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Biomedical subjects

J McPherson

Publications and source records attributed to J McPherson.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

Distinguishing homozygous and heterozygous cystic fibrosis fibroblasts from normal cells by differences in sodium transport.

We have found that cultured fibroblasts from patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) accumulate less 22Na in the presence of ouabain than do normal cells. After equilibration with 22Na in ouabain-exposed cells to that in unexposed cells, after five hours of incubation, was 2.34 +/- 0.14 (mean +/- S.D.) in 13 fibroblast strains from normal subjects and 1.33 +/- 0.08 in eight strains from patients with CF. Cells from eight different obligate CF heterozygotes (parents of children with CF) had a ratio of 1.38 +/- 0.07; those from three unaffected siblings (who have a two-thirds chance of carrying the disease) had a ratio of 1.27 +/- 0.04. The differences between CF homozygotes or heterozygotes and normal subjects were highly significant (P < 0.001), but there was considerable overlap between CF homozygotes and heterozygotes. This abnormality of sodium transport provides an unequivocal in vitro test that distinguishes normal cells from cells derived from CF homozygotes or heterozygotes. It should be useful for the identification of carriers of the CF gene.

Biological Transport↗
PubMed1981

Regulation of protein synthesis: translational control by procollagen-derived fragments.

Previous studies have shown that a type I procollagen-derived peptide, called pN alpha 1(I)-Col 1, selectively inhibits collagen synthesis by fibroblasts in culture and the translation of procollagen mRNA in a rabbit reticulocyte lysate system. We prepared the 10,700-dalton peptide from dermatosparactic calf skin, which contained high levels of incompletely processed type I procollagen, by collagenase digestion. Time-course and dose-response studies showed that the peptide specifically inhibited the translation of procollagen mRNA in preparations of human fibroblast RNA while not affecting the translation of globin mRNA or of other messenger RNAs in fibroblast RNA. After reduction and alkylation, the peptide lost its specificity but became a nonspecific inhibitor of translation. Enzymatic cleavage enabled us to localize the nonspecific activity to a short sequence -Pro-Thr-Asp-Glu, an assignment confirmed by peptide synthesis. Using pactamycin, a specific inhibitor of translational initiation, we showed that the intact peptide acts on procollagen mRNA translation by inhibition of polypeptide chain elongation or termination, or both, whereas the nonspecific inhibitory activity of the unfolded peptide and its derivatives can be attributed to an inhibition of chain initiation. Although the native peptide may function in feedback regulation of collagen synthesis, the physiological role of the lower molecular weight fragments, if any, is uncertain.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1976

ADP-induced inhibition of von Willebrand factor-mediated platelet agglutination.

Human plasma von Willebrand factor (vWF) plus the antibiotic ristocetin, or bovine or porcine vWF alone, agglutinates platelets in either normal human ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA)-treated citrated platelet-rich plasma (PRP) or citrated PRP from patients with the congenital platelet defect thrombasthenia. The prior addition of 1-10 muM ADP, which causes platelet shape change but not aggregation under these conditions, inhibited vWF-mediated agglutination. Inhibition was prevented by 200 muM ATP. Addition of ADP caused prompt reversal of established vWF-mediated agglutination, which resumed when the ADP was enzymatically removed. EDTA-treated, Formalin-fixed, washed normal platelets also underwent vWF-mediated agglutination. ADP was inhibitory only when added before fixation. Epinephrine (40 muM), prostaglandin E1 (7 muM), or serotonin (2 muM) added before fixation caused slight to moderate inhibition but always less than ADP. Platelets from blood chilled before fixation were fully active. Platelets fixed in freshly prepared PRP did not agglutinate as well as those fixed after incubation of PRP, probably because centrifugation exposes the platelets to ADP. It concluded that ADP causes a reversible decrease in the accessibility of the membrane receptor to vWF.

Adenosine Diphosphate↗
PubMed1976

Platelet retention in glass bead columns: adhesion to glass and subsequent platelet-platelet interactions.

In normal heparinized blood, the retention of platelets in glass bead columns was low in the first 1 or 2 ml, increasing to more than 80% by the 4th or 5th ml. Prior flushing of the columns with platelet-poor plasma or saline lowered retention in all 5 ml. Additional studies were carried out with a two-stage procedure in which a sample of blood (A) was pumped through a column, immediately flushed out with saline or plasma, and followed by a second blood sample (B). When as little as 1 ml of blood A preceded the flushing solution, retention was very high in all 5 ml of the subsequent blood B. This enhancement of retention in B occurred, providing blood A contained platelets (other than thrombasthenic), fibrinogen, and adequate divalent cations. Enhancement did not require von Willebrand factor (vWF) in A, nor was ADP necessary, since enhancement occurred even when heparinized blood as A contained prostaglendin E1 (PGE1) or creatine phosphokinase with creatine phosphate (CPK-CP). However, the presence of PGE1 or CPK-CP in the plasma used to flush the columns prevented the enhancement of retention in the first milliliter of B. Retention in the first milliliter of B (following normal blood as A and saline or normal plasma for flushing) was high when B was afibrinogenemic, moderately high when B contained PGE1 or CPK-CP, and low in thrombasthenic, EDTA, or vWF-deficient blood. Retention declined in subsequent milliliters of PGE1 or CPK-CP blood and remained low in thrombasthenic, vWF-deficient, or EDTA blood. Our findings suggest that (1) the platelets in A adhere to glass; this adhesion requires fibrinogen but not vWF or ADP; (2) the adherent platelets release ADP and become sticky; (3) adhesion of platelets in the first milliliter of B to the sticky platelets from A requires vWF and divalent cations but not ADP; (4) retention is maintained thereafter by repetitive platelet-platelet interactions involving ADP release, alteration of adherent platelets by released ADP, and adhesion of further platelets to these ADP-altered platelets which requires vWF.

Adenosine Diphosphate↗
PubMed1975

Effects of hemodynamic overload on canine myocardial myosin.

After mild banding of pulmonary artery in dogs there was a rapid elevation in protein and RNA synthesis, followed by an elevation in myosin content and myosin ATPase activity. There was an increase in myosin ATPase activity when K+ or Ca++ was used as activator effector but not with the cations, Mn++ or NH4+. Concomitant with an increase in myosin ATPase activity there was a decrease in one of the C1 light chain components, previously named C1d.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗
PubMed1969

Active uptake of copper and zinc during haemodialysis.

The uptake of copper and zinc by patients undergoing regular haemodialysis has been assessed by measuring the dialysis fluid for copper and zinc concentration, and the blood entering and leaving the dialysis coil for red cell copper, plasma free copper, and plasma zinc levels during priming of the coil and subsequent haemodialysis, and by in-vitro studies.Red cells avidly removed copper from dialysis fluid when mixed with saline during priming, but did not take up copper during the haemodialysis. At both these stages plasma actively took up both copper and zinc from dialysis fluid, even against a concentration gradient, so that loss of these metals from plasma to dialysis fluid did not occur.In the dialysis systems investigated the sources of the copper in the dialysis fluid were the copper plumbing of the tap-water and the dialysis coil, and the major source of zinc was the zinc oxide of the adhesive plaster around the dialysis coil.

Copper↗