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Biomedical subjects

K Tatsumi

Publications and source records attributed to K Tatsumi.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Nucleotide sequence of the complementary DNA for human Pit-1/GHF-1.

Human cDNA clones encoding Pit-1/GHF-1, a pituitary-specific DNA binding factor, were obtained by PCR following reverse transcription of human pituitary RNA. It is approx. 1.3 kb in size with 0.1 kb 5' non-coding region, 0.9 kb protein-coding region and 0.3 kb 3' non-coding region. The predicted human Pit-1/GHF-1 peptide structure has 291 amino acids and is highly conserved among mouse, rat and bovine. In addition, the 5' non-coding region is highly conserved with rat pit-1/GHF-1 sequence to the transcription start site.

Amino Acid Sequence

Allelic losses in mutations at the aprt locus of human lymphoblastoid cells.

We analyzed the nature of mutations at the autosomal locus coding for adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (aprt) in human cells to elucidate the process(es) governing mutagenesis at autosomal loci. A human lymphoblastoid cell line, WR10, was found to be heterozygous for mutated allele at the aprt locus, and was used for mutation analyses. By the use of a restriction fragment length polymorphism associated with the aprt locus in WR10 cells, the molecular characteristics of mutations arising spontaneously or induced by gamma-rays were investigated. Eighty-five percent (22/26) of the spontaneous mutant clones and 93% (64/69) of the gamma-ray-induced mutant clones resulted from loss of one of the two aprt alleles. Determination of the dosage of aprt genes in those mutants with allelic losses revealed that approximately half of them retained two copies of the mutated allele. These data suggest that the mutational events leading to APRT deficiency are analogous to those reported for tumor suppressor genes in malignancies.

Adenine Phosphoribosyltransferase

Cretinism with combined hormone deficiency caused by a mutation in the PIT1 gene.

Cretinism is marked by irreversible mental and growth retardation. We describe here an entirely new case of cretinism showing combined pituitary hormone deficiencies of thyrotropin, growth hormone and prolactin that appears to be caused by homozygosity for a nonsense mutation in the gene for the pituitary specific transcription activator, Pit-1/GHF-1 (designated PIT1 in humans for pituitary specific factor 1). This is the first report in humans of a defect in a transcription activator causing deficiency of multiple target genes.

Amino Acid Sequence

Molecular bases for hereditary cancer-prone diseases.

Constitutional loss or inactivation of one copy of a tumor-suppressor gene, as exemplified by hereditary retinoblastoma, increases the propensity for malignancies by reducing the number of events necessary for the complete loss of the negative regulatory function. We developed a selectable mutation assay employing a human lymphoblastoid cell line (LCL) derived from a heterozygous carrier of 2,8-dihydroxyadenine urolithiasis, adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT) deficiency, for dissecting the second step in loss-of-function mutations and for determining the potential of physical and chemical agents for producing such mutations. The mode of mutational events arising in the wild-type allele of the functionally heterozygous APRT gene resembled that reported for tumor-suppressor genes in malignancies in that mitotic non-disjunctions or recombinations as well as deletions prevailed. Ultraviolet light (UV) was much less efficient in inducing these types of mutations than ionizing radiation. A group of autosomal recessive cancer-prone diseases, including xeroderma pigmentosum (XP), has been characterized as being more susceptible to genomic insults, owing to some defects in DNA processing, such as replication, repair, or recombination. This increased genomic instability may accelerate the gain-of-function mutation at a proto-oncogene and/or the loss-of-function mutation at a tumor-suppressor gene. XP complementation group A (XP-A) LCLs were extremely sensitive to UV-mutagenesis at the hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) locus even at equicytotoxic doses. Some unique mechanism may operate in UV-mutagenesis in XP-A. We have succeeded for the first time in rendering XP-A cells tumorigenic in athymic mice by applying multiple exposures to UV and subsequent treatment with TPA.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals

Transition of phenotypic dimorphism with regard to spontaneous sister chromatid exchange in Epstein-Barr virus-transformed Bloom's syndrome lymphoblastoid cell lines.

We recently established four lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) by infecting the peripheral blood of four Japanese patients suffering from Bloom's syndrome (BS) with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). During the course of propagating these cell lines, two of them exhibited dimorphism regarding spontaneous sister chromatid exchange (SCE), i.e., a mixed population consisted of cells with extremely high SCE levels characteristic of BS and cells with low SCE levels indistinguishable from that of normal control cells. On the other hand, the other two cell lines maintained a monomorphic population with high SCE levels at least until 30 weeks after EBV infection. The proportion of the cells with high SCE levels in the cell lines with dual phenotype declined as the population doubling numbers (PDN) increased with time and they became ultimately undetectable. The proportion of cells with low SCE levels at the time of EBV infection was estimated in one of these LCLs as 0.075% by extrapolating the linear regression of the logit for the proportion plotted against PDN. In view of the well-known stability of the monomorphic phenotype in representative BS LCLs during extended cultivation, together with the present observations on the dual phenotype, we conclude that the frequent establishment of BS LCLs exclusively with low spontaneous SCE levels is attributable to the various proportions of low-SCE cells existing in vivo in the B-lymphocytes pool of BS individuals and to the selective pressure against the high-SCE cells in in vitro cultures.

