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Biomedical subjects

A Grossman

Publications and source records attributed to A Grossman.

At least 253 records · Page 14Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

The 13p HSR in a human neuroblastoma cell line does not contain rRNA genes.

We have studied a human neuroblastoma cell line containing a homogeneously staining region (HSR) on the short (p) arm of chromosome #13. The HSRs are believed to represent sites of gene amplification, containing multiple copies of one or a small number of genes. The 18S and 28S ribosomal RNA genes are the only structural genes so far assigned to the p arms of the human acrocentric chromosomes, which include number #13. Using two recombinant DNA probes specific for sequences in the 18S/28S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene complex for in situ hybridization, we have been able to establish that the 13pHSR in this line does not contain rRNA genes.

Cell Line↗
PubMed1984

An overview of pancreatic exocrine secretion.

Genes for all proteins have encoded in their DNA sequences, information that specifies where these proteins will localize within the cell. Nascent translation products of transcripts of these genes, that possess a specific NH2-terminal signal sequence, are able to translocate into a specialized membranous conducting system called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), or can be incorporated directly into a target organelle (i.e. mitochondrion). Nascent polypeptides lacking this signal sequence remain in the cytosol. Once segregation into the ER has occurred each protein appears to migrate at a characteristic rate to a connecting organelle; the Golgi Complex. Here, enzymatic modifications of these proteins determines the organelle with which each will eventually become associated. In secretory tissues such as the exocrine pancreas, many different proteins are directed into specialized secretory structures called zymogen granules. These granules are maintained in a "ready-to-release" state by steroid hormones. In the absence of estrogens and glucocorticoids the zymogen granules disappear. Physiologically, secretion from the exocrine pancreas is brought about by parasympathetic nerve stimulation, or by the gut hormone cholecystokinin (CCK). Interaction of acetylcholine or CCK with specific receptors on pancreatic acinar cells initiates the process of exocytosis; that is, fusion of the zymogen granule membrane with the plasma membrane resulting in extracellular release of the contents of the secretory granule.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

The role of opioid peptides in the hormonal responses to acute exercise in man.

Opioid involvement in the physiological and hormonal responses to acute exercise was investigated in six normal male subjects. Each was exercised to 40% (mild exercise) and 80% (severe exercise) of his previously determined maximal oxygen consumption on two occasions, with and without an infusion of high-dose naloxone. The exercise task was a bicycle ergometer; mild and severe exercise were performed for 20 min each, followed by a recovery period. Exercise produced the expected increases in heart rate, blood pressure, ventilation, tidal volume, respiratory rate, oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production. After severe exercise, naloxone infusion increased ventilation from 94.8 +/- 4.9 litres/min to 105.7 +/- 5.0 litres/min (P less than 0.05), but had no effect on any of the other physiological variables. Exercise-induced changes in several hormones and metabolites were noted, including elevations in circulating lactate, growth hormone (GH), prolactin, cortisol, luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), adrenaline noradrenaline, plasma renin activity (PRA) and aldosterone. There was no change in plasma met-enkephalin. Naloxone infusion produced the expected increases in LH and cortisol, but also significantly enhanced the elevations in prolactin, adrenaline, noradrenaline, plasma renin activity and aldosterone (P less than 0.05). Psychological questionnaires revealed minor mood changes after exercise, but no evidence was found for the suggested 'high' or euphoria of exercise. Effort was perceived as greater during the naloxone infusion than the saline infusion in every subject.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Isolation and characterization of a gene for a major light-harvesting polypeptide from Cyanophora paradoxa.

