Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to C D Garner.
Extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) has been used to investigate the metal environment in a number of metallothioneins (MT). In all cases, the primary coordination sphere consists of sulphur atoms. In some cases, evidence for cluster formation is obtained.
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Zn-metallothionein 1 from rabbit liver was investigated by means of Zn K-edge extended X-ray-absorption fine structure (e.x.a.f.s.). Also, the Cu and Zn K-edge e.x.a.f.s. were measured for two samples of mixed Cu Zn-metallothionein 2, with Cu/Zn ratios of 5:2 and 6:3, from pig liver. Detailed simulation of the Cu sites shows a primary co-ordination with three sulphur atoms, presumably from cysteine residues at 0.225 nm +/- 0.001 nm (2.25 +/- 0.01 A). The data for the Zn sites are best reproduced by four Zn-S separations at 0.233 +/- 0.001 nm (2.33 +/- 0.01 A). The Zn K-edge e.x.a.f.s. recorded for rabbit metallothionein 1 at 77 K shows, in addition to the primary co-ordination shell, evidence for two Zn-Zn separations at approx. 0.50 nm (5.0 A). This latter result provides the first information concerning the internal arrangement of zinc atoms in Zn7-metallothionein.
The zinc co-ordination in 5-aminolaevulinate dehydratase (5-aminolaevulinate hydro-lyase, EC 4.2.1.24) was investigated by recording and interpreting the extended X-ray-absorption fine structure (e.x.a.f.s.) associated with the zinc K-edge. The enzyme has a molecular mass of 280 000 Da and consists of eight subunits of 35 000 Da each; the samples studied contained approx. 1 g-atom of zinc/mol of subunit. Four forms of the enzyme were investigated and details of the zinc environment were elucidated, as follows. In the native enzyme, zinc is considered to be co-ordinated to three sulphur atoms at 0.228(2)nm [2.28(2)A] and a lower-Z atom at 0.192(5)nm [1.92(5)A] (if nitrogen) or 0.189(5)nm [1.89(5)A] (if oxygen). Reaction of the enzyme with the inhibitor 2-bromo-3-(imidazol-5-yl)propionic acid produced significant changes in the e.x.a.f.s., the nature of which are consistent with co-ordination by about three sulphur atoms at 0.222(2)nm [2.22(2)A], a nitrogen atom at 0.193(5)nm [1.93(5)A] and a nitrogen atom from the inhibitor at 0.214(5)nm [2.14(5)A]. Inactivation of the enzyme by air-oxidation of essential thiol groups and binding of the substrate produce slight changes in the e.x.a.f.s. consistent with slight re-arrangement of ligands with additional lighter ligands (nitrogen or oxygen). These results, when combined with previous findings, are taken to indicate that zinc has a structural rather than a direct catalytic role in 5-aminolaevulinate dehydratase.
Copper K-edge e.x.a.f.s (extended X-ray-absorption fine structure) was measured for dopamine beta-mono-oxygenase in aqueous solution. Comparison with the Cu K-edge e.x.a.f.s. of bovine erythrocyte superoxide dismutase shows a close resemblance. Detailed analysis of the e.x.a.f.s. indicates that the copper atom is bound to four imidazole groups at 0.201 nm with one or two oxygen atoms at 0.23 nm.
Copper and zinc K-edge e.x.a.f.s. (extended X-ray-absorption fine structures) were measured for the metal sites of oxidized and reduced bovine superoxide dismutase in aqueous solution. Detailed analysis of the spectra indicates that the copper site of the enzyme changes on reduction and is most probably co-ordinated to three imidazole groups at a shorter distance Cu-N(alpha) = 0.194 nm (1.94 A) in the reduced form compared with a co-ordination of four imidazole groups at 0.199 nm (1.99 A) and an oxygen atom from solvent water at 0.224 nm (2.24 A) in the oxidized form. Examination of the edge, near-edge structure and e.x.a.f.s. of the zinc sites indicates that the stereochemical changes at copper that accompany reduction introduce minimal perturbation on the stereochemistry at zinc.
Copper and zinc K-edge-extended X-ray-absorption fine structures were measured for the metal sites of freeze-dried bovine superoxide dismutase and the model compounds tetrakis(imidazole)cupric nitrate and tetrakis(imidazole)zinc perchlorate. Detailed simulation of the spectra indicates that the copper site of the enzyme is best fit by co-ordination of four imidazole groups with Cu-N(alpha) distances of 0.198 nm (1.98 A). The zinc site is best fit by three imidazole groups at 0.201 nm (2.01 A) and an oxygen (from aspartate) at 0.203 nm (2.03 A).
