Markers of general pathology.

Studies of the protein composition of leukocytes revealed markers of general pathology: 2 protein parameters (53K/H2A>0.25; 43K/H2A<1.61) differed from normal in 1627 patients with various pathologies. We compared protein parameters of leukocytes with other markers of general pathology. By the sensitivity and spectrum of associated diseases, the detected protein parameters of leukocytes can serve as the gold standard in the diagnostics of general pathology. These protein markers can be used for screening of newborns requiring therapeutic and preventive treatment, employers exposed to occupational hazards, and people inhabiting ecologically unfavorable regions, and for prevention of therapeutic complications in patients.

Informative value of monitoring of immune status and genome expression in blood leukocytes in psoriatic patients.

Comparative analysis of association with psoriasis before and after treatment of 53K/H2A and 43K/H2A leukocyte protein markers and parameters of leukocyte population (18 indexes) including concentration of peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulations as markers of the immune status revealed advantages of the former method of patient monitoring for the evaluation of treatment efficacy. The method showed 100% sensitivity and correlation with the dynamics of clinical symptoms. A significant correlation of 53K/H2A parameter with blood content of CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, and CD72+ lymphocytes was established.

Abnormalities of human genetic apparatus manifested in leukocyte proteins in psoriasis.

The content of 53K/H2A and 43K/H2A proteins in leukocytes of patients with psoriasis, newborns, and healthy donors was studied. In all patients one or both parameters differed from normal. Mean values and distribution of 53K/H2A in healthy siblings of psoriatic proband significantly differed from those in newborns and donors. It was concluded that 53K/H2A is a marker of pathological changes in the genome responsible for predisposition to psoriasis. This marker can be revealed in peripheral blood leukocytes before skin manifestations of the disease.

[Effects of ethidium bromide on the viscosity of chromatin secreted by rat liver in normal state and after denervation]. / Vliianie bromistogo étidiia na viazkost' khromatina, vydelennogo iz pecheni krys v norme i posle denervatsii.

The paper studies structural state of chromatin secreted from the rat's liver. For this purpose the authors studied the dependence of relative viscosity of chromatin preparations secreted from the liver of rats and three groups of animals being in different terms of postdenervation process.

[Structural heterogeneity of chromatin preparations at the level of DNA topology]. / Strukturnaia geterogennost' preparatov khromatina na urovne topologii DNK.

The structural heterogeneity of calf thymus chromatin preparations was studied at the level of DNA topology by analysing the influence of ethidium bromide on the chromatin viscosity in deproteinizing medium. In 0.7 M NaCl the chromatin was separated into the fractions with linear DNA (3--36% in various preparations) and with supercoiled circular DNA (scc DNA), which differ from each other in their adhesive properties. Reduction of disulfide bonds in residual chromatin protein with 5% mercaptoethanol linearized scc DNA, present in chromatin preparations as nuclear matrix subunits containing some loops of scc DNA on the protein globule.

[Dynamic and static chromatin]. / O dinamichnom i statichnom khromatine.

It was found that the dependence of the viscosity of calf thymus chromatin dispersions and human leukocytes on ethidium bromide concentration had two peaks indicative of domains with circular supercoiled DNA and varying resistance to ultrasound in the cells and isolated chromatin. The hypothesis of V. D. Paponov and P. S. Gromov (Bull. Exp. Biol. Med., N5, 590, 1985) on the transformation of static relations of nucleosome DNA-containing nuclei into dynamic, after chromatin exposure to ultrasound due to DNA linearization in chromatin domains possessing circular supercoiled DNA, has been confirmed.

[Electrophoretic detection of protein p53 in human leukocytes]. / Elektroforeticheskoe vyiavlenie belka p53 v leikotsitakh cheloveka.

Protein (m.v. 53 kilodalton) with electrophoretic mobility identical to that of protein detected in leukocytes of patients with Down's syndrome and of protein p53 obtained from mouse ascites carcinoma was demonstrated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in healthy donors' leukocytes cultured with PHA and in peripheral blood of patients with chronic myeloleukemia. Appearance of the class p53 proteins in leukocytes of patients may be connected with the presence in their blood of the population of immature or transformed, proliferating or merely DNA-synthesizing leukocytes, particularly those amplifying the gene that codes protein p53.

