Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

N Katunuma

Publications and source records attributed to N Katunuma.

At least 181 records · Page 10Linked to original sources
PubMed1984

Three forms of thiol proteinase inhibitor from rat liver formed depending on the oxidation-reduction state of a sulfhydryl group.

Three forms of a thiol proteinase inhibitor were isolated from rat liver cytosol. The monomeric inhibitor (pI 5.2) (TPI-1) formed a complex with cathepsin H even in the absence of reducing agents. The inhibitor with pI 5.0 (TPI-2) was inactive in the absence of reducing agents but was converted to an active inhibitor on addition of reducing agents such as dithiothreitol, GSH, cysteine, or 2-mercaptoethanol. The dimeric inhibitor (TPI-D) with an intermolecular disulfide bridge was also inactive and was converted to the active monomeric inhibitor on addition of dithiothreitol. TPI-2 is most likely a mixed disulfide with glutathione. One (Cys-3) of two cysteine residues exposed on the surface of the molecule of TPI-2 is involved in the formation of a mixed disulfide, and the other cysteine residue (Cys-64) is buried in the molecule. The activity of rat liver thiol proteinase inhibitor may possibly be regulated by formation of a protein mixed disulfide or by reduction of the mixed disulfide.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1984

Studies on thiol proteinase inhibitors in rat peripheral blood cells.

The concentrations of two types of endogenous thiol proteinase inhibitors, TPI-alpha and TPI-beta, in rat peripheral blood cells were determined by sensitive immunoassay methods. The concentration of TPI-alpha was highest in neutrophils among the peripheral blood cells tested. On the contrary, the concentration of TPI-beta was highest in macrophages followed in order by neutrophils, lymphocytes and erythrocytes. The serum level of TPI-beta was 47 times that of TPI-alpha. Immunohistochemical studies showed that in rat liver, TPI-beta was localized in Kupfer cells, and that only little TPI-alpha was present in liver tissue.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Amino acid sequence of rat epidermal thiol proteinase inhibitor.

The complete amino acid sequence of rat epidermal thiol proteinase inhibitor was determined. The unique 103-residue sequence was derived by analysis of two peptides generated by limited proteolysis of the native inhibitor with Staphylococcus aureus V8 protease and of three cyanogen bromide fragments. The protein has a high degree of sequence homology to either rat liver or human leucocyte inhibitor but is not identical and may represent a new type of low molecular weight thiol proteinase inhibitors.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1984

Inhibition of chymase activity by long chain fatty acids.

The activity of chymase was markedly inhibited by fatty acids with carbon chain lengths of 14-22 at doses greater than 0.02 microM, irrespective of the number of double bonds. Cis acids with a carbon chain length of 18, such as stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid, and linolenic acid were potent inhibitors, whereas the trans isomer of oleic acid, elaidic acid, showed less inhibitory activity. The extent of inhibition by oleyl alcohol was almost the same as that by oleic acid, suggesting that the acid moiety itself was not necessary for the inhibition; but a fatty acid with a terminal functional amide, oleamide, showed little inhibitory activity. The inhibition was noncompetitive and was reversible, and the Ki value of oleic acid was 2.7 microM. Stearic acid and oleic acid inhibited all chymotrypsin-type serine endopeptidases tested. The ID50 values of these fatty acids for atypical mast cell protease were higher than those for the other chymotrypsin-type serine endopeptidases tested. Other proteases, such as papain, trypsin, collagenase, and carboxypeptidase A, except cathespin D, were not affected by stearic or oleic acid.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Gyrate atrophy of the choroid and retina: decreased ornithine aminotransferase concentration in cultured skin fibroblasts from patients.

A sensitive and convenient radioisotopic assay for ornithine aminotransferase (OAT) and an enzyme immunoassay for human ornithine aminotransferase were developed for studying decrease in activity of this enzyme in gyrate atrophy of the choroid and retina with hyperornithinemia. Picogram amounts of human OAT could be detected by the enzyme immunoassay. The OAT activity in cultured fibroblasts from two patients was 6% and 2% of that in control fibroblasts, and did not increase on addition of a high concentration of vitamin B6. The decreased activity, assayed by enzyme immunoassay, was associated with decreased enzyme concentration, suggesting that deficiency of OAT in these patients is not due to production of a structurally altered enzyme lacking catalytic activity, but to decreased production of enzyme protein. When cells from patients were repeatedly subcultured, selective loss of both the activity and concentration of OAT was observed, without changes in activities of several other enzymes tested.

