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Biomedical subjects

G R Honig

Publications and source records attributed to G R Honig.

82 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
PubMed1967

Inhibition of synthesis of fetal hemoglobin by an isoleucine analogue.

Reticulocytes from newborn infants with Rh isoimmune hemolytic disease actively incorporated radioactive amino acids in vitro into hemoglobins F and A. Approximately 50% of the reticulocytes appeared capable of synthesis of both of these hemoglobins within the same cell, as demonstrated by the selective elution technique of Betke and Kleihauer. An isoleucine analogue, L-O-methylthreonine, inhibited the incorporation of a variety of amino acids into hemoglobin F, without significantly affecting the synthesis of hemoglobin A. The inhibition was prevented upon concomitant addition of L-isoleucine to the medium. These observations suggest that an independent biosynthetic apparatus is present in the cell for the synthesis of each of these two hemoglobins. Because isoleucine is present only in the gamma chains of hemoglobin F, the inhibitory effect of the analogue on the synthesis of this hemoglobin must represent a selective effect on the production of gamma chains.

Fetal Hemoglobin↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Hematopoietic differentiation of rhesus monkey embryonic stem cells.

Several lines of embryonic stem cells (ESC) have been established from rhesus monkey blastocysts. We have examined two of these cell lines for their potential for generating hematopoietic progenitors in cell culture, and we identified culture conditions, including supplementation with bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP), that result in hematopoietic differentiation of rhesus ESC with high efficiency. We have also characterized the resulting hematopoietic progenitor cells for their patterns of gene expression, as compared to those of hematopoietic progenitor cells harvested from rhesus monkey bone marrow. Of more than 60 genes examined in this manner, CD34+/CD38- cells derived from embryonic stem cells and those obtained from bone marrow demonstrated very similar patterns of gene expression. However, with integrin alphaL, IL-6 receptor, and flt-3 gene expression was greatly diminished or absent in CD34+/CD38- cells derived from the ESC, whereas the bone marrow-derived progenitors showed substantial expression of all of these genes. When the same type of comparison was done with mouse (D3 and CCE) as well as human (H1) embryonic stem cells, in each case comparing ESC-derived hematopoietic progenitors with those harvested from bone marrow, the only consistent deficiency of gene expression was that of flt-3. In hematopoietic precursors derived from mouse ESC, globin-gene expression has previously been shown to be a useful index of the embryological maturity of the cells, and we also examined globin-gene expression in rhesus monkey ESC-derived hematopoietic precursor cells, using a semiquantitative technique. CD34+/CD38- cells demonstrated expression of the epsilon- and gamma-globin genes, but negligible levels of beta globin, suggesting that these cells were at the developmental stage in which the yolk sac and fetal liver are the primary sites of hematopoiesis.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Evaluation of Fagara zanthoxyloides root extract in sickle cell anemia blood in vitro.

An aqueous extract was prepared from roots of Fagara zanthoxyloides and examined for evidence of an antisickling effect in vitro. Addition of 25 mg/ml of the extract to fresh blood samples from sickle anemia subjects produced no change in the blood oxygen dissociation curves, and approximately equal percentages of sickled cells were observed at comparable oxygen saturation levels in the presence or absence of the extract. These observations fail to confirm previous reports describing an antisickling effect of root extracts of Fagara zanthoxyloides.

Anemia, Sickle Cell↗