Antibodies raised against mixtures of phycobilisome polypeptides from the eukaryotic alga Cyanidium caldarium were used in an immunological screen to detect expression of phycobiliprotein genes in an Escherichia coli library containing segments of plastid (chloroplast, cyanelle) DNA from another eukaryotic alga, Cyanophora paradoxa. The four candidate clones obtained were mapped by restriction analysis and found to be overlapping. The clone with the smallest insert (1.4 kilobases) was partially sequenced and a coding region similar to the carboxyl terminus of the phycobiliprotein subunit beta-phycocyanin was found. The coding region for the beta-phycocyanin gene in C. paradoxa has been mapped to the small single copy region on the cyanelle genome, and its orientation has been determined. A short probe unique to a conserved chromophore binding site shared by at least two phycobiliprotein subunits has now been generated from the carboxyl terminus of the beta-phycocyanin gene. This probe may be useful in identifying specific phycobiliprotein subunit genes, beta-phycocyanin, beta-phycoerythrocyanin, and possibly beta-phycoerythrin, in other eukaryotic algae and in prokaryotic cyanobacteria.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1984

Endocrine dysfunction in children with Crohn's disease.

A series of 14 children with Crohn's disease and growth retardation was screened for endocrine dysfunction. Four children presented with growth failure. All had normal cortisol responses to insulin-induced hypoglycaemia. Ten children had normal growth hormone responses in the same test, while four had abnormal responses. Gonadotrophin responsiveness to luteinizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) paralleled the clinical evidence of puberty, or its lack. Serum total thyroxine was normal in every patient, while serum total triiodothyronine was low in six; in these six patients serum triiodothyronine normalised with treatment. Serum folate was subnormal in 13 patients and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate was elevated in all at the time of diagnosis. Our results demonstrate a spectrum of endocrine changes seen in children with Crohn's disease, particularly prepubertal gonadotrophin responses to LHRH and a relative preservation of growth hormone and cortisol responsiveness to hypoglycaemia, with a defect in thyroxine to triiodothyronine conversion in severely ill children. Serum folate and sedimentation rate may be useful screening tests for Crohn's disease in a child presenting with failure of growth.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

Corticotrophin releasing factor: responses in normal subjects and patients with disorders of the hypothalamus and pituitary.

Synthetic CRF-41 has been given to 43 patients with hypothalamic, pituitary or adrenal diseases and contrasted with the responses in 20 normal subjects. In the normal subjects the mean increment in serum cortisol (+/- SE) was 276 +/- 38 nmol/l; the increments showed a significant negative correlation with the basal serum cortisol levels (r = -0.56; P less than 0.02). The mean peak serum cortisol was 662 +/- 34 nmol/l and the mean peak corticosterone was 28.6 +/- 3.8 nmol/l. There was a significant positive correlation between the peak serum corticosterone and cortisol concentrations (r = 0.84; P less than 0.0001). Dexamethasone pretreatment abolished the rise in cortisol in response to CRF-41. The peak serum cortisol following CRF-41 was not significantly different between the normal subjects and those patients with pituitary disease who had normal cortisol responses to insulin-induced hypoglycaemia. However, in individual patients the peak cortisol levels induced by hypoglycaemia were greater than, but significantly correlated with, those induced by 100 micrograms of CRF-41. Seven patients were ACTH deficient in response to hypoglycaemia, and of these six responded normally to CRF-41. Only one of these patients had a lesion clearly originating in the hypothalamus; four had pituitary tumours with suprasellar extensions and the remaining patient had idiopathic GH and ACTH deficiency. Our data suggest that these patients have a functional defect of ACTH secretion due to the failure of CRF to reach the corticotroph. Of the four patients with pituitary-dependent Cushing's disease who were on no treatment at the time of testing, three showed an exaggerated and one a normal response to CRF-41. These normal or enhanced responses of hypercortisolaemic patients with Cushing's syndrome contrast with the complete inhibition of the responses to CRF-41 in normal subjects given dexamethasone. In the treated patients with Cushing's syndrome and normal serum cortisol levels, those with pituitary-dependent disease showed an enhanced ACTH response to CRF-41 as compared with the ectopic ACTH group, but there was some overlap between the two groups. Acromegalic patients did not show a GH response to CRF-41. We conclude that administration of CRF-41 is a safe new method for investigating disorders of the hypothalamo-pituitary axis.

