Insulysin and pitrilysin: insulin-degrading enzymes of mammals and bacteria.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to R A Roth.
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Individuals who use the assimilator learning style prefer to use abstract conceptualization and reflective observation in learning situations. They are logical thinkers who evaluate and carefully observe situations and concepts rationally before making judgments. The authors constructed theoretical models that perioperative nurses who are assimilators could follow in learning important concepts, such as recommended practices.
Laparoscopic imaging equipment is useful in open surgical procedures, especially in the deep male pelvis. The magnification and brilliant illumination provided by these unobtrusive instruments increase visibility, facilitating both dissection and reconstruction. The application of this technique for surgical education is discussed.
Intravenous administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to rats results in multifocal, primarily midzonal hepatic necrosis. The hepatic injury is associated with inflammation and is dependent on neutrophils and the coagulation system. After LPS injection into rats, plasma fibrinogen concentration and numbers of blood platelets and leukocytes decrease. Results of our studies, using immunocytochemistry for the detection of neutrophils and 111indium-labeling to identify platelets, indicate that both neutrophils and platelets accumulate within the liver early after administration of LPS to rats. The accumulation of platelets in the liver before the onset of injury suggested that platelets contribute to the manifestation of LPS-induced hepatotoxicity. To test this hypothesis, the number of circulating blood platelets was decreased by the administration of an anti-rat platelet serum (APS) before LPS administration. The consequent thrombocytopenia by APS administration was associated with an attenuation of both LPS-induced liver injury and the activation of the coagulation system. However, the APS treatment did not prevent the hepatic neutrophil accumulation. These results suggest that platelets contribute to the pathogenesis of liver injury after LPS administration, perhaps through their integral role in coagulation and/or interaction with neutrophils, but they do not appear to contribute to hepatic neutrophil accumulation.
In the present studies, insulin was found to stimulate in a rat hepatoma cell line (called FAO cells) the tyrosine phosphorylation of the 60-kilodalton p21ras GTPase-activating protein (GAP)-associated protein called p60. Surprisingly, the tyrosine phosphorylation of this protein was also almost equally stimulated by an activator of protein kinase C (PKC), the phorbol ester phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA). The tyrosine phosphorylation of p60 induced by either agent correlated with the formation of the GAP-p60 complex in situ and an increase in the ability of p60 to directly bind to the SH2 domain of GAP in vitro. Several lines of evidence indicated that the PMA-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of p60 occurred through a different mechanism than that induced by insulin. First, the stimulation of tyrosine phosphorylation of p60 by maximal concentrations of the two agents was almost additive. Second, down-regulation of PKC or pretreatment with a specific inhibitor of PKC abolished the ability of PMA to stimulate tyrosine phosphorylation of p60 but had no effect on the insulin stimulation. And third, long-term pretreatment with insulin abolished the insulin response but did not affect the response to PMA. The PMA effect did seem to be mediated via a tyrosine kinase, since it was blocked by quercetin, an inhibitor of tyrosine kinases. These results indicate that both PMA and insulin can equally stimulate in FAO cells the tyrosine phosphorylation of p60 and its association with GAP, although these two agents seem to act via different signaling systems.
Evidence suggests that components of the coagulation system contribute to the pathogenesis of liver injury after exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from gram-negative bacteria. Although the mechanism by which the coagulation system mediates liver injury remains unknown, it has been proposed that the conversion of fibrinogen to insoluble fibrin and consequent deposition in liver microvasculature may contribute to the development of liver injury. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the coagulation system contributes to LPS hepatotoxicity by a mechanism which is dependent on circulating fibrinogen. A marked reduction in plasma fibrinogen concentration occurred in rats after LPS exposure. The decrease in circulating fibrinogen, which marked activation of the coagulation cascade: 1) occurred at doses of LPS that caused liver injury; 2) was temporally associated with the onset of liver injury; and 3) was attenuated by pretreatment with heparin or warfarin under conditions which afforded protection against liver injury. Pretreatment with either pentoxifylline or antiserum to tumor necrosis factor-alpha, both of which protect against LPS hepatotoxicity, also attenuated the LPS-induced decrease in circulating fibrinogen. Polymorphonuclear leukocyte (neutrophil) depletion protected against liver injury after administration of either a small (2 mg/kg) or a large (8 mg/kg) dose of LPS and attenuated the decrease in circulating fibrinogen albeit to a lesser degree after the larger LPS dose. Depletion of circulating fibrinogen with ancrod did not afford protection against LPS hepatotoxicity. These results suggest that the coagulation system contributes to the pathogenesis of LPS-induced liver injury, but it does so by a mechanism which is independent of circulating fibrinogen.
