Structural control of the redox potentials and of the physiological activity by oligomerization of ferredoxin.
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Site-specific heme assignment of the 1H-NMR spectrum of cytochrome c3 of D. vulgaris Miyazaki F, a tetraheme protein, was established. The major reduction of the heme turned out to take place in the order of hemes I, III, IV and II (numbering in the crystal structure). The hemes with the smallest and greatest solvent accessibility were reduced at the highest and lowest potentials on average, respectively. A cooperative interheme interaction was attributed to a pair of the closest hemes, namely, hemes III and IV. This assignment can provide the physiochemical basis for the elucidation of electron transfer of this protein.
An equal mixture of oxidized and reduced cytochrome c551 experiences a change in the potential of the haem iron when one of the propionates attached to the haem is ionized. The change is 65 mV, which corresponds to an effective dielectric between the propionate and the iron of 27. It has been possible to use the algorithm of Warwicker & Watson (1982) to calculate the change in the potential at the haem iron arising from the change in ionization of the propionate. This gives the extra work required to oxidize or reduce the iron. The change in potential that we calculate is 90 mV, which corresponds to an effective dielectric of 19.5, between the propionate and the iron. In comparison with other commonly used dielectric models the agreement is very good.
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The free amino acid content of diaphragm muscles of control and diabetic rats was studied 5 days after the injection of streptozotocin. Muscles were prepared for analysis either immediately after sacrifice or following incubation in balanced salt solution containing 5.5 mM glucose, with or without an electron acceptor, 0.02 mM methylene blue. Diaphragms of diabetic rats contained significantly more free taurine, glutamate, and branched chain amino acids than the controls at sacrifice, and significantly less glutamine, serine, asparagine, lysine, arginine, histidine, threonine, citrulline, and carnosine. Alanine decreased in plasma of diabetic rats but not in diaphragms before incubation. Hemidiaphragms of diabetic rats produced less alanine and more glutamate during incubation than controls. After incubation they contained less than half as much alanine and glutamine and twice as much glutamate than the controls, having released approximately 40% less alanine and 25% more glutamate into the medium than the controls. Glutamine release was not significantly different between the two groups. Methylene blue increased the free alanine content in the tissue water as well as alanine release by control and by diabetic muscles; the glutamate content of muscles decreased concomitantly. The effects of methylene blue were greater in the diabetic group. Branched chain amino acid release by diabetic muscles decreased during incubation with methylene blue. Muscles of diabetic rats contained more alpha-ketoglutarate than the controls after incubation with or without methylene blue. Methylene blue increased the alpha-ketoglutarate content of muscles and its release into the medium, the effect being greater in diabetics than in controls. Hemidiaphragms from diabetic rats released less pyruvate during incubation than controls, while lactate release by the two groups was not significantly different. Incubation with methylene blue caused a marked increase in pyruvate release by diabetic muscles, and a lesser stimulation in controls; lactate release increased in both groups. After incubation the lactate/pyruvate ratio in muscles was lower in the methylene blue treated group. The in vitro effect of 0.02 mM phenazine methosulfate on alanine production was similar to that of methylene blue. The data is compatible with the hypothesis that the NADH/NAD ratio may exert a restraining effect on alanine production and release by muscle. The progressive increase in this ratio may play a role in the eventual deceleration of gluconeogenesis during a prolonged fast and may restrain this process in uncompensated diabetes.
OBJECTIVE: To study the energy economy of human myometrium in vitro. STUDY DESIGN: Myometric biopsies were kept for 10 min or 4 h in a buffer solution at +4 degrees C before preparation into 'early' and 'late' strips, respectively. The strips were perifused at +37 degrees C for different periods of time. Adenylates, energy charge (EC), adenosine and NAD+ were determined in individual strips. RESULTS: Mean EC and ATP values were low, the 'late' strips displaying 5% and 20% lower values than the 'early' strips, respectively. During perifusion the EC increased slightly, ADP decreased significantly and the strips began to contract. A correlation fitting a multiplicative function was evident between EC and NAD+ (r = 0.89, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Human myometrium, being operative at an unusually low EC level, maintained its energy economizing and contractile functions in vitro for 4 h, displaying a tight relationship between EC and NAD+, suggestive of a compromised energy balance.
Forty-five burn patients underwent sequential assays for plasma acetoacetate and beta-hydroxybutyrate concentrations as well as plasma amino acid levels. Those patients who went on to develop multiple system organ failure were noted to have a decrease in their acetoacetate concentration with time, whereas there was no change in those patients who failed to develop multiple system organ failure. The plasma concentration of beta-hydroxybutyrate was not altered by multiple system organ failure. In addition, the plasma acetoacetate/beta-hydroxybutyrate ratio was found to be directly related to the plasma concentration of branched chain amino acids and inversely related to the concentration of aromatic amino acids.
Transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) is a multifunctional cytokine with important roles in inflammation, wound repair, and cancer. Cells secrete TGF-beta as a latent protein complex, consisting of disulfide-bonded homodimers of growth factor and latency-associated propeptide. Latency regulates extracellular TGF-beta action by controlling the levels of active growth factor available. We report here that active and latent TGF-beta were inactivated in vitro by reduction of the growth factor dimer under physiological conditions. We also demonstrate that the latency-associated propeptide has chaperone-like activity and partially protects TGF-beta from inactivation. TGF-beta inactivation occurred upon incubation with the physiological redox agents, cysteine, homocysteine, and reduced glutathione. Inactivation was temperature- and dose-dependent. While inactivation by physiological concentrations of redox agents was partial at 37 degrees C, active and latent TGF-beta were completely inactivated by raising the temperature in the presence of the redox agents. The mechanism of TGF-beta inactivation involved the generation of biologically inactive growth factor monomer and required the presence of free thiol groups, since thiol blockers protected TGF-beta from reduction. We conclude that non-enzymatic redox reactions may be involved in the regulation of extracellular TGF-beta activity. This might be of particular relevance in wound repair (e.g. in burns), as a mechanism protecting from excess TGF-beta activity, as well as in conditions involving redox dysregulation, such as reperfusion injury of the heart, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer.
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It is no surprise that the catalytic activity of electron-transport enzymes may be optimised at certain electrochemical potentials in ways that are analogous to observations of pH-rate optima. This property is observed clearly in experiments in which an enzyme is adsorbed on an electrode surface which can supply or receive electrons rapidly and in a highly controlled manner. In such a way, the rate of catalysis can be measured accurately as a function of the potential (driving force) that is applied. In this paper, we draw attention to a few examples in which this property has been observed in enzymes that are associated with membrane-bound respiratory chains, and we discuss its possible origins and implications for in vivo regulation.
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