Atrophy↗
PubMed1984

A simple method for purification of chymase from rat tongue and rat peritoneal cells.

Chymase was purified from rat tongue and rat peritoneal cells by a simple new method involving hydrophobic chromatography on octyl-Sepharose 4B and hydroxylapatite column chromatography. This procedure can be completed in 1 or 2 days and the recovery is 45-60% from rat tongue and 32-47% from rat peritoneal cells. The specific activity of the purified enzyme is higher than that of crystallized enzyme previously reported (Y. Sanada, N. Yasogawa, and N. Katunuma (1978) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 82, 108-113). This procedure should be particularly useful for purifying chymase on a large scale from tissues in which it is present in relatively low concentrations.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Mechanism of postmortem autolysis of skeletal muscle.

Male Wistar rats were treated with the carboxyl, thiol, and serine protease inhibitors, pepstatin, Ep-475[L-trans-epoxysuccinyl-leucylamide(3-methyl) butane; E-64-c], and chymostatin. Then the femoral muscles of these rats and control animals were used for preparation of myofibril proteins. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was used to analyze the degradation of these myofibril proteins with time (day) after death. The protease activities of the muscle were also measured. Tropomyosin was degraded most rapidly, followed by the heavy chain of myosin, alpha-actinin, and light chains of myosin (L1 and L2). Actin and troponin-T were degraded slowly, still remaining unchanged 2 weeks after death. The degradation of protein was not inhibited by pepstatin but was inhibited strongly by Ep-475 and very strongly by chymostatin. Chymostatin inhibited degradation of all components except alpha-actinin more strongly than Ep-475. Data on enzyme activities were consistent with these findings. These results suggest that after death the components of myofibrils are degraded with various proteases at various rates depending on their properties or their structure and that the proteases involved in the degradation show some specificity.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Different tissue distributions of two types of thiol proteinase inhibitors from rat liver and epidermis.

The concentrations of two types of endogenous inhibitors of thiol proteinases were determined in soluble extracts of various rat tissues by means of a sensitive enzyme immunoassay method, which consisted of solid-phase immobilized anti-rat liver inhibitor or anti-rat epidermal inhibitor and antibodies labeled with horseradish peroxidase. The minimum detectable amounts of inhibitors from liver and epidermis were 30 pg and 3 pg/assay, respectively. The tissue distributions of the epidermal and liver-type inhibitors were found to differ. The liver-type inhibitor was found to be widely distributed in various tissues at levels of 76-420 ng/mg protein, whereas the epidermal-type inhibitor was found at high levels in the skin, tongue, esophagus, stomach, intestine, and vagina, but at quite low levels in other tissues tested.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Increases in cathepsins B and L and thiol proteinase inhibitor in muscle of dystrophic hamsters. Their localization in invading phagocytes.

In dystrophic hamsters, increases in the levels of cathepsin B plus L and thiol proteinase inhibitor were marked in skeletal muscle, but only slight in heart muscle. The lysosomal hydrolases did not increase in parallel in dystrophic muscle: cathepsin B plus L and beta-glucuronidase increased, but cathepsin C and acid phosphatase did not. In immunohistochemical studies with antibodies against rat liver cathepsin B and thiol proteinase inhibitor, the proteinase and inhibitor were both stained in phagocytes, chiefly macrophages, but not in muscle cells, indicating that the increases in cathepsin B plus L and thiol proteinase inhibitor in dystrophic muscle are due to their presence in invading phagocytes. The levels of cathepsin B plus L, beta-glucuronidase and thiol proteinase inhibitor in isolated peritoneal macrophages were 50 to 180 times higher than those in skeletal muscle, but the levels of acid phosphatase and cathepsin C were only about 10 to 30 times those in skeletal muscle. Plots of the cathepsin B plus L activities versus the level of thiol proteinase inhibitor in homogenates of tissues of various animals showed an exponential rather than a linear relation between the two activities, suggesting that the syntheses of the proteinases are higher than that of the inhibitor in phagocytes invading dystrophic muscle.