Protein(s) which bind polyphosphatidylinositol phosphates (PI 3,4,5-P3 and PI 4,5-P2) were identified in the wheat-germ agglutinin bound fraction of cells and tissues. The binding of this protein(s) to the phospholipid could be demonstrated in two ways, either by a shift in the migration of the lipid by size exclusion column chromatography or directly by binding to the protein after capture on wheat-germ agglutinin-coupled beads. Of the rat tissues tested (muscle, spleen, brain, heart, kidney and liver), the activity was highest in liver. The protein(s) was purified more than 5000-fold by sequential chromatography on columns of wheat-germ agglutinin, phosphocellulose, Blue-Sepharose, Mono Q and Superose 6. The peak of activity appeared to have a molecular weight on this latter column of approx. 240,000. The protein(s) bound PI 3,4,5-P3, PI 3,4-P2, and PI 3-P in the ratio of 4:2:1. The binding of 3-phosphorylated PI phosphates to the protein(s) was not significantly inhibited by 36 micrograms/ml of either phosphatidylinositol or phosphatidylcholine, but was inhibited 10% and 65% by 36 micrograms/ml of PI 4-P and PI 4,5-P2, respectively. Since these results suggested that the binding protein(s) could also bind PI 4,5-P2, binding of this lipid was directly tested and found to be comparable to that of PI 3,4,5-P3. These results suggest that this protein(s) could be involved in the signaling mechanism elicited by these polyphosphoinositides.
A monoclonal antibody to a 60-kDa substrate of the insulin receptor tyrosine kinase is utilized in the present studies to examine this molecule in 3T3 cells expressing either the transforming chicken c-Src (mutant Phe-527), the wild type molecule, or the parental cells. The tyrosine phosphorylation of this 60-kDa protein was greatly increased in cells expressing transforming Src and partially increased in cells expressing wild type enzyme. This tyrosine phosphorylation correlated with an increased association with the GTPase-activating protein of p21ras (GAP). However, this 60-kDa protein did not react with antibodies to another 62-kDa tyrosine-phosphorylated protein previously isolated from Src-transformed cells (Wong, G., Muller, O., Clark, R., Conroy, L., Moran, M. F., Polakis, P., and McCormick, F. (1992) Cell 69, 551-558), although this latter antibody did react with a 62-kDa protein in anti-phosphotyrosine precipitates from cells expressing transforming c-Src but not the parental cells. These two proteins could also be distinguished by their subcellular location, the ability of the latter but not the former protein to bind RNA, and their migration in SDS gels. Moreover, the 62-kDa RNA-binding phosphoprotein could be almost completely depleted from cell lysates with poly(U)-Sepharose without affecting the amount of either the GAP-associated 60-kDa tyrosine-phosphorylated protein or the protein precipitated with the monoclonal antibody. When the two proteins were phosphorylated in vitro with purified c-Src, they were both found to bind directly to the amino-terminal SH2 domain of GAP, although the RNA-binding protein was found to have a weaker affinity. These results indicate that two distinct 60-kDa proteins are substrates for the Src tyrosine kinase, one which binds RNA and the other which constitutes the major GAP-associated 60-kDa phosphoprotein.
