The trail pheromone of the ant, lasius fuliginosus: identification of six components.
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Although the myocardium is capable of utilizing both glucose and fatty acid substrates, glucose metabolism is inhibited in the presence of fatty acid during normal perfusion conditions. Fatty acid regulation of glucose utilization in intact beating rat hearts was studied with 13C-enriched substrates and 13C and 31P NMR spectroscopy at 8.5 T. During [1-13C]glucose and insulin perfusion, the 13C appeared in alanine, lactate and the glutamate isotopomers, indicating glycolytic flux through pyruvate and glucose-supported tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle oxidation, respectively. Following the addition of hexanoic acid, 1 mM, [1-13C]glucose metabolism proceeded through the hexokinase and phosphofructokinase reactions, as evidenced by continued production of [3-13C]alanine and [3-13C]lactate, but was completely inhibited at the pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) reaction as evidenced by a lack of appearance of the 13C label in the glutamate isotopomers. This inhibition of PDH was associated with increased PCr/ATP levels and was readily reversed by removal of hexanoic acid. Addition of dichloroacetate, 5 mM, which increases the active form of PDH, to fatty acid and glucose containing perfusate reinstituted carbon flux through the PDH reaction, indicating that the mechanism of fatty acid cessation of PDH flux is by reversible inactivation of the PDH enzyme complex. Thus the point of inhibition and mechanism of action of fatty acid modulation of glucose metabolism can be continuously and non-destructively studied in the intact beating heart with 13C and 31P NMR and is primarily attributable, in this model, to reversible PDH enzyme inactivation.
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To define the nature of the lesion of the early steroidogenic pathway (prior to pregnenolone formation) in gonadotropin-induced desensitization of rat testicular Leydig cells, we evaluated cholesterol side-chain cleavage activity in isolated mitochondria by measurement of pregnenolone synthesis and [14C]isocaproic acid formation from [26-14C]cholesterol. The enzyme activity was shown to be reduced after in vivo treatment with 10 micrograms hCG when compared to that of mitochondria from control animals only when measured in the presence of limiting NADPH concentrations (100 microM). Sonication of mitochondria from control and hCG-treated rats caused complete loss of cholesterol side-chain cleavage activity. When acetone-powdered adrenal cell mitochondria were employed as the source of the enzyme, the addition of sonicated Leydig cell mitochondria from control and hCG-treated animals caused the same differences as those observed with intact Leydig cell mitochondria in the presence of low concentration of NADPH. The Km value of the adrenal enzyme for NADPH incubated with Leydig cell mitochondria increased from 0.111 mM in control to 0.37 mM after hCG, with no changes in Vmax. Moreover, cholesterol side-chain cleavage activity of adrenal mitochondria assayed in the presence of 100 microM cholesterol was progressively inhibited by increasing amounts of acetone powder from Leydig cell mitochondria of control and hCG-treated rats, with ID50 of 500 and 280 micrograms protein, respectively. The inhibiting factor was not a lipid or steroid but a heat-labile protein, with an approximate Stokes radius of 4.8 nm and an isoelectric point of 5.05 +/- 0.23 SD (n = 8). The inhibitory effect was confined to the Leydig cell mitochondrial membrane, and was not related to changes in oxidative phosphorylation. NADPH was not directly oxidized or immobilized by the mitochondrial factor, and this inhibiting substance was not adsorbed on 2',5' ADP-Sepharose 4B. These results have demonstrated that a heat-labile inhibiting protein factor is present in mitochondria from normal Leydig cells and is markedly activated or increased by hCG treatment. This substance that competitively modulates cholesterol side-chain cleavage activity could contribute to the early steroidogenic lesion, and also serve as an endogenous modulator of steroid hormone biosynthesis.
