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Biomedical subjects

J R Whittaker

Publications and source records attributed to J R Whittaker.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

Acetylcholinesterase development in extra cells caused by changing the distribution of myoplasm in ascidian embryos.

This research shows that myoplasmic crescent material of the ascidian egg has both functional autonomy and functional specificity in establishing the differentiation pathway of muscle lineage cells. The cytoplasmic segregation pattern in eggs of Styela plicata was altered by compression of the embryos during third cleavage. This caused a meridional division instead of the normal equatorial third cleavage; first and second cleavages are meridional. Since eggs of S. plicata have a pronounced yellow myoplasmic crescent, one observes directly that third cleavage under compression resulted in a flat 8-cell stage with four cells containing yellow myoplasm instead of the two myoplasm-containing cells that would be formed by normal equatorial division at third cleavage. If such altered 8-cell-stage embryos were released from compression and kept from undergoing further divisions by continuous treatment with cytochalasin B, some embryos eventually developed histospecific acetylcholinesterase in three and four cells instead of in just the two muscle lineage cells found in cleavage-arrested normal 8-cell stages. The wider myoplasmic distribution effected by altering the division plane at third cleavage apparently caused a change in developmental fate of the extra cells receiving myoplasm. This meridional third cleavage also resulted in a changed nuclear lineage pattern. Two nuclei that would ordinarily be in ectodermal lineage cells after third cleavage were now associated with yellow myoplasm. Acetylcholinesterase development in these cells demonstrates that nuclear lineages are not responsible for muscle acetylcholinesterase development in the ascidian embryo.

Acetylcholinesterase↗
PubMed1979

Melanoprotein: absence of a direct melanin-protein relationship in chick embryo melanocytes.

Short-term synthesis of radioactivity labeled melanin (using DL-[2-14C]tyrosine or 2-[2-14C]thiouracil) by chick retinal pigment tissues in vitro was not influenced by inhibitors of protein synthesis, puromycin and cycloheximide. Co-ordinate synthesis of protein is, therefore, unnecessary for melanin synthesis, and melanoproteins must represent secondary interactions between melanin and protein. Melanin was isolated from chick embryo feather germs by extracting the proteins with hot dodecyl sulfate/mercaptoethanol. Melanin isolated from tissues incubated previously in L-[U-14C]valine medium had no associated radioactivity compared to the radioactivity of melanin prepared from tissues incubated in DL-[2-14C]tyrosine or 2-[2-14C]thiouracil. If melanoproteins exist at all, they are non-covalently bonded associations of melanin and melanosomal proteins.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Development of acetylchilinesterase during embryogenesis of the ascidian Ciona intestinalis.

We have characterized the embryonic muscle cell cholinesterase of the solitary ascidian, Ciona intestinalis (L.). The effects of selective enzyme inhibitors and the inhibition of enzyme activity at high concentrations of substrate suggest that the muscle cell enzyme is an acetylcholinesterase (E.C. 3.1.1.7). After gastrulation and before hatching, acetylcholinesterase activity increased 35- to 40-fold; after hatching (18 hours postfertilization) this activity continued to increase, leveling off at about 36 hours of development. Histochemical observations showed that before hatching acetylcholinesterase was located principally in the muscle cells of the tail and, after hatching, it began to develop in cells of the adult musculature and brain. Inhibition of protein syntnesis by puromycin and of RNA synthesis by actinomycin D, suggest that both protein and RNA synthesis were required for the increase in acetylcholinesterase activity observed in unhatched embryos. Although the continued increase in enzyme activity duirng embryonic development was sensitive to puromycin at all times tested, the actinomycin D sensitivity of this increase was restricted to a discrete time that was completed by about 11 hours of development.

Acetylcholinesterase↗
PubMed1979

Development of vestigial tail muscle acetylcholinesterase in embryos of an anural ascidian species.

1. The ascidian Molgula arenata produces an anural larva lacking a tail and other structural features of typical urodele larvae in the family Molglidae, yet its embryos developed a histochemically detectable acetylcholinesterase in the tail muscle rudiment. Development of the myoblasts seemed to fail during the neurula stage. 2. Larval enzyme activity occurred at a mean of 5--6% of the level found in the urodele species Molgula occidentalis and Molgula manhattensis, as measured by scanning integrating microdensitometry of the histochemical reaction product. Some anural larvae had as much as 20% of the enzyme activity in urodele larvae. 3. This example of vestigial expression in the absence of other urodele larval features further illustrates the autonomy of a histospecific enzyme development thought to be controlled by an egg cytoplasmic determinant. Partial suppression of the determinant might be the cause of this diminished expression. 4. Two other anural molgulid species, Molgula occulta and Bostrichobranchus pilularis, did not have vestigial larval enzyme and possibly have lost the determinant completely.

Acetylcholinesterase↗
PubMed1978

Theophylline incorporation into the nucleic acids of theophylline-stimulated melanoma cells.