Maturation of the insulin proreceptor in a late Golgi compartment requires cleavage at an Arg-Lys-Arg-Arg processing site, suggesting involvement of furin, a transmembrane serine protease of the Kex2 family of processing enzymes. A genetically engineered secreted, soluble form of human furin (ss-furin), expressed by infection of insect cells with a recombinant baculovirus, was purified to near homogeneity. ss-Furin exhibited rapid and efficient cleavage of both isoforms of the human insulin proreceptor in solubilized extracts of cultured mammalian cells expressing preproreceptor cDNA. Proreceptor cleavage occurred at the physiological processing site as judged by the effects of mutations in this site on cleavage by purified ss-furin. Moreover, purified ss-furin exhibited specificity for proreceptor cleavage identical to that of the endogenous insulin proreceptor-processing enzyme. Furin thus displays the properties expected of an insulin proreceptor-processing enzyme in that it (i) cleaves the proreceptor efficiently and at the correct site; (ii) exhibits the same specificity in processing variant proreceptors as the endogenous enzyme; (iii) appears to be localized in the correct secretory compartment; and (iv) has the same broad pattern of tissue distribution as the insulin proreceptor.
A new site of serine phosphorylation (Ser-1035/1037) has been identified in the kinase domain of the insulin receptor. Mutant receptors missing these two serines were expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells overexpressing protein kinase C alpha. These mutant receptors lacked a phorbol ester-stimulated phosphoserine containing tryptic peptide as demonstrated by both high percentage polyacrylamide/urea gel electrophoresis and two-dimensional tlc. Moreover, a synthetic peptide with the sequence of this tryptic peptide was phosphorylated by isolated protein kinase C alpha and co-migrated with the phosphopeptide from in vivo labeled receptor. These results indicate that serine-1035 and/or 1037 in the kinase domain of the insulin receptor are phosphorylated in response to activation of protein kinase C alpha.
Insulin, in the presence of phorbol esters, was observed to stimulate the tyrosine phosphorylation of a major 80 kDa protein by immunoblotting with anti-phosphotyrosine antibodies in Chinese hamster ovary cells overexpressing the insulin receptor and protein kinase C alpha. The protein was specifically immunoprecipitated by antibodies to protein kinase C and anti-phosphotyrosine antibodies were capable of immunoprecipitating protein kinase C enzymatic activity from these cells. When this tyrosine phosphorylated protein kinase C was treated with a tyrosine-specific phosphatase, a 35% decrease in its enzymatic activity was observed and this inhibition was blocked by inclusion of a tyrosine phosphatase inhibitor, vanadate, in the reaction mixture. These results indicate that under certain conditions insulin can stimulate the tyrosine phosphorylation of protein kinase C and this phosphorylation can affect its enzymatic activity.
A 60-kDa tyrosine-phosphorylated protein has been observed after insulin treatment of cells in immunoprecipitations of the GTPase-activating protein of Ras (called GAP) as well as the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase. In the present studies, these two 60-kDa proteins have been shown to differ by limited proteolytic digestions as well as by immunoprecipitation with a monoclonal antibody. This monoclonal antibody was also utilized to show that the 60-kDa GAP-associated protein was rapidly phosphorylated in intact cells after insulin stimulation and to associate with GAP only after insulin treatment of the cells. In addition, the 60-kDa protein was found to be phosphorylated in vitro by the insulin receptor. Finally, the 60-kDa protein immunoprecipitated by this antibody was found not to react with a polyclonal antibody directed against a 62-kDa tyrosine-phosphorylated GAP-associated protein previously observed in src-transformed cells. These studies indicate that insulin stimulates the tyrosine phosphorylation of at least two distinct 60-kDa proteins, one that becomes associated with GAP and appears to be a direct substrate of the insulin receptor kinase and another that associates with the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase.
