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Biomedical subjects

E L Wilson

Publications and source records attributed to E L Wilson.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

The regulation of tissue plasminogen activator activity by human fibroblasts.

We have found that live and ethanol-fixed fibroblasts, when covered with conditioned medium containing tissue plasminogen activator, associate with the enzyme and remove it from the medium. Binding of tissue plasminogen activator to fixed cells showed equilibrium kinetics with maximal uptake corresponding to 2.4 units of enzyme per 10(6) fixed cells. Enzyme bound to fixed cells could activate plasminogen and produce plaques of caseinolysis in casein-plasminogen-agar overlays. Electrophoretic analysis showed it covalently attached to a fibroblast component with a molecular weight of 40,000-50,000. Sequestration of tissue plasminogen activator by live fibroblasts showed nonsaturable first order kinetics with a rate constant of 0.465/hr. We conclude that active enzyme is bound to a surface receptor, then internalized and degraded. Fibroblasts did not release the binding molecule into the medium; binding of tissue plasminogen activator from the medium was unaffected by heparin or thrombin. This phenomenon differs from that described by Baker et al. and ascribed to "proteasenexin."

Cell Count↗

The effects of dexamethasone and tetradecanoyl phorbol acetate on plasminogen activator release by human acute myeloid leukemia cells.

This investigation was undertaken to examine the extent to which leukemic cell functions are susceptible to regulation in vitro and to investigate their heterogeneity in this regard. Since plasminogen activator release is known to be a modulatable cellular function that can be influenced by antiinflammatory steroids and tetradecanoyl phorbol acetate (TPA), the effect of these two compounds on the secretion of urokinase- or tissue-type enzymes by leukemic cells was studied. The release of both enzyme species could be stimulated or suppressed by these substances by mechanisms that were inhibitable by actinomycin-D and hence required transcription of new mRNA. Plasminogen activator release by cells from 41/45 patients with AML was either stimulated or inhibited by 10(-7) M dexamethasone, implying that most AML cells possess glucocorticoid receptors. In 26/45 cases, the enzyme was inhibited by this steroid to less than 25% of control values. Pronounced inhibition of this degree was not encountered with normal polymorphonuclear leukocytes. Plasminogen activator secretion by AML cells was profoundly inhibited in 20/41 cases by 1 ng/ml TPA and stimulated in 8/41 cases. Leukemic blasts varied considerably in their response to dexamethasone and TPA. Plasminogen activator release should prove a sensitive means of monitoring the responses of AML cells to biologically active compounds.

Cell Survival↗

The secretion of plasminogen activators by human myeloid leukemic cells in vitro.

Peripheral blood cell preparation from 23 normal subjects and 72 patients with acute and 32 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia were cultured in vitro and released plasminogen activators were analyzed. The quantity of plasminogen activator secreted by leukemic cells varied widely and could not be correlated with the clinical severity of the disease. Immunochemical and electrophoretic techniques have been used to show that normal peripheral blood granulocytes released exclusively urokinase-like plasminogen activator, whereas leukemic cells secreted either urokinase or a tissue activator-like enzyme. The molecular species of enzyme released by acute myeloid leukemic cells may serve as a diagnostic marker of relevance to the management of this disease, since patients with acute myeloid leukemia whose cells released only tissue plasminogen activator did not respond to combination chemotherapy. Tissue plasminogen activators released by leukemic cells may display an unusual electrophoretic pattern that resembles that shown by urokinase. Immunochemical procedures are therefore essential for the correct identification of these enzymes.

Cells, Cultured↗

Purification of zymogen to plasminogen activator from human glioblastoma cells by affinity chromatography with monoclonal antibody.

Incorporation of the serine protease active site reagent diisopropyl fluorophosphate (DFP) into a plasminogen activator with an Mr of approximately 52000 released from cultured human glioblastoma cells was strongly enhanced by incubation with plasmin. This observation led to the isolation of an inactive form of the enzyme from serum-free conditioned culture fluid by affinity chromatography on a column of a Sepharose-bound monoclonal antibody raised against urokinase. An 831-fold purification was obtained with a yield of 41%. The purified molecule was homogeneous as evaluated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with sodium dodecyl sulfate (NaDodSO4), having one stainable band under nonreducing as well as reducing conditions with an Mr of approximately 52000. It was unable to activate plasminogen, but catalytic amounts of plasmin converted it into active enzyme. After NaDodSO4-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the active enzyme showed one band under nonreducing conditions, but after reduction, two bands with Mr values of approximately 20000 and 32000 were observed. The active enzyme incorporated [3H]DFP into the approximately Mr 32000 band, while no incorporation was observed into the inactive form. These findings show that the Mr 52000 human plasminogen activator exists in a proenzyme form consisting of a single polypeptide chain that by proteolysis between half-cystine residues is converted into the active enzyme consisting of two chains with molecular weights of approximately 20000 and 32000, the active site being on the latter chain. The results are consistent with the active form of the enzyme being identical with the higher molecular weight form of urokinase, and together with recent observations that a murine plasminogen activator is released from sarcoma virus transformed cells as an inactive proenzyme, they suggest that zymogens to plasminogen activators are of more general occurrence.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗

Colorimetric assay of urinary 5-hydroxy-3-indoleacetic acid.