Adolescent

Effects of haloperidol and domperidone on ventilatory roll off during sustained hypoxia in cats.

In a previous work, we showed that the adult cat demonstrates a ventilatory decline during sustained hypoxia (the "roll off" phenomenon) and that the mechanism responsible for this secondary decrease in ventilation lies within the central nervous system (J. Appl. Physiol. 63: 1658-1664, 1987). In this study, we sought to determine whether central dopaminergic mechanisms could have a role in the roll off. We studied the effects of haloperidol, a peripheral and centrally acting dopamine receptor antagonist, on the ventilatory response to sustained isocapnic hypoxia (end-tidal PO2 40-50 Torr, 20-25 min) in awake cats. In vehicle control cats (n = 5), sustained hypoxia elicited a biphasic respiratory response, during which an initial ventilatory stimulation is followed by a 24 +/- 6% (P less than 0.01) reduction. In contrast, in haloperidol- (0.1 mg/kg) treated cats (n = 5) the ventilatory roll off was virtually abolished (-1 +/- 1%; P = NS). We also measured ventilatory, carotid sinus nerve (CSN) and phrenic nerve (PhN) responses to sustained isocapnic hypoxia in anesthetized animals (n = 6) to explore the influence of haloperidol on peripheral and central response during the roll off. Control responses to hypoxia showed an initial increase in ventilation, PhN, and CSN activity, followed by a subsequent decline in ventilation and PhN activity of 17 +/- 3 and 17 +/- 5%, respectively (P less than 0.05). In contrast, CSN activity remained unchanged during the roll off. Administration of haloperidol (1 mg/kg) reduced the initial increment in ventilation, while the initial increase in CSN activity was augmented.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals

[Hypoxic ventilatory response and hypoxic depression].

We investigated whether or not the adaptation of peripheral chemoreceptor (PCR) activity can contribute to hypoxic ventilatory depression (HVD) during sustained hypoxia for 20 min in both healthy subjects and patients with sleep apnea. Effects of HVD on diaphragm (DIA) and genioglossal muscle (GG) were also assessed. Withdrawal test, which is well established to solely represent the function of PCR, was repeatedly conducted at 5 and 20 min during sustained hypoxic condition. The results suggested that PCR did not play an important role in the development of HVD. When HVD ensued during sustained hypoxia, minute ventilation and EMGDIA were suppressed to the same extent in both groups. On the other hand, EMGGG was strongly and consistently attenuated in OSAS, whereas it was not always the case in healthy subjects. We speculate that treatment for hypoxic conditions can induce improvement of impaired regulation of breathing via central mechanisms, and it can be an important factor reducing the incidence and the severity of upper airway occlusion or collapse.

Adult

Oxidation of 1,1-diphenylhydrazine to N-nitrosodiphenylamine by superoxide radical in the eye.

By microsomes obtained from bovine ciliary body, 1,1-diphenylhydrazine was oxidized to N-nitrosodiphenylamine in the presence of NADPH. This reaction was stimulated by riboflavin which was recognized to be an electron carrier. The oxidizing activity by microsomes was markedly inhibited by superoxide dismutase, but not by SKF 525-A or carbon monoxide. Similarly, the oxidation of 1,1-diphenylhydrazine to its corresponding nitrosamine occurred in varying degrees when the hydrazine derivative was exposed to visible light in the presence of photosensitizers such as riboflavin, flavin adenine dinucleotide, flavin mononucleotide, lumiflavin, lumichrome, NAD+, NADH, NADP+, or NADPH. The photochemical oxidation was inhibited by active oxygen-scavengers such as superoxide dismutase, L-ascorbic acid or alpha-tocopherol. The superoxide radical involved in the photochemical reaction was determined by measuring the oxidation of epinephrine to adrenochrome. The oxidation of epinephrine was well correlated to that of 1,1-diphenylhydrazine. Thus, the present study provided evidence that the superoxide radical is responsible for the oxidation of a hydrazine derivative to a corresponding nitrosamine by ocular tissue microsomes and by photosensitizers.

Adrenochrome

Involvement of superoxide radicals in the mouse two-cell block.

