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Biomedical subjects

D S Jones

Publications and source records attributed to D S Jones.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1992

Expression of messenger RNA for kit-ligand in human placenta: localization by in situ hybridization and identification of alternatively spliced variants.

Kit-ligand is a novel polypeptide growth factor which binds and activates the c-kit protooncogene, a receptor tyrosine kinase. We used the technique of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction to demonstrate the expression of this growth factor in human placenta. In situ hybridization showed that kit-ligand mRNA is expressed in cytotrophoblast and syncytiotrophoblast cells in the placenta, and in fetally derived extravillous trophoblast cells which have invaded the maternal endometrium. Five species of mRNA encoding variants of kit-ligand were identified by nested reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Cloning and sequencing indicate that these variants arise by alternative splicing of the kit-ligand transcript. One of these species, KL486, uses a novel splice site in exon 8. There is a different pattern of expression of the variants in amnion, chorion, trophoblast, and placenta, indicating tissue-specific control of splicing.

Alternative Splicing↗
PubMed1992

Epidemiology of transfusion-associated acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in children in the United States, 1981 through 1989.

From 1981 through 1989, 212 cases of transfusion-associated (TA) acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) were reported to the Centers for Disease Control. In a study of the epidemiology of pediatric TA AIDS, this group was compared with perinatally acquired (PA) and adult TA AIDS cases. The number of pediatric TA AIDS cases reported each year began to stabilize in 1988 and declined 41% in 1989. Reported adult TA AIDS cases continued to increase by 33% in 1988 and declined by 15% in 1989. The number of reported PA cases has continued to increase each year. Seventy percent of the children with TA AIDS were transfused in their first year of life. The median age at diagnosis was 4 years (range 0.3 to 12.8 years) compared with a median age at diagnosis of 1 year (range 0.1 to 12.9 years) in the PA cases. Using a nonparametric estimation procedure for truncated data, the estimated incubation period from time of infection to diagnosis of AIDS was longer for pediatric TA AIDS cases than PA cases (median, 3.5 years vs 1.75 years) but shorter than for adult TA cases (median, 4.5 years). The median survival after diagnosis of TA AIDS in children did not differ from that in PA cases (13.7 vs 14.3 months) but was longer than in adult TA cases (5.6 months P less than .01). The decline in the reported incidence of pediatric and adult TA AIDS cases reflects the effects of donor deferral and donor screening for human immunodeficiency virus infection.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1991

PCR walking from microdissection clone M54 identifies three exons from the human gene for the neural cell adhesion molecule L1 (CAM-L1).

Microdissection has proved to be a powerful tool in the construction of libraries from specific chromosome segments (11) which are poorly covered by existing RFLP markers. Microclones also represent starting points for finding genes of interest. However, their length (100 to 200 bp) can make their use as probes problematic and identifying them as coding sequence is difficult. We report here that microclones can be extended in vitro by a modified version of our original PCR walking method (10) which utilises oligo-cassettes and the solid phase biotin/streptavidin separation system. We have extended the microclone M54, derived by dissection from Xq27.2 to proximal Xq28 (12), in both directions for approximately 700 bp. Direct sequencing of these products revealed that M54 was located within an intron of the human gene encoding the neural cell adhesion molecule L1 (CAM-L1) which has been recently mapped to Xq28 (13). The extension of M54 also identified three exons of this gene. This information allowed subsequent amplification of a 2.4 kb cDNA molecule from fetal human brain mRNA which encodes most of human CAM-L1. Sequencing of this cDNA revealed a high degree of sequence conservation with the mouse homologue (14). This is the first description of extension of a human derived microclone by PCR mediated walking within total human genomic DNA. These results show that anonymous DNA sequences may be extended into coding or any sequence.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Analysis of bovine beta-casein tryptic digest by continuous-flow fast-atom bombardment mass spectrometry.

Liquid chromatography/fast-atom bombardment mass spectrometry was used to partially confirm the amino-acid sequence of the protein, beta-casein. The study demonstrates that the technique is capable of the rapid and accurate identification of peptide fragments from tryptic digests and that chromatographic integrity is maintained during the analysis. The power of the technique derives from the ability to determine both the retention time and the molecular weight of the eluting components. Each of the components yields a prominent pseudo-molecular ion (MH+), the majority exhibiting sufficient fragmentation to confirm their structure unambiguously.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1991

An endonuclease activity of Escherichia coli that specifically removes 8-hydroxyguanine residues from DNA.

