Removing anchorage-dependent cells from culture flasks.

We have described an inexpensive and simple method for removal of monolayered cells from tissue culture flasks that, when combined with the reusable procedure of Shepard and Hartmann (2), will save both time and money in laboratories on a limited budget or that do not desire to use a rubber policeman.

Isoelectrofocusing of rat muscle adenylosuccinase.

Adenylosuccinase catalyses the conversion of adenylosuccinic acid to AMP and fumarate. We have developed a coupled enzyme staining procedure applicable to nitrocellulose blots after agarose gel isoelectrofocusing of rat muscle adenylosuccinase. The coupling enzymes, fumarase (fumarate to L-malate) and malic enzyme (L-malate to pyruvate and NADPH), are adsorbed to nitrocellulose prior to blotting. The NADPH, mediated by phenazine methosulfate, converts a tetrazolium salt to its blue formazan. This procedure demonstrated that rat muscle adenylosuccinase consists of three isomeric forms present in similar amounts.

Retinyl acetate inhibition of 3'-methyl-4-dimethyl-aminoazobenzene induced hepatic neoplasia.

1. Retinyl acetate protected female rats from the hepatocarcinogenic effect of 0.06% 3'-Me-DAB up to 18 weeks. 2. The net effect of retinyl acetate was to retard, not prevent, the action of the hepatocarcinogen since the protection broke down prior to the 30 week time point. 3. The observed elevation of serum LSA by retinyl acetate was unexpected and suggested that some of the difficulties found in its use as a tumor marker may be due to dietary factors. 4. The time necessary for development of preneoplastic lesions in the rats fed 0.01% 3'-Me-DAB was 71 vs 8 weeks for those fed 0.06% 3'-Me-DAB. 5. The effect of retinyl acetate on the lower level of 3'-Me-DAB was to prevent formation of nodules through 71 weeks by which time the unprotected rats fed 0.01% 3'-Me-DAB alone had extensive hepatic nodular development.

Native blot and immunotransfer of human prostatic acid phosphatase isozymes.

Agarose gel isoelectrofocusing is used to separate the isozymes of human prostatic acid phosphatase with retention of enzyme activity. The native blotting of the isozymes onto a nitrocellulose membrane increases the sensitivity of the enzyme stain and is suitable for analysis of isozymes in prostate tissue, which contains little nonprostatic acid phosphatase. The specificity of the transfer is increased by treating the membrane with antibody to human prostatic acid phosphatase prior to the transfer. The specificity of the antibody is conferred to the membrane resulting in a transfer specific for prostatic acid phosphatase. The immunotransfer procedure is applicable to serum which contains appreciable amounts of nonprostatic acid phosphatase.

Adenylosuccinate lyase as an indicator of breast and prostate malignancies: a preliminary report.

The high activity of adenylosuccinate (SAMP) lyase found in rat breast tumor, and its relative absence from normal rat breast tissue, suggests that it may serve as an indicator for human breast malignancy. Its activity has been measured in human breast tumors, both malignant and benign. The two were clearly separated with no overlap in activity between the malignant and benign tissues. Human prostate tissues were also examined for SAMP lyase. A cut-off level of 5 U/mL gave a false-positive rate of 11% with no false negatives. These results indicate that further work is warranted to determine the effectiveness of SAMP lyase as an indicator of breast and prostatic cancers.

A comparison of succinyladenylate lyase activity and serum sialic acid as markers of malignancy.

A comparison was made of succinyladenylate lyase (SAMP lyase), total serum sialic (TSA), and lipid soluble serum sialic acid (LSA) as early markers of malignancy in three experimentally induced rat tumor models. Elevation of SAMP lyase in 3'-methyl-dimethylaminoazobenzene-induced hepatic tumors at 2 weeks corresponded with microscopic detection of preneoplastic lesions with elevation of LSA occurring 2 weeks later. Elevation of breast SAMP lyase concurred with macroscopic presence of dimethylbenzanthracene involved breast tumors with elevation of LSA occurring 12 weeks later. Neither colon SAMP lyase nor LSA increased in rats bearing colon tumors induced by dimethylhydrazine. The determination of TSA was not a reliable indicator of tumor presence for the three types of tumors investigated. Both SAMP lyase and LSA are very good early indicators of hepatic tumor with SAMP lyase an earlier indicator of breast tumor than LSA.