[Effect of the supranucleosomal chromatin organization on histone-DNA interrelations]. / Vliianie nadnukleosomnoi organizatsii khromatina na vzaimootnosheniia gistonov i DNK.

It has been demonstrated by the method of competitive displacement of own chromatin histone by excess total histone that chromatin dispersity influence the strength of histone-DNA interactions in a medium of physiological ionic strength. Histone NI was removed from chromatin after the quantity of total histone added to chromatin was equivalent to that existing in chromatin. The proportion of histones H2A and H2B removed from chromatin was increased after mechanical of ultrasonic degradation of chromatin at 5-20-fold excess of total extra-histone. In some histone preparations, the removal of histones H2A and H2B was not detectable at even 200-fold excess of total histone. This may be explained by strengthening histone-DNA interactions in superhelical loops of chromatin.

[Effect of heparin on DNA]. / Vliianie geparina na DNK.

It was found that heparin is capable of increasing the sedimentation coefficient of DNA over alkaline and neutral sucrose density gradients as well as of reducing the intrinsic viscosity of native DNA. Irreversible compactization of DNA induced by heparin apparently by means of intramolecular aggregation of DNA with involvement of residual protein underlies the above-described phenomena. The influence of heparin on DNA is potentiated in more concentrated solutions. This should be taken into account in the assay of DNA-containing systems in the presence of heparin.

[Rheological properties of salt-free solutions of H+- and Na+-DNA]. / Reologicheskie svoistva bessolevykh rastvorov H+- i Na+-DNK.

Rheological properties of the water solutions of H+- and Na+-DNA were studied at shear rates in the range of 0.12-126 sec-1. It was found that the concentration dependences of reduced viscosity of these systems have the maxima which displaced to the left along abscissa after ultrasonic degradation or long keeping and to the right after the salt or urea addition. Na+-DNA solutions have the rheological curve of flow typical of pseudoplastical systems (RCF-1): the viscosity decreases with increasing shear rate. H+-DNA solutions undergo RCF-1 RCF-2 transition leading to reverse dependence of viscosity on shear rate after long keeping or sonicating (i. e. the systems become dilatant). At centrifugation and in shear fields RCF-2 RCF-1 transition occurs. Urea prevents both transitions. These discovered phenomena as well as weakening of the dilatant properties in concentrated H+-DNA solutions allow us to assume that in these systems exist circular structures consisting of single strands of DNA associated by means of ionic bonds between phosphates and protonated bases. Rheological behaviour of DNA obtained by the method of Georgiev and Struchkov was explained by the presence of circular double stranded DNA molecules in their preparations. The analysis of the non-equilibrium behavior of water solutions of DNA allows to determine the rate constants of H+- and Na+-DNA unwinding.

[Chromatin reorganization in a medium of physiological ionic strength in the presence of additional total histone]. / Reorganizatsiia khromatina v srede fiziologicheskoi ionnoi sily v prisutstvii dopolnitel'nogo summarnogo gistona.

The authors studied the capability of chromatin for structural reorganization in a medium of ionic strength, close to physiological one, under the effect of polyions of polycationic nature--summary histone of chromatin. Electrophoretic analysis demonstrated that like polyanions, summary histone forces out histone HI and partially histones H2B and H2A from chromatin. However, in contrast to polyanions, summary histone makes chromatin resistant to DNase-II, apparently potentiating the aggregation capability of chromatin despite the removal of histone HI.

[Difference in the protein composition of human leukocytes normally and in aneuploidy]. / O razlichiiakh belkovogo sostava leikotsitov cheloveka v norme i pri aneuploidii.

Using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis an additional protein band was found in the leukocyte preparation obtained from patients with Down syndrome as compared with the cells of healthy donors. Impairments in gene expression, due to alteration in the ratio between content of histone genes and of nuclear DNA, were apparently responsible for qualitative alterations in the cell protein composition under conditions of aneuploidy as well as for the quantitative alterations, deviating from the principle of "gene dosage".