A line of Chinese hamster ovary cells overexpressing protein kinase C alpha was transfected with cDNAs encoding either the wild-type human insulin receptor or one of two mutant insulin receptors with either Ser-967 and -968 or -974 and -976 in the juxtamembrane region changed to alanine. Both mutant receptors exhibited normal insulin-activated tyrosine kinase activity as assessed by either autophosphorylation or insulin-stimulated increases in anti-phosphotyrosine-precipitable phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase. The wild-type and mutant insulin receptors were also examined for serine and threonine phosphorylation in response to insulin and activation of protein kinase C. To visualize Ser/Thr-phosphorylation sites of the receptor better in response to insulin, the receptor from in vivo-labelled insulin-treated cells was first treated with a tyrosine-specific phosphatase to remove all tyrosine phosphorylation. Phosphopeptides from the three receptors were analysed by high-percentage polyacrylamide/urea gel electrophoresis and two-dimensional t.l.c. The mutant receptor lacking Ser-967 and -968 but not the mutant lacking Ser-974 and -976 was found to be missing phosphorylated peptides in response to insulin and, to a lesser extent, after activation of protein kinase C. However, the insulin-stimulated increase in anti-phosphotyrosine-precipitable phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase was inhibited to the same extent by activation of protein kinase C in cells expressing the two mutant receptors as in cells expressing the wild-type receptor. These results indicate that these four serine residues in the juxtamembrane region are not major regulatory sites of the intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity of the insulin receptor by protein kinase C, although Ser-967 and/or -968 appear to be phosphorylated in response to insulin.
Methylene dianiline (DDM) causes a dose- and time-dependent cholestasis, bile ductular epithelial injury, and hepatic parenchymal insult in rats. The mechanism of toxicity is unknown. Since hepatic leukocyte infiltration is a prominent feature of DDM-induced liver injury, and because leukocytes play a causal role in hepatic and extrahepatic tissue injury, we tested the hypothesis that toxicity caused by DDM is dependent on neutrophils or other circulating inflammatory cells. A polyclonal antibody (NAb) against rat neutrophils was used to address the role of the neutrophil in DDM-induced liver injury. NAb administration caused a significant reduction in circulating neutrophils without altering other leukocyte numbers. Moreover, NAb pretreatment prevented hepatic neutrophil infiltration after administration of DDM. However, neutrophil depletion did not afford protection from DDM-induced liver injury. This result was confirmed and the role of other circulating leukocytes was evaluated by inducing systemic leukopenia using cyclophosphamide (CYCLO). Administration of CYCLO diminished the number of circulating leukocytes within 4 days after treatment. Depletion of leukocytes by CYCLO prevented the hepatic accumulation of leukocytes but did not protect rats from DDM hepatotoxicity. These results suggest that the large numbers of leukocytes that infiltrate the liver after DDM administration do not contribute to hepatic injury.
Monocrotaline pyrrole (MCTP), a putative, toxic metabolite of monocrotaline, induces delayed and progressive lung injury, vascular remodeling, and pulmonary hypertension in rats. The lung injury is characterized by increased wet lung-to-body weight ratio followed by increases in lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity and protein concentration in the cell-free bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and increased cellularity of BALF. We evaluated total LDH activity and isozyme patterns in the tissues, cell lysates, sera and cell-free BALF of rats after treatment with MCTP to determine the source of increased LDH activity. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were given a single injection of MCTP (3.5 mg/kg) or an equal volume of the N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) vehicle in the tail vein on Day 0. Rats were killed at 4, 8, or 14 days after toxicant administration, and several markers of lung injury, LDH activity, and isozyme patterns of various tissues, cells, and body fluids were determined. At 8 and 14 days, the lungs from MCTP-treated rats had multifocal, irregularly shaped lesions of hemorrhage and consolidation. At Day 14 only, the hearts of MCTP-treated rats appeared enlarged and there was right cardioventricular hypertrophy. Rats treated with MCTP had no macroscopic lesions in kidneys, liver, or skeletal muscle. Compared to controls, MCTP-treated animals had no change in total LDH activity or isozyme patterns of samples of lungs, heart, skeletal muscle, liver, kidneys, or erythrocyte lysates. Changes in LDH activity in the cell-free BALF and BALF cell pellet from rats treated with MCTP were characterized by increases in isozymes LDH4 and LDH5 and an elevated LDH4/LDH5 ratio in the BALF only. Our results suggest the most probable source of the increased LDH activity in cell-free BALF of MCTP-treated rats originates from the lung tissue and is consistent with a contribution from the pulmonary vascular endothelium, a source rich in LDH4. A combination of plasma, macrophages, and neutrophils in the pulmonary tissue may also have made minor contributions to the increase in cell-free BALF LDH activity, particularly to the activity of LDH5.
