Coenzyme A (CoA) transferase from Peptostreptococcus elsdenii was purified to homogeneity, and some of its physical and catalytic properties were determined. The native enzyme has a molecular weight of 181,000 and is composed of two alpha subunits (molecular weight, 65,000) and one beta subunit (molecular weight 50,000). Heat treatment of the crude cell extract to 58 degrees C causes proteolysis of the native enzyme and yields a catalytically active enzyme with an approximate molecular weight of 120,000. The native CoA transferase is specific for CoA esters of short-chain alkyl monocarboxylic acids. With acetate as CoA acceptor the enzyme is active with propionyl-, butyryl-, isobutyryl-, valeryl-, isovaleryl,- and hexanoyl-CoA but not with heptanoyl or longer-chain CoA esters. There is no activity with acetoacetyl-CoA or the CoA esters of dicarboxylic acids. Steady-state kinetics indicated that the reaction proceeds via a classical bi-, bi-ping-pong mechanism. Maximal activity is obtained with propionyl- or butyryl-CoA, and both the Vmax and Km decrease as the alkyl chain length of the CoA ester increases. All CoA esters apompetitive inhibitor although it is not active as a substrate. Evidence for an enzyme CoA intermediate was provided by demonstration of an exchange between 14C-free acids (acetate and butyrate) and their corresponding CoA esters and by isolation of a 3H-labeled CoA enzyme after incubation of the enzyme with 3H-labeled acetyl-CoA. Approximately 2 mol of CoA was bound per mol of enzyme.

Binding Sites↗

PubMed1976

Factors influencing rumen fermentation: effect of hydrogen on formation of propionate.

The effect of hydrogen on fermentation of lactate, pyruvate, fumarate, and succinate by resting rumen microorganisms has been investigated. Under an atmosphere of nitrogen, lactate was fermented to yield acetate as the major product (85 to 100 mole %) and propionate (0 to 17 mole %) and butyrate (0 to 3%) as secondary products. Under hydrogen, there was increased formation of both propionate and total volatile fatty acids. The amount of propionate increased 4 to 8 times and total volatile fatty acids 2.5 to 3.2 times. Propionate formation was proportional to the hydrogen concentration and reached a maximum at a partial pressure of hydrogen of .2 N/m2. With [2-carbon-14] lactate, propionate was formed via the dicarboxylic acid pathway under both nitrogen or hydrogen. Hydrogen did not affect significantly the fermentation of pyruvate or succinate. With fumarate under hydrogen, propionate and total volatile fatty acids increased 6.8 and 2 times while acetate was unchanged. The mechanism by which hydrogen exerts these effects is discussed in relation to the role of methanogenesis in the rumen.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Update on digital image management and PACS.

Information technology is becoming a vital component of all health care enterprises, from managed care services to large hospital networks, that provides the basis of electronic patient records and hospital-wide information. The rationale behind such systems is deceptively simple: physicians want to sit down at a single workstation and call up all information, both clinical data and medical images, concerning a given patient. Picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) are responsible for solving the problem of acquiring, transmitting, and displaying radiologic images. The major benefit of PACS resides in its ability to communicate images and reports to referring physicians in a timely and reliable fashion. With the changes in economics and the shift toward managed and capitated care, the teleradiology component of PACS is rapidly gaining momentum. In allowing remote coverage of multiple sites by the same radiologists and remote consultations and expert opinion, teleradiology is in many instances the only option to maintain economically viable radiologic settings. The technical evolution toward more integrated systems and the shift toward Web-based technology is rapidly merging the two concepts of PACS and teleradiology in global image management and communication systems.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A guide for applying principal-components analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to quantitative electroencephalogram data.

Principal-components analysis (PCA) has been used in quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) research to statistically reduce the dimensionality of the original qEEG measures to a smaller set of theoretically meaningful component variables. However, PCAs involving qEEG have frequently been performed with small sample sizes, producing solutions that are highly unstable. Moreover, solutions have not been independently confirmed using an independent sample and the more rigorous confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) procedure. This paper was intended to illustrate, by way of example, the process of applying PCA and CFA to qEEG data. Explicit decision rules pertaining to the application of PCA and CFA to qEEG are discussed. In the first of two experiments, PCAs were performed on qEEG measures collected from 102 healthy individuals as they performed an auditory continuous performance task. Component solutions were then validated in an independent sample of 106 healthy individuals using the CFA procedure. The results of this experiment confirmed the validity of an oblique, seven component solution. Measures of internal consistency and test-retest reliability for the seven component solution were high. These results support the use of qEEG data as a stable and valid measure of neurophysiological functioning. As measures of these neurophysiological processes are easily derived, they may prove useful in discriminating between and among clinical (neurological) and control populations. Future research directions are highlighted.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Thermoregulatory cold-defense deficits in rats with preoptic/anterior hypothalamic lesions.

This paper discusses the course of recovery from the thermoregulatory deficits produced in rats by electrolytic lesions in the preoptic/anterior hypothalamic area. Severe damage rendered rats ectothermic, that is unable to maintain their body temperatures at normal levels unless they were incubated at an ambient temperature of 30 degrees C. Less severe damage produced rats that maintained subnormal but stable body temperatures at 23 degrees C, but that did not increase metabolic rate or shiver and whose body temperatures dropped drastically in the cold (5 degrees C). As the animals recovered, nonshivering thermogenesis returned. Eventually the rats became excessively hyperthermic in normal room temperatures, due to very high metabolic rates. They were still unable to shiver or increase metabolic rate further in the cold and were therefore still unable to prevent a large drop in body temperature. Muscle tonus and shivering recovered gradually, and oxygen consumption returned to near normal levels. The data are described in terms of levels of integration of the nervous control of thermoregulation.

Animals↗