Acromegaly↗
PubMed1984

Corticotrophin releasing factor: effects on circulating gut and pancreatic peptides in man.

As a CRF-like peptide has been isolated from human gut, we investigated the effect of synthetic CRF-41 100 micrograms on gut and pancreatic peptides in six normal subjects. There was a significant rise in pancreatic polypeptide compared to a control infusion, but no change in plasma insulin, pancreatic glucagon, gastrin, somatostatin, motilin, neurotensin, gastric inhibitory peptide, or cholecystokinin was seen. In addition, there was no change in circulating met-enkephalin. We conclude that the rise in pancreatic polypeptide seen after CRF administration may suggest a role for a CRF-like peptide in the control of pancreatic function.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Responses to analogues of growth hormone-releasing hormone in normal subjects, and in growth-hormone deficient children and young adults.

Three analogues of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) have been compared in normal subjects. GHRH(1-29)NH2 is equipotent to GHRH(1-40); increasing doses from 10-200 micrograms per subject augments the duration of stimulated growth hormone (GH) release, but the peak serum GH shows only a poor correlation with dose. The derivative D-Ala2-GHRH(1-29)NH2 is no more potent than the unsubstituted GHRH(1-29)NH2. In 20 children and young adults with growth hormone deficiency by conventional criteria, eight showed normal or only slightly subnormal peak serum GH responses to GHRH(1-40) or GHRH(1-29)NH2. These included two patients with tumours of the hypothalamus, as well as six with idiopathic isolated growth hormone deficiency or panhypopituitarism. A poor response to GHRH was generally seen in patients on long-term GH therapy. Priming with GHRH, in either a single bolus or a continuous infusion, did not increase the GH response to GHRH. It is concluded that GHRH(1-29)NH2 is a useful analogue in the testing of GH reserve in patients with growth hormone deficiency, and has considerable potential for long-term therapy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1984

CRF-41 stimulates the release of beta-lipotrophin and beta-endorphin in normal human subjects.

A prompt rise in circulating immunoreactive N- and C-terminal lipotrophin (LPH) accompanied the increase in ACTH when 100 micrograms CRF-41 was given to 6 normal male subjects. Chromatography of the basal and peak 15-min values showed that there was an equimolar increase in beta-LPH and beta-endorphin, to cause parallel release of ACTH, beta-endorphin and beta-LPH from the pro-opiocortin precursor.

Adult↗
PubMed1984

Glucose modulation of somatostatin and LHRH release from rat hypothalamic fragments in vitro.

In the rat, hypoglycaemia inhibits growth hormone secretion, but the mechanism is unclear. To investigate this further, we have studied the effects of glucose and 2-deoxy-D-glucose on somatostatin and LHRH release from rat hypothalamic fragments incubated in vitro. Glucose (1.35-22 mM) was added to glucose-free medium and 5 and 50 mM 2-deoxy-D-glucose were added to medium containing 5.5 mM glucose. Medium somatostatin and LHRH levels were measured by RIA. Somatostatin and LHRH released diluted in parallel with synthetic somatostatin and LHRH. Sephadex gel filtration demonstrated two molecular forms of somatostatin, 70% coeluting with somatostatin-14 and 30% with somatostatin-28; LHRH coeluted with synthetic LHRH. KCl (30-100 mM) resulted in release of somatostatin and LHRH; this was reduced in calcium-free medium. Basal and K+-stimulated somatostatin release were significantly increased by reducing glucose levels (r = -0.6, p less than 0.001). Basal LHRH was not influenced by glucose. Basal and K+-induced somatostatin release were significantly increased by 2-deoxy-D-glucose (p less than 0.05), while LHRH levels remained unchanged. Our results demonstrate that basal and K+-induced somatostatin release from rat hypothalamic fragments are modulated by local glucose concentrations, and this effect is specific as it is not paralleled by LHRH changes. We suggest that the reduction in growth hormone secretion during hypoglycaemia in the rat might be mediated, at least in part, via a direct effect of glucose on somatostatin release.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Somatostatin enhances binding of [3H]estradiol to a cytosolic protein in rat pancreas. Possible role of oligopeptide coligands in secretion.