Male Fischer rats were fed a N-[4-(5-nitro-2-furyl]-2-thiazolyl]formamide (FANFT) diet for 6 weeks followed by a phenobarbital (PB) diet for an additional 86 weeks. PB significantly increased the incidence of bladder tumors, but not the incidence of hepatic foci and areas of cellular alterations caused by FANFT. The results suggest that PB may be a weak promoter for bladder carcinogenesis, and that FANFT may not be an initiator for hepatocarcinogenesis.
Primary cultures of rat urothelial cells were exposed to hydroxyurea, [3H]thymidine, and 4-nitroquinoline 1-oxide (NQO) or N-hydroxy-4-aminoquinoline 1-oxide (HAQO) in a serum-free media for 2 h; unscheduled DNA synthesis (UDS) was measured by autoradiography. Both NQO and HAQO produced unscheduled DNA synthesis. Dicumarol, an inhibitor of NQO nitroreductase, inhibited the activity of NQO and, to a lesser extent, HAQO. Pyrophosphate, an inhibitor of seryl-AMP synthetase, inhibited the activity of both compounds. Neither dicumarol nor pyrophosphate, under similar experimental conditions, inhibited the activity of N-hydroxy-N-2-acetylaminofluorene (N-OH-AAF). These results support the idea that nitro-reductase and seryl-AMP synthetase may be involved in the activation of NQO.
Measurement and interpretation of the EXAFS associated with the K-absorption edge of zinc atoms in sheep liver metallothionein indicate that the primary coordination shell of each of these metal atoms comprises four sulphur atoms, with the Zn-S distance being 2.29 +/- 0.02 A.
The induction of unscheduled DNA synthesis in primary cultures of urothelial cells from rats, mice, and dogs by nitrofurans and arylamines and their derivatives was examined. Electron microscopy of the culture from rat cells showed the characteristics of epithelial cells. The cultured cells were exposed to the test chemicals in a serum-free medium containing 10 mM hydroxyurea and [3H]thymidine for 24 hr, and unscheduled DNA synthesis was determined by autoradiography. N-Hydroxy-2-aminofluorene, N-hydroxy-2-acetylaminofluorene, N-hydroxy-4-amino-biphenyl, and N-hydroxy-4-acetylaminobiphenyl were active in inducing unscheduled DNA synthesis in the urothelial cells of rats, mice, and dogs. 2-Aminofluorene, N-[4-(5-nitro-2-furyl)-2-thiazolyl]formamide, and 2-amino-4-(5-nitro-2-furyl)thiazole were active only in dog cells. 2-Acetylaminofluorene and 4-aminobiphenyl were not active. These results demonstrate that urothelial cells contain enzymes that can selectively activate bladder carcinogens and their metabolites.
2-Naphthohydroxamic acid, 4-n-butoxyphenylacetohydroxamic acid, and their O-sulfonate, O-formate, O-acetate, and O-propionate derivatives were studied for cytotoxicity and sister chromatid exchange (SCE) induction in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. 2-Naphthylisocyanate, 2-aminonaphthalene (2 Lossen rearrangement products of the O-sulfonate derivative of 2-naphthohydroxamic acid), and N-methyl-2-naphthohydroxamic acid were also studied. All of these chemicals were cytotoxic and significantly increased SCE frequency, although there was a lack of correlation between these 2 effects. 2-naphthylisocyanate and 2-aminonaphthalene were not as cytotoxic nor as active in inducing SCEs as the O-sulfonate ester of 2-naphthohydroxamic acid suggesting that the cytotoxicity and SCE induction of the latter are not due to its decomposition products.
To evaluate the role of metabolism in benzidine (BZ) carcinogenesis, BZ and 2 or its metabolites, N,N'-diacetylbenzidine and N-hydroxy-N,N'-diacetylbenzidine (NOHDABZ), were given by i.p. injection to female CD rats twice weekly for 4 weeks beginning at 30 days of age. A preliminary dose-response test showed that NOHDABZ was the most toxic compound; it caused chemical peritonitis and death in each of 4 animals given 70 mumol/kg body weight/injected. Toxicity was low in a 46-week carcinogenicity test which used either 10 or 30 mumol of each compound/kg body weight/injection; of 30 treated animals per groups, the effective number of rats was at least 28 per group. In the high dose BZ rats, the incidences of mammary gland and Zymbal's gland tumors were 41% (fibroadenoma plus adenocarcinoma) and 21% (adenoma plus carcinoma), respectively, and these incidences were significantly greater than those in control animals. The metabolites were approximately equipotent with BZ in mammary and Zymbal's gland, but the amount of NOHDABZ actually reaching these organs may have been diminished by local reactions of NOHDABZ within the peritoneum. Thus, of 60 NOHDABZ-treated rats, there were 2 toxicity-related early deaths, 6 rats with adhesions between visceral organs, and 5 tumors in tissues exposed directly to the compound. Since these effects were not present in other treatment groups, NOHDABZ may present an activate carcinogenic form of BZ.