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The stereoselectivity of the teratogenic activity of 2-ethylhexanoic acid (EHXA), a metabolite of the widely-used plasticizer di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, was investigated. The enantiomers of EHXA were prepared via asymmetric synthesis with the aid of the chiral auxiliaries (R)- and (S)-1-amino-2-(methoxymethyl)pyrrolidine (RAMP, SAMP). The aqueous solutions of the sodium salts of (R)- and (S)-EHXA and the racemic EHXA [+/- )-EHXA) were injected each morning and evening of day 7 and 8 of gestation in the NMRI mouse (500 mg/kg, i.p.), a period highly sensitive in regard to the production of neural tube defects (exencephaly) by branched-chain carboxylic acids. (S)-EHXA did not yield any teratogenic or embryotoxic response in this model, while (R)-EHXA was highly teratogenic (59% of living fetuses exhibited exencephaly) and embryotoxic (as indicated by embryolethality and fetal weight retardation); the exencephaly rate induced by (+/- )-EHXA was between those of the two enantiomeres (32%). It is therefore likely that stereoselective interactions of the enantiomers of EHXA with chiral molecules in the embryo are decisive in regard to the teratogenic response. This first example of the stereoselectivity of the teratological activity of an environmental pollutant suggests that the safety of man-made chemicals can be improved by the use of pure enantiomers instead of racemates.
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Rats were given constant intravenous infusions of [3H]-leucine plus [1-14C]-2-ketoisocaproate (KIC). Specific activities of plasma leucine and plasma KIC reached plateaus by two to three hours. 3H specific activity of KIC was 85% +/- 2% of that in leucine. 14C specific activity of leucine was 36% +/- 2% of that in KIC. The 14C/3H ratios in leucine and KIC were constant from the earliest sampling time (one hour) at 0.65 +/- 0.03 and 2.20 +/- 0.07, respectively. In various tissues, 14C/3H in free leucine and in tissue protein were approximately equal, but in most organs these ratios were significantly greater than the ratio 14C/3H in plasma leucine. From these data we estimate that the fraction of leucine incorporated into protein in individual organs derived from extracellular KIC rather than extracellular leucine varies from zero (in liver and bone marrow) to 35% to 45% (in brain and heart), and comprises 12% in the body as a whole.
The urinary excretion of 45 organic acids, monitored by gas-liquid chromatography, was compared in fatty (fa/fa) and lean (Fa/?) Zucker rats maintained on a chemically simplified diet. At the age of 6, 16, and 22 weeks, fatty rats excreted more of the various organic acids than their lean counterparts. However, the greatest difference was in the excretion of ethylmalonate, even when excretion data were normalized to body weight. The next highest excretion difference was in adipate and an unknown compound, and the third highest in pyruvate. A second group of rats examined at 7 weeks also excreted an excess of these four acids, as well as glucuronate and indole-3-acetate. The excessive excretion of ethylmalonate and adipate, which is characteristic of human genetic defects in short- and medium-chain fatty acid oxidation, suggested that the oxidation of butyrate and hexanoate might be impaired in the fatty rat. Thus, as a test of their capacity to oxidize medium- and short-chain fatty acids, two groups of fatty and lean rats were transferred to diets enriched with either trioctanoylglyceride, a medium-chain triglyceride (MCT), or sodium butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid. Both lean and fatty rats on the MCT diet, but only the lean rats on the butyrate-enriched diet, increased their excretion of adipate. However, on both the MCT and butyrate diet, ethylmalonate excretion increased only in lean rats, almost reaching amounts found previously in fatty rats. These results suggest that the fatty rat has an impairment of the beta-oxidation of butyrate and hexanoate, a defect that might increase intracellular concentrations of butyryl-CoA, the optimal primer for the synthesis of long-chain fatty acids.
The effect of 3-deazaadenosine (DZA) and the hypolipidemic drug MDL29350 (2-[3,5-di(t-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)thio]hexanoic acid) on the synthesis and methylation of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) originating from the cytidine diphosphate (CDP) ethanolamine pathway and PE originating from decarboxylation of phosphatidylserine (PS) was investigated. DZA and MDL29350 did not affect the synthesis of PE by either pathway; however, methylation of ethanolamine-derived PE was inhibited by 80% and methylation of serine-derived PE was inhibited by 36% by 20 mumol/LDZA or MDL29350. The differential inhibition of the methylation of PE synthesized via serine or ethanolamine suggests that in Hep G2 cells PE-N-methyltransferase (PENMT) may be segregated into distinct compartments that are differentially accessible to the drugs.
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