the hypothesis that amphibian Kupffer cells possess an endogenous ability to synthesize melanin and suggests the involvement of the transcriptional level of control in the modulation of their melanogenic activity
    corecore