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K H Choo

Publications and source records attributed to K H Choo.

113 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
PubMed1979

Genetics of the mammalian phenylalanine hydroxylase system. Studies of human liver phenylalanine hydroxylase subunit structure and of mutations in phenylketonuria.

Phenylalanine hydroxylase was purified from crude extracts of human livers which show enzyme activity by usine two different methods: (a) affinity chromatography and (b) immunoprecipitation with an antiserum against highly purified monkey liver phenylalanine hydroxylase. Purified human liver phenylalanine hydroxylase has an estimated mol. wt. of 275 000, and subunit mol. wts. of approx. 50 000 and 49 000. These two molecular-weight forms are designated H and L subunits. On two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel under dissociating conditions, enzyme purified by the two methods revealed at least six subunit species, which were resolved into two size classes. Two of these species have a molecular weight corresponding to that of the H subunit, whereas the other four have a molecular weight corresponding to that of the L subunit. This evidence indicates that active phenylalanine hydroxylase purified from human liver is composed of a mixture of sununits which are different in charge and size. None of the subunit species could be detected in crude extracts of livers from two patients with classical phenylketonuria by either the affinity or the immunoprecipitation method. However, they were present in liver from a patient with malignant hyperphenylalaninaemia with normal activity of dihydropteridine reductase.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Genetics of the mammalian phenylalanine hydroxylase system. II. Immunological and two-dimensional gel electrophoretic studies of phenylalanine hydroxylase in cultured normal and mutant rat hepatoma cells.

We have examined 11 previously described cultured rat hepatoma mutants with absent or reduced phenylalanine hydroxylase activity (Choo and Cotton, 1977). Immunological and electrophoretic methods failed to detect any structurally altered protein in these mutants. In nine independently isolated revertants from four different mutants, wild-type protein was regained (or accentuated). This evidence suggests that the mutation involved in these mutants is most likely to be regulatory in nature. These studies have provided three reasons for believing that in cultured rat hepatoma cells one gene codes for a single polypeptide chain, a number of which combine to form the active phenylalanine hydroxylase multimer: (1) Analysis of the purified protein by two-dimensional electrophoresis revealed only a single polypeptide chain. (2) This polypeptide was diminished or undetectable in crude extracts of 11 independently isolated mutants with absent of reduced activity. (3) In none of these 11 mutants was the polypeptide we have designated to be phenylalanine hydroxylase present at normal levels, as would be expected if the mutation were at another locus responsible for a possible second subunit.

Animals↗
PubMed1977

Genetics of the mammalian phenylalanine hydroxylase system: I. Isolation of phenylalanine hydroxylase-deficient tyrosine auxotrophs from rat hepatoma cells.

Cultured rat hepatoma cells, H4-II-E-C3, are known to possess a phenylananine hydroxylating system which is sufficient to enable them to grow in tyrosine-depleted medium. Using standard procedures of auxotroph enrichment with this cell line, we have isolated tyrosine auxotrophs for the first time. We report in this paper the class of auxotrophs with (a) reduced (15-64% of wild type) or (b) absent activity of phenylalanine hydroxylase, an enzymic component of the phenylalanine hydroxylating system. This class of auxotroph presumably contains either lower (a) [or zero (b)] levels of normal phenylalanine hydroxylase protein than wild type, or mutant phenylalanine hydroxylase protein with lowered (or zero) activity. The two subgroups of auxotrophs (a) and (b) differ from each other in their revertibility and their growth behavior in the tyrosine-free medium. Over a 12-month period of testing, the auxotrophs have been highly stable with respect to their phenylalanine hydroxylase activity and growth phenotype in tyrosine-free medium. Such auxotrophs should facilitate genetic and biochemical study of the genes controlling the phenylalanine hydroxylation system and the study of phenylketonuria.

Carcinoma, Hepatocellular↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Gene deletions in patients with haemophilia B and anti-factor IX antibodies.

Christmas disease, or haemophilia B, is an inherited X-linked haemorrhagic disease which at present occurs in 798 known cases in the United Kingdom, corresponding to a frequency of about 1 in 30,000 males. Patients are deficient in the intrinsic clotting factor IX and are treated by replacement of this protein prepared from pooled plasma obtained from normal individuals. Occasionally treatment is complicated by the appearance of specific anti-factor IX antibodies. It seemed to us that this might be due to the absence of 'self' factor IX causing the immune system to regard the infused normal factor IX as foreign. The absence of all or part of the factor IX gene was an obvious possible reason for this, which we have now tested using our previously isolated gene probe. We have found four patients with gross gene defects.

Autoantibodies↗