We describe a method for 5-hydroxy-3-indoleacetic acid in urine based on its reaction with nitrosonaphthol in the presence of mercaptoethanolamine, an odorless compound. Mercaptoethanolamine shifts the color maximum from 540 nm to 640 nm, intensifies the color and discharges the color of interfering substances. The method is rapid and free from interferences.

Acetaminophen↗

Plasminogen activating enzyme in cultured glioblastoma cells. An immunofluorescence study with monoclonal antibody.

A monoclonal antibody against a 52,000 dalton human plasminogen activating enzyme (HPA52) was used for immunofluorescence staining of cultured glioblastoma cells. The fluorescence was located in the cytoplasm of the cells. A pronounced variation in the staining intensity was observed between the individual cells. The specificity of the fluorescent stain was supported by the findings that 1) no staining was obtained with a monoclonal antibody of the same subclass, but with irrelevant specificity (anti-2,4,6-trinitrophenyl); 2) adsorption with HPA52 purified to homogeneity removed the ability of anti-HPA52 to mediate staining; 3) the glioblastoma cells contained HPA52, as measured by enzymatic assay, while melanoma cells that were not stained did not contain HPA52 activity; 4) dexamethasone reduced both the enzymatically determined HPA52 content and the immunofluorescence in parallel, while progesterone affected none of these parameters; 5) we have previously found that culture fluid conditioned by the glioblastoma cells apart from HPA52 does not contain detectable amounts of any protein that binds to anti-HPA52. Several advantages of immunohistochemical detection of plasminogen activators compared with enzyme histochemical methods are discussed, among these that the immunohistochemical method distinguishes between plasminogen activators of different types.

Antibodies, Monoclonal↗

Variable effects of retinoids on two pigmenting human melanoma cell lines.

Two melanoma cell lines, each derived from a different patient with metastatic disease, were very similar in their appearance, their growth characteristics, and their tendency to differentiate and to pigment in culture as they become confluent. These lines, UCT-Mel 1 and UCT-Mel 2, were used to study the effects of retinoic acid and other derivatives of vitamin A. When added to UCT-Mel 1 cells, retinoids had only a modest effect on plasminogen activator release and were without measurable effect on morphology, growth, or tyrosinase synthesis. In contrast, when added to UCT-Mel 2 cells, retinoids appeared to induce a more differentiated state evident as an inhibition of cell proliferation and the assumption of a dendritic morphology. Paradoxically, however, retinoids caused a striking inhibition of the density-dependent intracellular accumulation of tyrosinase and melanin that was taken to represent spontaneous in vitro differentiation. Culture of UCT-Mel 2 cells in the presence of retinoic acid resulted in initial inhibition followed by marked stimulation of cellular plasminogen activator release. The data suggest that the manner in which retinoids exert their effects on cells in vitro does not depend on the histological origin of the tumor cells being studied but on the innate responsiveness of that particular cell line to the retinoid or compound in question.

Aged↗

Effects of retinoids on normal and neoplastic human cells cultured in vitro.

The effects of retinoic acid on cultured human cells derived from normal and neoplastic tissues were studied. Retinoic acid consistently induced plasminogen activator synthesis by cells of mesenchymal origin (with the exception of adult skin fibroblasts) but not by cells of epithelial origin. The effect of retinoic acid was more pronounced than that of equimolar concentrations of retinol or retinyl acetate. Dexamethasone inhibited the retinoid-induced increase in plasminogen activator in lung- and foreskin-derived fibroblasts. Cells derived from normal or neoplastic tissues showed no consistent differences either in baseline rates of plasminogen activator release or in the magnitude of the retinoid effect.

Cells, Cultured↗

Molecular species of plasminogen activators secreted by normal and neoplastic human cells.