Administration of alpha-naphthylisothiocyanate (ANIT) to rats results in periportal cholangiolitic hepatopathy. Inflammation is a hallmark of the liver injury, and expression of toxicity is dependent on blood neutrophils. The role of other cellular mediators of inflammation in ANIT-induced hepatic insult is unknown. We hypothesized that platelets participate in the expression of ANIT hepatotoxicity. To test this, circulating platelets were decreased by administration of anti-rat platelet serum (PAb) prior to treatment of rats with ANIT. The PAb treatment regimen effectively reduced circulating thrombocytes over the course of the experiment. Twenty-four hours after oral ANIT administration, rats were euthanized and liver injury was estimated by increases in serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) activities. Cholestasis was assessed by measurement of serum total bilirubin concentration and bile flow. Reduction in platelet numbers was associated with attenuation of the increases in plasma ALT activity and bilirubin concentration seen after ANIT administration. However, PAb treatment did not attenuate the increase in plasma GGT, a marker of biliary epithelial cell injury. ANIT-induced changes in platelet function were assessed by evaluating platelet aggregation responses in platelet-rich plasma from rats treated with ANIT in vivo. ANIT treatment modestly decreased ex vivo platelet aggregation in response to ADP and collagen stimuli. To address further the role of platelet-derived cyclooxygenase products in ANIT hepatotoxicity, rats were treated with aspirin or ibuprofen. Neither pretreatment ameliorated ANIT-induced hepatic insult. These results suggest that platelets contribute to the expression of ANIT-induced liver injury, but they do not appear to act through the production of cyclooxygenase metabolites.
This review focuses on cellular events that modulate hepatotoxicity subsequent to initial liver insult. Cellular events that determine the nature and extent of hepatotoxic injury and the ultimate outcome of that injury are also discussed. The roles of cell types other than hepatocytes, hepatocyte organelle-specific processes, and regeneration in progression or recovery from liver injury are emphasized. Leukocyte activities are key events in two distinct hepatotoxicities. Neutrophil-mediated, periportal inflammation appears to play a primary role in progression of alpha-naphthylisothiocyanate-induced cholangiolitic hepatitis. However, a humorally mediated autoimmune response to protein adducts that occurs after anesthesia is critical in onset of halothane-induced hepatitis. New insights into specific events at the hepatocyte level are also emerging. Although reducing gap junctional communication between hepatocytes can protect against progression of liver injury, down-regulation of the subunit proteins (connexins) can isolate neoplastic cells from growth regulation. Acidic intracellular pH characteristic of hypoxia is protective against both hypoxic and toxicant-induced cell injury. In oxidative injury, a pH-mediated mitochondrial permeability transition causes mitochondrial uncoupling and ATP loss and leads to cell death. The ultimate outcome of hepatotoxic injury depends on the extent of tissue repair. Stimulation of tissue repair after a sublethal dose of CCl4 appears to be the central mechanism in protection against death from a subsequent large dose. Taken together, these examples illustrate the importance of events subsequent to initial liver injury as determinants of extent of liver damage.
The insulin receptor tyrosine kinase is required for insulin to elicit subsequent biological signalling. Recent studies have identified several endogenous substrates of the insulin receptor kinase, including one called insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1). Tyrosine phosphorylation of this substrate results in its being bound by various proteins containing src homology 2 (SH2) sites, including a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase and a ras activator complex containing GRB2 and son of sevenless (SOS) 1. Decreases in the insulin receptor tyrosine kinase activity have been observed in various insulin-resistant states, such as non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. A model of insulin resistance has recently been described in which the insulin receptor is expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells along with the phospholipid- and calcium-activated serine/threonine kinase called protein kinase C. In this model system, activation of protein kinase C is shown to interfere with insulin receptor signalling by inhibiting tyrosine phosphorylation of IRS-1 and its subsequent binding by phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase. Such a model system may be further utilized to determine the detailed biochemical basis for insulin resistance.