Soluble enzyme system for vitamin K-dependent carboxylation.

The vitamin K-dependent carboxylating system has been solubilized by Lubrol PX or Triton X-100 treatment of vitamin K-deficient rat liver microsomes. As obtained from vitamin K-deficient rat liver, this soluble preparation is dependent upon the in vitro addition of vitamin K1 for carboxylating activity. The enzyme system is complex and is dependent upon NADH and dithiothreitol for maximum activity. While detergents used to solubilize the enzyme complex do markedly inhibit the activity of the system, the solubilized system is still highly responsive to vitamin K addition and can be used for further study of the carboxylating enzyme system. The requirement for dithiothreitol and the inhibition by p-hydroxymercuribenzoate indicate the involvement of an --SH enzyme in the carboxylating system.

Effect of dietary fat and sucrose on the activities of several rat hepatic enzymes and their diurnal response to a meal.

Regulation of the cytoplasmic enzymes, pyruvate kinase (PK), glucokinase (GK), phosphoenolpy ruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK), fructose-1,6-diphosphatase (FDP), ATP citrate-lyase (ATP-CL), NAD-malate dehydrogenase (NAD-MD), NADP-malate dehydrogenase (NADP-MD), glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (GPT), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGD), in rat liver by dietary fat (F diet) and dietary sucrose (S diet) was investigated. Mealfeeding the S diet to adult rats for 5 and 9 months resulted in a diurnal dietary response (i.e., food response) variation of FDP, GK, ATP-CL, 6PGD, and PK, while meal-feeding the S diet to young rats resulted in diurnal dietary response variation of ATP-CL, G6PD, NADP-MD, 6PGD, GPT, and PK. Meal-feeding the fat diet results in essentially no diurnal variation in enzyme activity. The overall effect of meal-feeding, as compared with ad libitum feeding, of the S diet was to increase the levels of G6PD, ATP-CL, and NADP-MD and to decrease the level of PEck in the meal-fed rats. Young rats meal-fed the two diets have higher enzyme activities than meal-fed adult rats for the observed enzymes (except for GPT and NAD-MD). In general, hepatic levels of the enzymes studied are low in the F diet-fed animals and markedly higher for the S diet-fed animals. These results suggest that dietary carbohydrate specifically induces those enzymes involved in carbohydrate metabolism, whereas dietary fat does not affect their levels. On the basis of prior evidence for an early requirement of RNA synthesis for sucrose induction of G6PD, this widespread induction of liver enzymes by carbohydrate must indicate either increased synthesis of ribosomal RNA with later regulation of synthesis specifically of these enzymes or increased synthesis of a rather large group of specific messenger RNAs i.e., coordinate genetic control of a number of these enzyme messenger RNAs.

Regulation of glucose-6 phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase in the meal-fed rat.

Meal-feeding of a high sucrose diet produces a diurnal cycle (i.e., food response) in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase (6PGD) levels resulting in an elevated level of these enzymes at approximately 12 hours after the start of a 2-hour meal and a return to base level by 24 hours. The effects of actinomycin D and cycloheximide on the 12-hour increases in G6PD and 6GPD were determined. Cycloheximide completely blocked the increase in G6PD if administered 2 or 4 hours after start of the meal, while actinomycin D completely blocked the increase in G6PD if administered at 2 hours and almost completely at 4 hours after start of the meal. These results were obtained previously with starved rats refed a sucrose diet. The diurnal increases in G6PD and 6PGD in meal-fed rats and the induction of G6PD in starved-refed rats thus appear to be regulated by the same mechanism requires RNA synthesis within 4 hours after start of re-feeding. The response of 6PGD to cycloheximide and to actinomycin D at 2 or 4 hours after start of the meal is essentially the same as that of G6PD. These data suggest that the increases in G6PD and 6PGD (and other enzymes) brought about by carbohydrate refeeding AFTER starvation or by carbohydrate meal-feeding on a diurnal cycle are mediated by a rapid change in RNA synthesis. This appears most compatible with a coordinate control of gene expression through messenger RNA synthesis.