An enzyme that specifically removes an 8-hydroxyguanine (8-OH-Gua) residue in DNA has been purified from Escherichia coli. To assay the enzymatic activity, a synthetic double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) containing 8-OH-Gua at a defined position was used as a substrate. The substrate DNA was simultaneously cleaved at 2 sites, i.e., the phosphodiester bonds 5' and 3' to 8-OH-Gua, leaving a phosphate at each of the neighboring deoxynucleosides. The cleavage was observed only in dsDNA, but not with single-stranded DNA containing 8-OH-Gua. This enzyme showed almost no activity on DNAs containing other kinds of modified bases such as 8-hydroxyadenine, O6-methylguanine and N7-methylguanine. Also DNAs containing mismatches (A/G or C/T) were not cleaved. Studies on several other properties of this enzyme indicate that it differs from endonucleases previously isolated from E. coli, indicating that it is likely to be an endonuclease which specifically recognizes 8-OH-Gua in dsDNA.

Base Composition↗
PubMed1991

The effects of three non-antibiotic, antimicrobial agents on the surface hydrophobicity of certain micro-organisms evaluated by different methods.

The effects of three non-antibiotic, antimicrobial agents (taurolidine, chlorhexidine acetate and providone-iodine) on the surface hydrophobicity of the clinical strains Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Candida albicans were examined. Three recognized techniques for hydrophobicity measurements, Bacterial Adherence to Hydrocarbons (BATH), the Salt Aggregation Test (SAT) and Hydrophobic Interaction Chromatography (HIC) were compared. At concentrations reported to interfere with microbial-epithelial cell adherence, all three agents altered the cell surface hydrophobicity. However, these effects failed to exhibit a uniform relationship. Generally, taurolidine and povidone-iodine treatments decreased the hydrophobicity of the strains examined whereas chlorhexidine acetate effects depended upon the micro-organism treated. Subsequently, the exact contribution of altered cell surface hydrophobicity to the reported microbial anti-adherence effects is unclear. Comparison of the three techniques revealed a better correlation between the results obtained with the BATH test and HIC than the results obtained with the BATH and SAT or SAT and HIC. However, these differences may be due to the inaccuracy associated with the visual assessment of results employed by the SAT.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed1991

Analysis of Moloney murine leukemia virus revertants mutated at the gag-pol junction.

Among Moloney murine leukemia viruses (Mo-MuLVs) having stop codons other than UAG at the gag-pol junction, Mo-MuLV with UAA, but not with UGA, had a replication disadvantage. Mo-MuLV with a glutamine codon (CAG) at the junction did not replicate. A revertant of this virus consisted of the original virus and a virus with a deletion of the pol region. Protease and Pr65gag encoded by their respective genomes complemented each other.

3T3 Cells↗
PubMed1991

Identification of C-type natriuretic peptide in heart of spiny dogfish shark (Squalus acanthias).

An unidentified atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP)-like substance is the principal hormone regulating NaCl secretion in the shark rectal gland, an epithelial model tissue for hormone-sensitive secondary active chloride transport. Antibodies to mammalian ANP do not recognize the prohormone of marine species. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to isolate a partial cDNA encoding the shark heart natriuretic peptide. Using this partial sequence as a probe, the full-length clone [882 base pairs (bp)] was obtained from a shark heart cDNA library. Amino acids 119-135 are similar to the recently identified peptide sequences of porcine C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) and killifish brain natriuretic peptide isolated from the brain of these species. Mature shark heart CNP terminates at the second cysteine residue and lacks a COOH-terminal extension, in contrast to cardiac ANP-like peptides of all other species. The primary amino acid sequence of the shark heart prepro-CNP is distinctly different from all other cardiac natriuretic peptides. Amplification of genomic DNA spanning the coding region produced a 1.5-kb product, indicating the presence of at least one intron. Sequencing confirmed the presence of two exons of 90 and 315 bp, separated by a 1.1-kb intron. This is the first report of a cDNA encoding in nonneuronal tissue. Elasmobranch CNP may represent a primordial form of ANP-like peptides that evolved as an adaptation to environmental osmoregulatory stress.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1991

Cloning and characterization of a gene encoding pig epidermal growth factor.