The effect of oxygen toxicity on the development of mammalian embryos was assessed by the use of superoxide dismutase (SOD), a potent scavenger of superoxide radicals. Mouse pronuclear embryos recovered 17 h after human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) were cultured in medium BWW at 37 degrees C under an atmosphere of 5% CO2 in air. Culture of mouse pronuclear embryos in the presence of Cu.Zn-SOD (500 micrograms/ml) significantly increased the blastulation rate (44.6%) when compared with the control culture system (4.2%). Essentially the same effects were observed in SOD containing either Mn or Fe in the catalytic center. Heat treatment of the SOD preparation, and the addition of anti-SOD antibodies to the culture medium, significantly reduced the attenuation of the two-cell block by SOD, indicating that this effect is SOD dependent. SOD activity was detected in rabbit oviduct fluid (3.675 +/- 3.084 mIU/mg protein) by electron spin resonance. These results suggest that active oxygen is involved in the two-cell block phenomenon in mouse embryos exposed to air and that SOD in the oviduct may play an important role in the protection of embryos from superoxide radicals.

Animals

A placenta-specific 5' non-coding exon of human prolactin.

Expression of human prolactin (hPRL) is restricted to the anterior pituitary and the placenta, strictly, the decidualized endometrium of the uterus. We have cloned and sequenced placental hPRL cDNAs and also the 5' part of the hPRL gene, and found that the placental mRNA consisted of six exons including a 5' non-coding exon which was not present in the pituitary mRNA known to consist of five exons. The placenta-specific exon, designated exon 0, was located 5.3 kb upstream of the first exon of the pituitary mRNA. We have also located the transcriptional start site of the hPRL gene in the placenta to be 21 bp upstream from the 5' end of the longest cDNA clone we obtained using mRNA from human placenta of 22 weeks of gestation. These results suggest that the hPRL gene contains a placenta-specific promoter other than the pituitary-specific promoter.

Amino Acid Sequence

Two types of DNA ligase I activity in lymphoblastoid cells from patients with Bloom's syndrome.

DNA ligases I and II were separated by hydroxylapatite (HA) column chromatography in cell-free extracts of lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) derived from two unrelated patients with Bloom's syndrome (BS) and two healthy individuals. The specific activity of ligase I from the crude extract was consistently lower in GM3403, a BS LCL from an Ashkenazi Jewish patient, than in normal control LCLs. By contrast, the level of ligase I activity in BSL-2KA, another BS LCL derived from a Japanese patient, was equivalent to those in normal LCLs, although GM3403 and BSL-2KA shared the feature of exceedingly high frequency of spontaneous sister-chromatid exchange. The levels of total ligase activity in crude extracts without the separation into the two forms, however, were approximately two-fold higher for the two BS LCLs than for the normal LCLs. Partial purification by chromatography on a DEAE-cellulose 23 column and a phosphocellulose column did not affect the superiority of the two BS LCLs over the normal LCLs in the specific activity of the total ligases. Nonetheless, subsequent application to an HA column again resulted in much less elevation of the specific activity of ligase I for GM3403 than for BSL-2KA and control LCLs. The levels of ligase II activity, accounting for 4-13% of total ligase activity, were similar among the LCLs examined. Irrespective of the extent of purification, essentially no difference in the heat lability of DNA ligase I was detected among the four LCLs. These findings suggest that there may exist among BS LCLs at least two types of subtle abnormality of DNA ligase I itself and/or a putative substance modulating the enzyme function.

Bloom Syndrome

Attenuated carotid body hypoxic sensitivity after prolonged hypoxic exposure.

Prolonged exposure to hypoxia is accompanied by decreased hypoxic ventilatory response (HVR), but the relative importance of peripheral and central mechanisms of this hypoxic desensitization remain unclear. To determine whether the hypoxic sensitivity of peripheral chemoreceptors decreases during chronic hypoxia, we measured ventilatory and carotid sinus nerve (CSN) responses to isocapnic hypoxia in five cats exposed to simulated altitude of 5,500 m (barometric pressure 375 Torr) for 3-4 wk. Exposure to 3-4 wk of hypobaric hypoxia produced a decrease in HVR, measured as the shape parameter A in cats both awake (from 53.9 +/- 10.1 to 14.8 +/- 1.8; P less than 0.05) and anesthetized (from 50.2 +/- 8.2 to 8.5 +/- 1.8; P less than 0.05). Sustained hypoxic exposure decreased end-tidal CO2 tension (PETCO2, 33.3 +/- 1.2 to 28.1 +/- 1.3 Torr) during room-air breathing in awake cats. To determine whether hypocapnia contributed to the observed depression in HVR, we also measured eucapnic HVR (PETCO2 33.3 +/- 0.9 Torr) and found that HVR after hypoxic exposure remained lower than preexposed value (A = 17.4 +/- 4.2 vs. 53.9 +/- 10.1 in awake cats; P less than 0.05). A control group (n = 5) was selected for hypoxic ventilatory response matched to the baseline measurements of the experimental group. The decreased HVR after hypoxic exposure was associated with a parallel decrease in the carotid body response to hypoxia (A = 20.6 +/- 4.8) compared with that of control cats (A = 46.9 +/- 6.3; P less than 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Altitude

Respiratory stimulation by female hormones in awake male rats.