Animals↗
PubMed1984

Characterization of a processing protease that converts the precursor form of gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase to its subunits.

Previously it was found that the proteolytic processing of precursors of gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase takes place on the brush border membrane of the kidney. The activity of the processing protease in purified brush border membranes was examined using endogenous substrates labeled with [3H]fucose and [35S]methionine. On incubation with brush border membranes in vitro, the precursors were converted stoichiometrically to two subunits, and the reaction followed first order kinetics with a rate constant k of -0.048 min-1. The enzyme responsible for this conversion was membrane-bound, had a weakly basic optimum pH and was inhibited by serine protease inhibitors. These results suggest that the precursor of gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase is processed to the mature form by a serine protease bound to the brush border membrane of kidney.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Amino acid sequence of rat liver thiol proteinase inhibitor.

The complete amino acid sequence of rat liver thiol proteinase inhibitor is presented. Its unique 98 residue sequence was derived mostly from analyses of a limited proteolysis product generated during the isolation of the protein with an active papain affinity column and of fragments produced by cleavage at arginyl bonds. The intact protein prepared with a tetrathionate inactivated ficin column has a unique amino-terminal sequence (Ac-Met-Met-Cys-). The inhibitor has no sequence homology with any proteinase inhibitor of known structure.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1983

The conversion of the precursor form of gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase to its subunit form takes place in brush border membranes.

The subcellular distributions of the precursor form and mature form of gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase of rat kidney were studied by labeling the enzyme with [3H]fucose in vivo. In trans Golgi elements and basolateral membranes, gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase was present as a precursor form with a single polypeptide chain. However, the brush border membranes contained the heavy and light subunits as well as precursor. These results suggest that the precursor is converted to the mature form after its transport to the brush border membranes.

Acyltransferases↗
PubMed1983

Sequestration of cytoplasmic enzymes in an autophagic vacuole-lysosomal system induced by injection of leupeptin.

Administration of leupeptin to rats induces the accumulation of numerous autophagic vacuoles in the liver. Furuno et al. (Furuno, K., Ishikawa, T., and Kato, K. (1982) J. Biochem. (Tokyo) 91, 1485-1494) have recently devised a method for Percoll density gradient equilibrium fractionation of crude lysosomal fractions to isolate a highly enriched preparation of autophagic vacuoles. This system was used to determine whether cytoplasmic enzymes are normally sequestered into autophagic vacuoles in fed animals. Within 30 min following the administration of leupeptin to fed rats, several cytoplasmic enzymes could be demonstrated in vacuolar fractions heavier than mitochondria and normal lyosomes. The activities of tyrosine aminotransferase and lactic dehydrogenase as well as antigens of fructose-bisphosphate aldolase were detectable in fractions with densities of 1.115 to 1.15 g/ml containing cathepsins and acid phosphatase. The cytoplasmic enzymes in these fractions exhibited latency and were sequestered within membranous organelles. Six hours after the administration of leupeptin, the autophagic vacuoles gradually disappeared from these fractions concurrently with the loss of both cytoplasmic and lysosomal marker enzymes. For 6 h after injection of leupeptin the activities of cathepsin D and acid phosphatase increased in autophagic vacuoles and decreased in the postvacuolar lysosomal fraction. Administration of dexamethasone, which induces the synthesis of tyrosine aminotransferase and cytosolic aspartate aminotransferase, selectively increased the sequestration of these enzymes to proportional degrees. Cycloheximide administered simultaneously with leupeptin rapidly inhibited formation of autophagic vacuoles and the sequestrations of both cytoplasmic and lysosomal enzymes. However, when cycloheximide was administered 1 h after leupeptin, the formation of autophagosomes and the sequestration of cytoplasmic enzymes were inhibited but the vacuolar uptake of acid phosphatase and cathepsin D continued to increase for several hours. When cycloheximide was injected 1 h after leupeptin, losses of lactic dehydrogenase and aldolase proteins were observed in autophagic vacuoles isolated 1 and 2 h later.

Acid Phosphatase↗
PubMed1983

Structural studies of the carbohydrate moieties of rat kidney gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase. An extremely heterogeneous pattern enriched with nonreducing terminal N-acetylglucosamine residues.