N-Hydroxyphenacetin was activated to a mutagen in the Salmonella-Ames test by rabbit liver acyltransferase, rat liver cytosol, and rat liver microsomes. N-[ring]3H]-Hydroxyphenacetin was bound to transfer RNA when activated by acyltransferase from rabbit or rat liver or rat liver microsomes. The acyltransferase-catalyzed binding was not inhibited by paraoxon, a deacetylase inhibitor. The use of N-hydroxyphenacetin radioactively labeled in the acetyl group, as well as the ring, indicated that deacetylation was involved in the microsome-catalyzed binding reaction. In addition, the microsome-catalyzed binding was inhibited 90% by paraoxon. p-Nitrosophenetole, a deacetylated derivative of N-hydroxyphenacetin, was synthesized and bound to transfer RNA without enzymatic activation. Activation of N-hydroxyphenacetin by sulfate conjugation was also found to lead to binding to transfer RNA. The data implicated acyl transfer, deacetylation, and sulfate conjugation as possible routes for the activation of N-hydroxyphenacetin.
X-ray absorption spectra have been recorded for the molybdenum K-edge region of xanthine oxidase. Both the absorption edge and the extended fine structure (e.x.a.f.s.) regions were investigated. Spectra were obtained for samples of the desulpho enzyme as well as for mixtures of this with the active enzyme. The spectrum of the pure active form was then obtained by difference. The desulpho enzyme shows a pronounced step in the absorption edge, of a type previously associated terminal oxygen ligands. In the active enzyme this step has decreased markedly. Satisfactory simulations of the e.x.a.f.s. spectrum of the desulpho enzyme could be obtained by assuming the molybdenum to be bonded to two terminal oxygen atoms (Mo = O about .175 nm), two sulphur atoms (presumably from cysteine residues, Mo-S about .0250 nm) and one sulphur atom (presumably from a methionine residue, Mo-S about 0.290 nm). E.x.a.f.s. of the active enzyme differed appreciably from this. In keeping with earlier proposals [Gutteridge, Tanner & Bray (1978) Biochem. J. 175, 887-897], the spectrum of the active enzyme could be simulated if a sulphur atom at about 0.225 nm (i.e. presumably a terminal sulphur atom) replaced one of the terminal oxygen atoms of the desulpho from, with small changes in the other bond distances. Validity of the interpretative procedures, which involved phase shift and amplitude calculations ab initio, was demonstrated by using low molecular weight compounds of known structure.
The molybdenum-iron-sulphur cluster [Fe6Mo2S8(SCH2CH2OH)9]3-, which contains two Fe3MoS4 cubane-like centres, is the best plausible analogue available to date for the molybdenum site of the nitrogenase enzymes. The iron-sulphur cluster [Fe4S4(S . CH2CH2OH)4]2- and the iron-selenium cluster [Fe4Se4(S . CH2CH2OH)4]2- are structural analogues of the ferredoxin Fe4S4 active centre. All three clusters would replace ferredoxin and mediate electron transfer to Clostridium pasteurianum hydrogenase in a H2-evolving system with sodium dithionite as the electron donor. The clusters would not replace hydrogenases which themselves are unable to evolve H2 from reduced ferredoxins. The molybdenum-iron-sulphur cluster would also replace ferredoxin in a chloroplast-ferredoxin-hydrogenase H2 evolving system.
EXAFS spectra associated with the K-absorption edge of molybdenum in the desulpho and functional forms of xanthine oxidase and some potential synthetic analogues have been obtained. These data indicate that the immediate environment of the molybdenum is different in the two forms of the enzyme and that desulpho xanthine oxidase resembles that in [MoO2(S2CNEt2)2] and [MoO2(ethylcysteine)2]. The cyanolysable sulphur atom of functional xanthine oxidase is suggested to be tightly bound to the molybdenum at a distance of less than or equal to 2.3 A.
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