Theophyllin, an inhibitor of cAMP-degrading phosphodiesterase, stimulates melanin biosynthesis in cultures of RPMI 3460 hamster melanoma cells. Although theophylline does produce an initial transient elevation of intracellular cAMP levels, long-term treatment with theophylline produces a significant decrease in cAMP content. There is an inhibition of the theophylline stimulation by dibutyryl-cAMP; this is apparently caused by interference of dibutyryl-cAMP with the uptake and incorporation of theophylline, as shown by experiments with 3H-theophylline. An alternative theory is that theophylline, being a methylxanthine compound, is metabolized by the cell and possibly causes melanotic stimulation by becoming incorporated into cellular nucleic acids or by altering the normal nucleic acid metabolism. The following observations are consistent with this theory: (u) 3H-theophylline was incorporated into both trichloroacetic acid (TCA)-soluble and TCA-insoluble cell fractions; most of the insoluble label became soluble after digestion with ribonuclease and deoxyribonuclease. (2) These nuclease digests of the 3H-theophylline-labeled TCA-insoluble cell fractions contained 3H-labeled material that chromatographed differently from normal nucleotides on ion exchange thin layer sheets. (3) The acid-soluble pool of 3H label disappeared rapidly while both the insoluble label and the induction of melanogenesis remained stable for 50 hr after the removal of exogenous 3H-theophylline.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Mammalian melanocytes do not use phenylalanine for melanin synthesis.

Hamster melanoma cells (RPMI 3460) were examined for their ability to utilize phenylalanine for melanin biosynthesis. There was a small but significant incorporation of L-[1-1414C] phenylalanine into hot acid-insoluble cellular material in the presence of cycloheximide. However, this radioactivity was removable from the acid-insoluble fraction by pronase digestion. A similar percentage of L-[U-14C] leucine incorporation was likewise resistant to cycloheximide inhibition. Residual protein synthesis is apparently responsible for the incorporation of both amino acids. Cycloheximide did not inhibit melanin synthesis. These results suggest that mammalian melanocytes do not use phenylalanine for melanin synthesis. Phenylalanine is not incorporated directly into melanin, nor do the cells appear to convert it to tyrosine via a phenylalanine hydroxylase.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Segregation during cleavage of a factor determining endodermal alkaline phosphatase development in ascidian embryos.

Localized alkaline phosphatase activity (EC 3.1.3.1) develops progressively in endodermal tissues of the presumptive digestive system in Ciona intestinalis embryos. It was first detected histochemically at late gastrulation, and a puromycin sensitivity period coincident with this time suggests that new alkaline phosphatase is synthesized. Embryos in which cell division was blocked with cytochalasin B at early cleavage stages up to the 64-cell stage, eventually differentiated strong alkaline phosphatase activity in certain cells at each cleavage-arrested stage. The maximum cell numbers and their positions were identical to those of the previously known endodermal cell lineage. Actinomycin D did not prevent development of endodermal alkaline phosphatase when administered from fertilization onwards, nor did other inhibitors of RNA synthesis (chromomycin A3, cordycepin, and daunomycin). There is probably a preformed maternal mRNA for endodermal alkaline phosphatase present in the unfertilizec Ciona egg. Either this RNA itself, or some related translation factor, is localized in the egg cytoplasm and segregated during early cleavages into the endodermal cell lineage of the embryo.

Acetylcholinesterase↗
PubMed1976

Stimulation of melanotic expression in a melanoma cell line by theophylline.

Theophylline, a phosphodiesterase inhibitor, was found to be a potent stimulator of melanogenesis in the RPMI 3460 hamster melanoma cell line. This stimulation was greater than that caused by either dibutyryl cyclic AMP (db-cAMP) or another phosphodiesterase inhibitor, papaverine. Theophylline and db-cAMP treatments also produced strikingly different morphologies in the monolayered cells. The theophylline effect on melanogenesis was diminished by db-cAMP, whereas simultaneous treatment of cells with db-cAMP and papaverine produced greater stimulation of melanotic activity than either agent acting alone. Theophylline, therefore, may have phenotypic effects that are at least partially independent of phosphodiesterase inhibition. Theophylline stimulated melanin biosynthesis, as measured by rates of 2-[2-14C] thiouracil incorporation, and also caused an increase in the level of tyrosinase (EC 1.10.3.1) activity. This melanotic stimulation was prevented by the presence of cordycepin or cycloheximide. Theophylline inhibited DNA synthesis and mitosis in the melanoma cell cultures but stimulated protein synthesis. However, inhibition of proliferation and the first appearance of induced melanotic activity did not bear an immediate direct relationship to one another.

Catechol Oxidase↗
PubMed1975

Effects of formalin on bladder urothelium.

Formalin instillation into canine bladders was followed by serial radiographic and histologic evaluation. A generalized slough of epithelial tissue was seen with the deposition of an amorphous substance. Telangiectasia resulted in moderate bleeding. No ureterovesical junction obstruction was seen and reflux occurring in 60 per cent of the animals reverted to normal. Correlation with clinical experience is made.

Animals↗
PubMed1973

Segregation during ascidian embryogenesis of egg cytoplasmic information for tissue-specific enzyme development.

Cleavage-arrested embryos of the ascidian Ciona intestinalis were able to differentiate two tissue-specific enzymes-muscle acetylcholinesterase (EC 3.1.1.7) and brain pigment cell tyrosinase (EC 1.10.3.1). Cytochalasin B, colchicine, Colcemid, and podophyllotoxin were used as cleavage inhibitors at early embryonic stages up to the 64-cell stage. Only certain cells in the cleavage-arrested embryos developed these histochemically detectable enzymes, and this ability followed the cell lineage patterns for the two tissues. This result implies the presence of specific positional information in the egg cytoplasm that is differentially segregated during cleavage. There were distinct and separate puromycin and actinomycin D sensitivity periods for the occurrence of each enzyme during development of both normal and cleavage-arrested embryos. The segregated information is apparently neither the enzyme proteins nor RNA templates for enzyme synthesis, but is probably concerned with activation of appropriate genes.

Acetylcholinesterase↗