The carbohydrate moieties of gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase purified from rat kidney were released as oligosaccharides by hydrazinolysis. Fractionation of the oligosaccharide mixture by paper electrophoresis and Bi-Gel P-4 column chromatography and structural study of each component by sequential exoglycosidase digestion in combination with methylation analysis and periodate oxidation have revealed that it is composed of 23 neutral oligosaccharides, monosialyl derivatives of 67 oligosaccharides, disialyl derivatives of 62 oligosaccharides, and trisialyl derivatives of 5 oligosaccharides. The neutral oligosaccharides are either high mannose type or biantennary complex type, and the acidic oligosaccharides are bi-, tri-, and tetranntennary complex type sugar chains. Most of the complex type sugar chains contain an N-acetylglucosamine residue at the C-4 position of the beta-mannosyl residue of their trimannosyl core. Another characteristic feature of these complex type sugar chains is that they are enriched with nonreducing terminal beta-N-acetylglucosamine residues.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Difference in the sugar chains of two subunits and of isozymic forms of rat kidney gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase.

A comparative study by gel-permeation chromatographic analysis of oligosaccharides released from the heavy and the light subunits of rat kidney gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase has revealed that high-mannose-type sugar chains are found only in the heavy subunit, and the nonsialylated and nonfucosylated biantennary complex-type sugar chains are included only in the light subunit. By the same analysis of the oligosaccharide fractions obtained from four isozymic forms of rat kidney gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase, it was found that all these enzymes contain 2 mol of neutral sugar chains but different numbers of acidic sugar chains. The total numbers of sialic acid residues showed a reciprocal relationship to the isoelectric point of each isozymic form, and an increase of 1 mol of sialic acid residue corresponds to a decrease of 0.5 in the value of the isoelectric point.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Membrane bound gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase: its structure, biosynthesis and degradation.

gamma-Glutamyltranspeptidase is a glycoprotein composed of heavy and light subunits and associated with the brush border membrane of the kidney and small intestine. gamma GTP solubilized with papain is a hydrophilic enzyme which has lost the membrane binding segments but its catalytic activity is not altered, whereas gamma GTP solubilized with Triton X-100 is a hydrophobic enzyme which contains hydrophobic domain binding to the membrane. Amino acid compositions of these two forms were compared and Triton solubilized enzyme was found to contain 52 amino acid residues more than the papain solubilized form. This difference is due to the heavy subunit not light subunit. Then, end group analysis was carried out and the carboxyl-termini of their light subunits were found to be phenylalanine and those of their heavy subunits were tyrosine, respectively. Although light subunits of two forms contain a common sequence, Thr-Ala (X)-Leu as an amino-terminal portion, that of heavy subunit of Triton X-100 solubilized form contains the sequence Met-Lys-Asn-Arg-Phe-Leu-Val-Leu-Gly-Leu-Val-Ala-Val-Val-Leu-Val-Phe-Val- Ile-Ile-Gly-Leu and the papain-solubilized form contains completely different amino-terminal sequence Gly-Pro-Pro-Leu. It is concluded that an amino-terminal portion of the heavy subunit is a hydrophobic domain consisting of about 20 hydrophobic amino acids and contributes to anchor the enzyme to the membrane. gamma GTP has been known to show great heterogeneity in charge and multiple forms with different isoelectric points are found to be mainly due to differences of their sugar chains. Then the structures of the oligosaccharides attached to gamma GTP were determined. They were found to be all asparagine linked and consisted of neutral and acidic oligosaccharides with remarkable heterogeneity. A correlation between the contents of the acidic oligosaccharides and the isoelectric points of multiple forms of gamma GTP was observed. In addition, multiple forms of gamma GTP were immunologically identical and their protein structures were identical. Next, the mechanisms of biosynthesis of gamma GTP were examined and it was found that two subunits of gamma GTP are synthesized as a precursor protein with a single polypeptide chain of 78,000 daltons. Then processing by limited proteolysis occurs post-translationally, and it is a rather slow process. Since the precursor form is already core glycosylated and fucosylated, proteolytic processing could be carried out after completion of terminal glycosylation at the Golgi membrane or the plasma membrane.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Amino Acids↗