A survey of 56 normal and neoplastic tissues has shown that plasminogen activators were released by cultured human cells in several molecular weights and their susceptibility to inhibition by antibodies to the normal urinary enzyme, urokinase. Melanoma cells characteristically secreted plasminogen activators which were immunochemically distinct from urokinase and which migrated on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis as a prominent, closely spaced doublet with an apparent molecular weight of approximately 70,000 and a minor molecular weight component of approximately 60,000. Enzymes with similar characteristics have been observed in serum-free harvest fluids collected from other neoplastic tissue (a breast carcinoma, a glioblastoma, a malignant teratoma, a uterine sarcoma, and a carcinoma of the renal pelvis) and from normal tissue (8-week embryo fibroblasts, normal esophageal fibroblasts, and one culture of normal adult bladder epithelium). Plasminogen activators released by cells derived from most normal adult tissues, or from a 26-week-old embryo, and from other tumors of ectodermal or mesenchymal origin were inhibited by anti-urokinase antibody and showed a closely spaced doublet with a molecular weight of 60,000 as the most abundant molecular species with no evidence of the enzyme with a molecular weight of 70,000.

Antigen-Antibody Reactions↗

Effect of vitamin A on plasminogen activator synthesis by chick embryo fibroblasts.

Low concentrations of Vitamin A stimulated plasminogen activator synthesis (PA) in chick embryo fibroblasts (CEF). It caused a dose dependent and reversible increase in PA synthesis in both normal CEF and CEF infected with a temperature sensitive mutant of Rous Sarcoma virus (RSV-Ts68). Both induction and deinduction of PA could be inhibited by Actinomycin D. Vitamin A also accentuated the morphological changes associated with transformation in the Rous Sarcoma virus infected cells. The effects of Vitamin A on PA synthesis were essentially similar to those of the known tumour promoter, phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). Both Vitamin A and PMA were found to act synergistically with sarcoma gene expression as far as PA synthesis was concerned.

Animals↗

Modulation of plasminogen activator synthesis in chick embryo fibroblasts by cyclic nucleotides and phorobol myristate acetate.

To explore the interaction of tumor promoters and sarcoma virus transformation with cellular regulatory mechanisms, we have studied induction of plasminogen activator synthesis by these agents in a background of changing cyclic nucleotide concentrations. We have confirmed the original report of Wigler and Weinstein (Nature, 259: 232, 1976) that phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA), a potent tumor promoter, induces high levels of plasminogen activator production by chick embryo fibroblasts. Sarcoma virus transformation sensitizes the fibroblasts by lowering the threshold concentration for response to the action of PMA, and the effects of transformation and PMA on plasminogen activator synthesis are synergistic rather than additive. The plasminogen activators produced in the PMA-, virus-induced, or synergistically stimulated cultures are indistinguishable. Enzyme production in all three conditions is strongly but reversibly inhibited when cyclic nucleotide levels are raised by exposure to cyclic adenosine-3':5'-monophosphate or cholera toxin. A substantial fraction of the morphological effect that accompanies transformation is not affected by concentrations of cyclic nucleotides that suppress plasminogen activator production, and the two phenomena are therefore at least partially independent expressions of transformation in this system.

Animals↗

Secretion of plasminogen activator by normal, reactive and neoplastic human tissues cultured in vitro.

Plasminogen activator secretion by 39 primary or early-passage cultures of malignant human neoplasms has been compared with that of 16 similar cultures of benign neoplasms and 39 cultures of normal or reactive tissue. While normal cells of mesenchymal or neural origin secreted considerably less plasminogen activator than did cells from frankly malignant tissues, elevated levels of enzyme secretion were also encountered in cultures of benign neoplastic or reactive cells. In the case of epithelial tissue, no consistent relationship between plasminogen activator secretion and neoplasia could be documented. Our failure to observe, for any particular cell type, a reproducible correlation between malignancy and plasminogen activator secretion may be attributable to the artificial conditions of in vitro culture, where normal in vivo regulatory mechanisms do not obtain.

Brain↗

Plasminogen activator in chick fibroblasts: induction of synthesis by retinoic acid; synergism with viral transformation and phorbol ester.

This paper reports the effect of vitamin A and its derivatives, the retinoids, on plasminogen activator (PA) synthesis in chick embryo fibroblast cultures (CEF). Low concentrations of retinoic acid (RA) (10(-6)-10(-10) M) and the retinoids stimulated PA synthesis in CEF; the maximal stimulation achieved, 9--10 fold, was somewhat lower than that obtained with optimal concentrations of the potent tumor promoter phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). This action of RA required protein and mRNA synthesis but, in contrast to enzyme induction by PMA and/or sarcoma virus transformation, retinoid effects were not significantly inhibited by elevated concentrations of cAMP. In inducing and/or stimulating PA production, the effects of RA and sarcoma virus transformation were synergistic rather than additive. Analogous synergism was observed between RA and PMA, but only at suboptimal concentrations of the latter. RA did not affect PA production in normal or transformed cultures maximally stimulated by PMA. These findings may help to elucidate the role of retinoids in promoting tumor growth, tissue remodeling and teratogenesis.

Animals↗