The respiratory effect of progestin differs among various animal species and humans. The rat does not hyperventilate in response to exogenous progestin. The present study was conducted to determine whether administration of combined progestin and estrogen prompts ventilatory stimulation in the male rat. Ventilation, blood gases, and metabolic rates (O2 consumption and CO2 production) were measured in the awake and unrestrained male Wistar rat. The combined administration of a synthetic potent progestin (TZP4238) and estradiol for 5 days significantly increased tidal volume and minute expiratory ventilation (VE), reduced arterial PCO2, and enhanced the ventilatory response to CO2 inhalation (delta VE/delta PCO2). On the other hand, respiratory frequency, O2 consumption, CO2 production, and body temperature were not affected. The arterial pH increased slightly, with a concomitant decrease in plasma [HCO3-]. Administration of either TZP4238 or estradiol alone or vehicle (Tween 80) had no effect on respiration, blood gases, and ventilatory response to CO2. The results indicated that respiratory stimulation following combined progestin plus estradiol treatment in the male rat involves activation of process(es) that regulate tidal volume and its augmentation during CO2 stimulus.

Animals

Influences of gender and sex hormones on hypoxic ventilatory response in cats.

Hypoxic ventilatory response (HVR) is known to be increased by female as well as male sex hormones, but whether there are differences in HVR between men and women remains unclear. To determine whether gender differences exist in HVR, we undertook systematic comparisons of resting ventilation and HVR in awake male and female cats. Furthermore to explore the potential contribution of sex hormones to gender differences observed, we compared neutered and intact cats of both sexes. Resting ventilation differed among the four groups, but differences disappeared with correction for body weight. Intact females had a lower end-tidal PCO2 than intact male cats (females: 31.6 +/- 0.4 Torr vs. males: 33.6 +/- 0.4 Torr, P less than 0.05), indicating an increased alveolar ventilation per unit CO2 production. HVR expressed as the shape parameter A was similar among the four groups of animals. However, baseline (hyperoxic; end-tidal PO2 greater than 200 Torr) minute ventilation [VI(PO2 greater than 200)] differed among the groups. Therefore we normalized HVR by dividing the shape parameter A by VI(PO2 greater than 200) to compare the relative hypoxic chemosensitivity among the various groups of animals. In addition, we further normalized HVR for body weight, because body size influences ventilation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animals

[DNA diagnosis in endocrinological disease--pituitary disease].

Endocrine disorders have long been diagnosed by symptoms, before hormones were able to be measured by immunoassays. Recently, as molecular biological methods developed, DNA diagnosis has become available in many diseases including endocrine disorders. We present here DNA diagnosis in connection with anterior pituitary hormones. Our studies on thyrotropin (TSH) producing pituitary adenomas showed that TSH beta-subunit mRNAs of the adenomas were the same as those from normal pituitary tissues. Congenital isolated TSH deficiency is rare disease causing hypothyroidism including cretinism, severe mental and growth retardation. We have studied 3 families with consanguineous marriage and 2 families which were descendants of closed colonies. The molecular pathogenesis were elucidated in the cases of 3 Japanese families with consanguineous marriage. They had a same missense mutation in the 2nd exon of the TSH beta-subunit gene which made a restriction enzyme site, and could be analyzed either by genomic Southern blot analyses or by restriction enzyme digestion after amplification of genomic DNA by PCR. Congenital deficiency of growth hormone, prolactin, and TSH was first described in Snell dwarf mice. The gene encoding the nuclear factor Pit-1/GHF-1, which transactivates promoters of both growth hormone gene and prolactin gene, was shown to be the cause of Snell dwarf mice. A similar human case arose from a family with consanguineous marriage, and the relation with the pit-1/GHF-1 gene is now under study.

DNA

Purification of NADPH-linked alpha,beta-ketoalkene double bond reductase from rat liver.

NADPH-linked alpha,beta-ketoalkene double bond reductase was purified from rat liver cytosol by fractionation with ammonium sulfate, and chromatography with DEAE-cellulose. AF-Blue Toyopearl and hydroxyapatite. The purified enzyme was homogeneous by the criterion of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The molecular weight of the enzyme was estimated to be 39,500 by the electrophoresis and by HPLC gel filtration on a TSK gel G3000 SWXL column. The double bond of 2-alkenals was also reduced by the enzyme, but to a lesser extent. The enzyme activity was inhibited by 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid), p-chloromercuribenzoic acid, N-ethylmaleimide, iodoacetamide, dicumarol, quercitrin, and disulfirum. However, the enzyme was insensitive to oxygen.

Animals