Lens protein phylogeny: immunocrossreactivity of vertebrate lens antigens to anti-shark crystallin antibody.

Antisera prepared against total water-soluble lens proteins of the shark, Scoliodon sorrakowah were reacted with homologous antigen and analysed reaction products by immunoelectrophoresis (IE) and two dimensional crossed antigen-antibody electrophoresis (2D-CE). On IE, shark antigens formed 5 precipitin lines including 1 alpha, 3 beta and 1 gamma crystallins and on 2D-CE 3 alpha, 6 beta and 6 gamma peaks accounting for 8%, 27% and 65% antigen in the respective group were obtained from the total crystallins. Using anti-shark antisera, the immunocrossreactivity of lens proteins from 6 Chondropterygii, 23 teleosts and 16 higher vertebrates was examined by IE. It is found that beta crystallins are the most conserved and crossreact with all vertebrate classes, whereas gamma crystallin crossreactivity is specific to the class Pisces and alpha crystallins are least conserved and their crossreactivity is confined to subclass Chondropterygii. Based on IE patterns, a phylogenetic tree is constructed which demonstrates the intrafamily closeness except in case of adaptive radiation.

The role of initial 5-fluorouracil trabeculectomy in primary glaucoma.

Sixty-eight patients with primary glaucoma involving 68 eyes were divided into two groups: Group I eyes were subjected to trabeculectomy (n = 38) and Group II eyes underwent trabeculectomy followed by subconjunctival injections of 5-fluorouracil (35 mg) (n = 30). After one year follow-up, Group I eyes exhibited reduction of mean intra-ocular tension from 45.7 mm Hg (pre-operative) to 16 mm Hg; optic disc cupping remained unchanged and 24/38 eyes (63%) were found to have field defects (19/38 i.e. 50% had preoperative field defects.) Group II eyes showed a reduction of mean intra-ocular pressure from 47.3 mmHg to 9.3 mmHg after one year. Mean cup disc ratio was lowered from 0.50:1 to 0.46:1 and 17/30 eyes (57%) which had field defects initially continued to exhibit the same. Complications in Group I and II eyes were shallow anterior chamber [8/38 eyes (21%) from Group I and 8/30 eyes (26%) from Group II], posterior synechiae formation in 10/38 eyes (26%) and 8/30 eyes (26%) and cataract progression in 13/38 eyes (34%) and 12/30 eyes (40%) respectively; only Group II eyes had transient superficial keratitis in 9/30 eyes (30%) and thin blebs in 6/30 eyes (20%). The use of 5-fluorouracil after trabeculectomy for primary glaucoma resulted in lowering of intra-ocular pressure, eliminated the need for antiglaucoma medications post-operatively, reduced the galucomatous cup size, and prevented progression of field loss without having a significantly increased complication rate.

Mesoderm enhancing effect of human seminal plasma inhibin and its synthetic C-terminal nonapeptide fragment in the chick embryo.

Isomers of fibroblast growth factor and members of the transforming growth factor beta family have been identified as potent mesoderm inducing factors, particularly in amphibians. Activins belonging to the latter group are capable of inducing all types of mesoderm. Inhibins, also belonging to the same family of proteins have an exactly opposite biological action than activins in the adult organism. We have examined the effects of human seminal plasma inhibin on the early development of the chick embryo, where also activins appear to be important in mesoderm induction. Contrary to expectations, inhibin brought about stimulation of development of somites and heart, structures of mesodermal origin, and increase in the body length in more than 50% of the treated chick blastoderms. A synthetic fragment of human seminal plasma inhibin, a nonapeptide fragment of C-terminal end, also exhibited similar effects. In some cases the treatments resulted in completely abnormal development while in some increase in the number of somites was associated with abnormality in the anterior region. Our results demonstrate that human seminal plasma inhibin does not act as an inhibitor of mesoderm induction in the chick embryo but in amniotes inhibin-related molecules may have a role as mesoderm enhancers.

Physicochemical characterization and phylogenetic comparison of fish lens proteins.

The composition of soluble eye lens proteins from four chondropterygiian and fourteen teleostean fishes were analyzed for heterogeneity in MW and pI. Lens proteins from all the fish species studies are distributed in the pI range 4.3-9.0 with polypeptides in the range 17,500-31,000 Da. Phylogenetic trees are constructed based on the observations.

Use of high resolution thermal denaturation approach in preliminary identification of plant DNAs.

High resolution thermal denaturation (HRTD) profiles of the DNAs of six related millets, oat and rice showed several maxima and shoulders skewed towards the GC-rich side. Linear regression and correlation analyses exhibited no correlation between the repetitive DNA content/nuclear DNA content and the number of peaks, while there existed a very good correlation between delta T and repetitive DNA content/nuclear DNA content indicating that increase in repetitive DNA content has resulted in a greater sequence heterogeneity in these DNAs. In addition, specific melting characteristics of each of the eight plant DNAs were identified, which showed species specificity.