Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

P Langen

Publications and source records attributed to P Langen.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

[Granulocyte chalone: tissue specificity of action in short-term cultures].

Granulocytic chalone containing extracts were obtained by incubating rat bone marrow cells in Hanks salt solution and further purification of the conditioned medium by ultrafiltration and gel chromatography. These extracts cause specific inhibition of 3H-thymidine incorporation in short-term cultures of rat bone marrow and murine myeloic leukemias. Ehrlich ascites tumour, spleen (mouse), lymphatic leukemia L1210 and melanoma AMel 3 (hamster) are not influenced under identical experimental conditions. Comparing the action of cell proliferation inhibitors (chalones) from Ehrlich ascites tumour and spleen lymphocytes it was shown that inhibition of 3H-thymidine incorporation occurs only with those cells corresponding to the origin of the inhibitor. Therefore, the described short-term cultures seem to be suitable for testing the tissue specificity of action, as the main criterion for authenticity of the chalone effect, at least in the case of granulocytic chalone.

Animals↗

Altered histone-DNA interactions in rat liver chromatin containing 5-bromodeoxyuridine-substituted DNA.

The extractability of the different histone types from rat liver chromatin was studied following the incorporation of bromodeoxyuridine (BrUdR) in liver DNA. This was accomplished by a continuous application of 20 mumol BrUdR/ml/h 17--41 after partial hepatectomy. As a result, thymidine (TdR) replacement by BrUdR of about 80% in the newly-synthesized DNA strand of approx. 30% of total liver DNA was obtained; this causes remarkable changes in the histone--DNA interactions as determined from the release of histones from liver nuclei by ammonium sulfate and ethidium bromide (EB), respectively. In particular, the relative amounts of the two slightly lysine-rich histones H2A and H2B remaining on the BrUdR chromatin proved to be about 3-fold higher than those remaining on the control chromatin of TdR-treated animals. Similarly, histones H1 and H3 tend to bind closer to BrUdR-containing DNA. These results may be of interst with regard to the well-known selective effects of BrUdR on differentiation processes.

Animals↗

Chalone-like inhibition of Ehrlich ascites cell proliferation in vitro by an ultrafiltrate obtained from the ascitic fluid.

An aqueous ultrafiltrate (10 000-50 000 dalton) prepared from the cell-free ascitic fluid of mice bearing Ehrlich ascites tumour (EAT) in the plateau phase of growth (12-16 days after transplantation) was investigated with regard to its inhibitory effects on the proliferation of EAT cells in a 24-hr suspension culture. The following results were obtained: (1) The in vitro proliferation of cells obtained from the plateau phase of in vivo growth was reversibly inhibited. (2) The dose-response curves show a plateau with a maximum inhibition of about 50%, which suggests that not all cells can be affected. (3) Young cells (4-6 days after transplantation) were not inhibited. (4) Preincubation of plateau phase cells in the culture medium before treatment abolishes the inhibitory effect of the ultrafiltrate. This effect of preincubation is dependent on time and serum concentration. It provides the possibility to differentiate between true "chalone-like" and cytotoxic effects. (5) the inhibitory properties of the ultrafiltrate are destroyed by heating or trypsin treatment. (6) Extracts prepared in the same way from ascitic fluid of mice bearing lymphocytic leukemia L1210 do not inhibit the proliferation of EAT cells. Corresponding extracts from ascitic fluid of mice bearing myelocytic leukemia YM were found to be inhibitory; however, the inhibitory effect was also found on preincubated cells and is therefore considered to be due to an unspecific cytotoxicity. In conclusion, evidence was obtained for a factor from the ascitic fluid of mice bearing EAT, which prevents EAT cells from entering the proliferating state.

Animals↗

5-Formyl-2'-deoxyuridine: cytostatic and antiviral properties and possible modes of action.

5-Formyl-2'-deoxyuridine (fdUrd) was prepared by a new method starting from thymidine and investigated for its influence both on proliferation of cultured mammalian cells and virus replication in vitro. The compound was found to have strong cytostatic and antiviral properties: 50% inhibition of proliferation of BHK 21/C13 cells or Ehrlich ascites tumour cells (EAT) was obtained at 4 - 10(-6) and 6 - 10(-6) M, respectively, while the treatment of pseudorabies virus with the same concentration resulted in about 1.5 log reduction of virus yield. A concentration of 1 - 10(-4) M inhibited cell proliferation by 80 to 100% while the virus yield was reduced by more than 3 orders of magnitude. All inhibitions can be prevented by thymidine.--DNA synthesis of EAT cells in vitro, as estimated by incorporation of [32P]-phosphate or low concentrations of [3H]-thymidine, was inhibited. Further biochemical experiments have provided indirect evidence that the compound is phosphorylated by thymidine and thymidylate phosphorylating enzymes. An inhibition of cell free DNA synthesis was found to be depending on a given period of preincubation with the compound (supposed to be needed for the formation of fdUrd 5'-triphosphate). This suggests that the 5'-triphosphate of fdUrd is an inhibitor of DNA polymerases and--by analogy with experiments with 5-formyluridine-5'-triphosphate and RNA polymerases [14]--may be used as an affinity label for this group of enzymes. It is concluded that the described cytostatic and antiviral effects of fdUrd are due to an intracellular "lethal" synthesis of the relevant phosphates which inhibit thymidylate synthetase (as had been found earlier to occur with the chemically prepared nucleotide in cell free extracts [1, 2]) and DNA synthesizing enzymes.

Animals↗

Synthesis of substituted 5-fluoro-5,6-dihydropyrimidines.

The reaction of 5-substituted uracils with fluorine in acetic acid and other solvents and the following treatment with different alcohols yielded the corresponding 5-fluoro-5,6-substituted-5,6-dihydropyrimidines. Thymine gave 5-fluoro-5-methyl-6-alkoxy-5,6-dihydropyrimidines. 5-Halogeno uracils and 5-nitrol uracil were converted into 5-fluoro-5-halogeno-6-hydroxy-5,6-dihydropyramidines and the 5-nitroanalogue, respectively. The structures of the compounds were confirmed by mass spectrometry.

Fluorine↗