Formation and function of synapses with respect to Schwann cells at the end of motor nerve terminal branches on mature amphibian (Bufo marinus) muscle.

A study has been made of the formation and regression of synapses with respect to Schwann cells at the ends of motor nerve terminal branches in mature toad (Bufo marinus) muscle. Synapse formation and regression, as inferred from the appearance and loss of N-(3-triethylammoniumpropyl)-4-(4-(dibutylamino)styryl) pyridinium dibromide (FM1-43)-stained vesicle clusters, occurred at the ends of terminal branches over a 16 hr period. Multiple microelectrodes placed in an array about FM1-43 blobs at the ends of terminal branches detected the electrical signs of neurotransmitter being released onto receptors. Injection of a calcium indicator (Oregon Green 488 BAPTA-1) into the motor nerve with subsequent imaging of the calcium transients, in response to stimulation, often showed a reduced calcium influx in the ends of terminal branches. Injection of a fluorescent dye into motor nerves revealed the full extent of their terminal branches and growing processes. Injection of the terminal Schwann cells (TSCs) often revealed pseudopodial TSC processes up to 10-microm-long. Imaging of these TSC processes over minutes or hours showed that they were highly labile and capable of extending several micrometers in a few minutes. Injection of motor nerve terminals with a different dye to that injected into their TSCs revealed that terminal processes sometimes followed the TSC processes over a few hours. It is suggested that the ends of motor nerve terminals in vivo are in a constant state of remodeling through the formation and regression of processes, that TSC processes guide the remodeling, and that it can occur over a relatively short period of time.

Structure of the proteolipid protein extracted from bovine central nervous system myelin with nondenaturing detergents.

As a basis for attempts to define the structures of the proteins within myelin, methods have been developed for their extraction and isolation in solutions of non-denaturing detergents. With use of solutions of deoxycholate or Triton X-100, up to 90% of the protein has been extracted from bovine CNS myelin, along with most of the phospholipid. The proteolipid protein has been purified in deoxycholate solutions by chromatography on a blue dye-ligand column, which retained all of the basic protein and 2',3'-cyclic nucleotide-3'-phosphodiesterase, and then on Sephacryl S300, which separated proteolipid protein from phospholipid and high-molecular-weight proteins. The proteolipid protein was isolated from Triton X-100 extracts of myelin by adsorption onto phosphocellulose resin, with subsequent elution by 0.5 M sodium chloride. Gel permeation chromatography was used as the final purification step. Sedimentation equilibrium experiments gave a monomer molecular weight of 134,000 +/- 8000 in deoxycholate and 145,000 +/- 17,000 in Triton X-100 solutions. On the basis of an apparent subunit molecular weight of 23,500 it was deduced that the native protein is probably hexameric. Above 0.2 gL-1 in Triton X-100 solutions and 0.5 gL-1 in deoxycholate solutions the protein aggregated. In deoxycholate solutions the protein adopts the highly helical conformation expected for an intrinsic membrane protein.

Vascular prostacyclin and Goldblatt hypertensive rats.

Vascular prostacyclin production in Goldblatt hypertension was examined in one-kidney, one clip (1K, 1C) and two-kidney, one clip (2K, 1C) rat models. Vasodepressor responses to prostacyclin and nitroprusside correlated well with resting blood pressure in both groups of rats, but when measured as a percentage of resting blood pressure the responses did not differ significantly between hypertensive rats and the normotensive controls within each group. In contrast, the vasodepressor effects of arachidonic acid (1-3 mg/kg, i.v.) were much greater in the 1K, 1C rats than in their normotensive controls, but did not differ significantly between hypertensive 2K, 1C rats and sham-operated controls. The effects of arachidonic acid were virtually abolished by indomethacin (10 mg/kg, i.v.). The metabolism of [14C]-arachidonic acid was also studied in isolated aortae of both one- and two-kidney rats by high pressure liquid chromatography of extracts of the incubation mixture. [14C]-6-oxo-PGF1 alpha was the only prostanoid conversion product recovered from the incubations and significantly more of this metabolite was produced by aortic tissue from 1K, 1C rats than from normotensive controls. There was no difference in [14C]-6-oxo-PGF1 alpha production between 2K, 1C rats and controls. These results demonstrate an enhanced ability of vascular tissue from 1K, 1C hypertensive rats to convert exogenous arachidonate to vasodilator prostacyclin, but this is not evident in the two-kidney model. Although enhanced biosynthetic capacity for prostacyclin in the one-kidney model and spontaneously hypertensive rats does not lessen peripheral vascular resistance, it might reflect a fundamental disturbance in phospholipid metabolism which contributes to increased vascular resistance.