The cytosol fraction of rat pancrease can bind [3H] estradiol specifically and extensively. In contrast to the rat uterus, the binding protein in pancreas requires an accessory factor as a coligand in the steroid-binding reaction. Removal of this accessory factor by passage of the cytosol through CM Affi-Gel blue columns renders eluate fractions virtually incompetent with respect to binding of [3H]estradiol (10 nM). Certain synthetic oligopeptides such as N-benzoyl-L-argininyl-p-nitroanilide, as well as an endogenous accessory factor, can reactivate binding of [3H]estradiol. Thus, localization of the protein that binds [3H]estradiol following chromatography with CM Affi-Gel blue columns can be determined readily by assaying eluate fractions in the absence and presence of either accessory factor or N-benzoyl-L-argininyl-p-nitroanilide. Addition of somatostatin (tetradecapeptide referred to as SRIF14; somatotropin release inhibiting factor) to the activatable, but incompetent, eluate fractions, also enhanced binding of [3H]estradiol. The effect of SRIF14 was biphasic. The threshold concentration required for activation of [3H]estradiol binding was about 1 microM, and maximal stimulation occurred at 25 microM. At higher concentrations of SRIF14, binding declined and reached basal levels at about 75 microM. The concentrations of somatostatin required for activation of binding of [3H]estradiol in vivo may be lower than those indicated above since 1) preparations containing [3H]estradiol-binding protein also contained an SRIF14 peptidase. Following incubation of [125I-Tyr1]SRIF14 with these preparations there was loss of binding of radiolabeled peptide with SRIF14 antiserum. 2) The biphasic nature of SRIF14 activation may reflect feedback inhibition of [3H]estradiol binding by a degradation product of SRIF14. Since SRIF14 has been identified in the delta- (or D-) islet cells of the pancreas, and in concentrations that may be in the microM range, the possibility is raised that these cells serve a paracrine function with respect to acinar cell secretion.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Role of steroids in secretion--modulating effect of triamcinolone and estradiol on protein synthesis and secretion from the rat exocrine pancreas.

Following adrenalectomy of male rats, or adrenalectomy and ovariectomy of females, there was marked depletion of zymogen granules in acinar cells of the pancreas. Within 9 h after treatment with either triamcinolone or 17 beta-estradiol, complete restoration of these secretory vesicles was observed. This repletion was not inhibited by actinomycin-D. Supernatant fractions (100,000 g, 60 min) of rat pancreas, from both normal and surgically altered animals, contained proteins that bound [3H]-triamcinolone and [3H]-estradiol, suggesting that the action of these hormones is exerted directly on the pancreas. Binding of both steroid hormones required the presence of an additional coligand referred to as accessory factor. In addition, the binding proteins for [3H]-triamcinolone and [3H]-estradiol eluted in similar positions after Sephadex G-200 and CM Affi-gel Blue chromatography. It is uncertain, however, whether a single protein binds both steroid hormones since they had different binding isotherms. Scatchard analysis of binding of [3H]-estradiol yielded a single straight line of negative slope from which it was calculated that there were about 4.4 pmol of binding sites per mg protein, having an average apparent Kd of about 5 X 10(-8) M. Similar analysis of the data for [3H]-triamcinolone yielded a straight line of zero slope indicating nonsaturable binding of hormone at concentrations as high as 10 microM. Since both [14C]-L-leucine incorporation into protein and amylase secretion were affected markedly by the steroid-hormonal status of the animal, it is presumed that steroid-bound complexes in acinar cells of the pancreas modulate synthesis and secretion of protein.

Adrenalectomy↗
PubMed1983

Opiate receptors: enkephalins and endorphins.