A portion of the pig epidermal growth factor (EGF) gene has been isolated and characterized. The nucleotide sequencies of exons 20 and 21, which encode the EGF region of the precursor protein, show 85% similarity with the human EGF gene sequence. In addition, conservation of the intron-exon boundaries between the two species was generally observed. Although the pig exon 21 appeared to lack a single nucleotide at its 5' end relative to the human gene, sequences obtained by direct amplification of the genomic DNA around the 5' end of this exon using the polymerase chain reaction, and from a pig EGF cDNA recombinant isolated from a kidney library, indicated that the deletion was probably a cloning artifact. Comparison of the predicted amino acid sequence of pig EGF with that of EGF from other species, as well as with several other polypeptides which bind to the EGF receptor, indicated conservation of Gly18, Tyr37, Gly39 and Arg41 in addition to all six cysteine residues and Leu47, which are known to be critical for biological activity. A synthetic gene encoding the predicted amino acid sequence of pig EGF was expressed in yeast. The recombinant polypeptide was shown to compete with 125I-labelled mouse EGF for binding to cells and to stimulate DNA synthesis in quiescent monolayers of Swiss 3T3 cells.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1991

Identification of mRNA for epidermal growth factor and transforming growth factor-alpha present in low copy number in human endometrium and decidua using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction.

The presence of mRNA for epidermal growth factor (EGF) and transforming growth factor-alpha (TGF alpha) was demonstrated in small fragments of human endometrium and decidua by use of the technique of reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction with nested oligonucleotide primers. The presence of mRNA encoding EGF and TGF alpha has not been shown in human endometrium previously. Other studies using conventional techniques, such as Northern blot or in-situ hybridization, showed the presence in low copy number of EGF but not TGF alpha in murine endometrium. Messenger RNA for EGF was not present in peripheral leukocytes or platelets, suggesting an endometrial source for the message. Messenger RNA for TGF alpha was found in these blood components, thus preventing confirmation of the source of TGF alpha mRNA.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1991

Evidence against a role for blastocyst-secreted oxytocin in early pregnancy maintenance in sheep.

Analysis of ovine conceptus RNA by slot blotting, Northern analysis and nested polymerase chain reaction failed to detect oxytocin-neurophysin prohormone mRNA. Probes used hybridized with both the 3' end of the prohormone mRNA and the oxytocin-coding sequence. Northern analysis of bovine and porcine conceptus RNA was also negative, and polymerase chain reaction demonstrated oxytocin-neurophysin mRNA in ovine corpus luteum, but not in human corpus luteum or decidua, or in ovine endometrium. Infusion of oxytocin into the uterine lumen in cyclic ewes between days 9 and 19 or 20 after oestrus failed to prolong the luteal phase of the cycle and had no effect on endometrial oxytocin receptor concentrations or uterine prostaglandin F secretion. Oxytocin administered systematically prevented luteolysis and reduced uterine prostaglandin F secretion. Taken together, these data suggest that blastocyst-derived oxytocin is unlikely to contribute to corpus luteum maintenance in early pregnancy. They are inconsistent with a previous report that the ovine blastocyst synthesizes and secretes oxytocin.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

8-Hydroxyguanine, a DNA adduct formed by oxygen radicals: its implication on oxygen radical-involved mutagenesis/carcinogenesis.

Oxygen radicals have been suggested to be involved in mutation/carcinogenesis. The C-8 position of guanine residues in DNA is hydroxylated to produce 8-hydroxyguanine (8-OH-Gua) in DNA in vitro by various oxygen radical producing agents. The formation of 8-OH-Gua was also observed in cellular DNA in vivo by radiation or oxygen radical forming carcinogens. The 8-OH-Gua residue in DNA is often misread in the position of 8-OH-Gua residue itself but also at neighboring residues next to 8-OH-Gua. When second guanine in codon 12 was specifically replaced with 8-OH-Gua and transferred to NIH3T3, the recipient cells were transformed to malignant cell type. E. coli was found to contain an endonuclease which specifically recognizes 8-OH-Gua residue and cleave DNA strand before and after the modified base. The data obtained imply that 8-OH-Gua formed in DNA in vivo is recognized as an abnormal modified base which, if not repaired, play a role in the mediation of oxygen radical-involved mutation/carcinogenesis.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Fluorescent and radioactive solid phase dideoxy sequencing of pcr products in microtitre plates.

In this paper we describe a rapid method for the direct generation of DNA sequencing templates from phage or bacteria. Sequencing of these PCR products can be performed by radioactive and fluorescent methods. The non-radioactive method has been used to sequence a total of approximately 100 kb of human DNA fragments generated by digestion with HpaII and subsequent cloning. The method depends on direct small scale amplification using a biotinylated primer, and the binding of the product to streptavidin coated magnetic beads. All the procedures are carried out in a microtitre plate thus facilitating the handling of large numbers of clones and has potential for automation.

Bacteria↗