Opiate receptors in the central nervous system may be classified according to pharmacological, behavioural, or binding studies. Classical mu-receptors probably have beta-endorphin as an endogenous ligand, and seem to be involved in the modulation of pain perception, low-frequency acupuncture analgesia, and the stimulation of prolactin, growth hormone and thyroid-stimulating hormone release. Met-enkephalin is likely to be an endogenous ligand for the delta-receptors, which predominate in the basal ganglia and limbic systems; such receptors may tonically inhibit the release of corticotrophin-releasing factor. It has been suggested that the newly-described kappa-receptors may inhibit the release of vasopressin and gonadotrophin-releasing factor; dynorphin may be their endogenous ligand. Endogenous opiates controlling cardiovascular and respiratory reflexes are likely to activate mu-receptors, while high-frequency acupuncture may alleviate the symptoms of opiate withdrawal by allowing an increase in Met-enkephalin to activate delta-receptors. In the periphery, beta-endorphin is concentrated in the corticotrophs of the anterior pituitary, and is cosecreted with ACTH and related peptides. Circulating Met-enkephalin originates in the gut, sympathetic nervous system and adrenal medulla. Met-enkephalin may also be extracted from carcinoid tumours and phaeochromocytomas. Elevations in circulating Met-enkephalin may occur in certain disease states with cardiovascular and psychiatric manifestations. However, manipulation of endogenous or exogenous opiates has as yet no certain place in any clinical situation.

Acupuncture Therapy↗
PubMed1983

Brain opiates and neuroendocrine function.

Opioid peptides are found throughout the central nervous system, and have profound effects on neuroendocrine function. In man, exogenous opiates and opioids elevate circulating prolactin, GH and TSH, and suppress the release of the gonadotrophins and pro-opiocortin-related peptides. However, unlike in other species, there is substantial evidence for a physiological role of endogenous opioids only in the case of the gonadotrophins and ACTH/LPH. Most evidence suggests that LH and FSH are modulated via the hypothalamus or amygdala, where concentrations of opioids and opioid receptors are very high. Endogenous opioids appear to be principally concerned with the frequency-modulated release of GnRH, and this may be important clinically in patients presenting with amenorrhoea. ACTH/LPH are under tonic inhibition by endogenous opioids acting at hypothalamic and/or pituitary levels, and changes in this inhibition may be responsible for the release of these peptides in response to certain forms of stress. It has been reported that the opiate antagonist, naloxone, is clinically useful in paradoxically inhibiting the release of ACTH in patients with Nelson's syndrome, but this requires adequate confirmation. Vasopressin is under biphasic opiate control, but the principal effect is probably opiate-mediated inhibition of vasopressin release. The endogenous ligand for this response is likely to be dynorphin. Suppression of vasopressin release by opiates may become a useful therapy in the treatment of the 'Syndrome of inappropriate ADH'.

Adrenocorticotropic Hormone↗
PubMed1983

Cytoplasmic and chloroplast synthesis of phycobilisome polypeptides.

In vivo labeling of eukaryotic phycobilisomes in the presence of inhibitors of translation on 70S and 80S ribosomes demonstrates that some of the polypeptides of this light-harvesting complex are synthesized in the cytoplasm while others are synthesized in the chloroplast. The major pigmented polypeptides, the alpha and beta subunits of the biliproteins (molecular weights between 15,000 and 20,000) and the anchor protein (molecular weight about 90,000) are translated on 70S ribosomes. This suggests that these polypeptides are made within the algal chloroplast. Because the alpha and beta subunits comprise a group of closely related polypeptides, the genes encoding these polypeptides may reside in the plastid genome as a multigene family. Other prominent phycobilisome polypeptides, including a nonpigmented polypeptide that may be involved in maintaining the structural integrity of the complex, are synthesized on cytoplasmic ribosomes. Because the synthesis of phycobilisomes appears to require the expression of genes in two subcellular compartments, this system may be an excellent model for: (i) examining interaction between nuclear and plastid genomes: (ii) elucidating the molecular processes involved in the evolution of plastid genes: (iii) clarifying the events in the synthesis and assembly of macromolecular complexes in the chloroplast.

Journal Article↗