Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to H L Schmidt.
The present state of the art to record or to mimic electronically the human senses of olfaction and taste is characterized. In this part II, strategies are outlined to utilize chemical and biological structures with their different complexities which serve as sensor elements in (bio-) electronic noses. Finally a survey is given on the computer-science aspects of odor recognition based on these elements.
The kinetic and equilibrium isotope effects on the fructose-1, 6-bisphosphate aldolase reaction have been determined using the rabbit muscle enzyme. The natural 13C abundance for both atoms participating in the bond splitting were measured in position C-1 of dihydroxyacetone phosphate and glyceraldehyde 3-P after irreversible conversion to glycerol-3-P and 3-phosphoglycerate, respectively, and chemical degradation. The carbon isotope effects were determined comparing the 13C content of the corresponding positions after partial and complete turnover, and after complete equilibration of the reactants. 13(Vmax/Km) on C-3 was 1.016 +/- 0.007 and 0.997 +/- 0.009 on position C-4, and the equilibrium isotope effects K12/K13 on these positions were 1.0036 +/- 0.0002 and 1.0049 +/- 0.0001. The observed kinetic isotope effect on C-3 is discussed to originate from the formation of the enamine, which comes to equilibrium before the rate determining release of glyceraldehyde 3-P from the ternary complex. The equilibrium isotope effect is seen as the reason for an earlier-found relative 13C enrichment in position C-3 and C-4 of glucose and for varying enrichments in 13C of carbohydrates from different compartments of cells. The kinetic isotope effect is suggested to cause 13C discriminations in the C-3 pool in context with the hexose formation in competition with other dihydroxyacetone phosphate turnover reactions.
Fuzzy logic can be a useful tool for the determination of substrate concentrations applying optode arrays in combination with flow injection analysis, UV-VIS spectroscopy and kinetics. The transient diffuse reflectance spectra in the visible wavelength region from four optodes were evaluated to carry out the simultaneous determination of artificial mixtures of ampicillin and penicillin. The discrimination of the samples was achieved by changing the composition of the receptor gel and working pH. Different algorithms of pre-processing were applied on the data to reduce the spectral information to a few analytic-specific variables. These variables were used to develop the fuzzy model. After calibration the model was validated by an independent test data set.
Previous studies on human colorectal tumor protein synthesis in situ relied on techniques that required intra- or perioperative sampling to obtain a sufficient biopsy size. The purpose of the present study was to develop a new technique by use of new mass spectrometry equipment [capillary gas chromatography (GC)-combustion isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS)], which allows reduction of the necessary sampling size. Thereby, tumor sampling could be done via conventional rectosigmoidoscopy, excluding the need for further disturbing invasive measures. Fifteen postabsorptive patients with localized rectal cancer received a primed-constant infusion of [1-13C]leucine (0.16 mumol.kg-1.min-1 constant, 9.6 mumol/kg prime). Forceps biopsies were taken after 3 and 6 h. In five subjects, tumor tissue and normal mucosa were studied simultaneously. Determination of protein-bound leucine enrichment was done by GC-IRMS, and GC-quadrupole MS was used to determine tracer-to-tracee ratios (tracer/tracee) for free intracellular leucine. GC-MS data demonstrated achievement of a steady state in the precursor pool enrichment after 3 h of isotope infusion (tracer/tracee at 3 h: 6.34 +/- 0.46%, at 6 h: 6.58 +/- 0.38%). Calculation of tumor protein synthesis yielded a fractional synthetic rate (FSR) of 1.06 +/- 0.11%/h or 25.5 +/- 2.6%/day (range 12.0-37.1%/day). At any time, protein-bound leucine enrichment was significantly higher in tumor tissue than in normal mucosa of the same subject. However, protein synthetic rates were comparable (tumor: 1.09 +/- 0.20%/h, mucosa: 1.29 +/- 0.28%/h). Thus combined GC-combustion IRMS and GC-/quadrupole MS provide a simple, reliable, and minimally invasive method to determine tumor FSR in situ, thereby excluding interferences common to previous methods. Tumor and mucosa tissues are similar with respect to protein synthesis, but they apparently differ with respect to leucine extraction from the arterial blood.
A flow-injection system is presented, which is versatile, automated and has an integrated enzyme system. Its efficiency at determining D- and L-lactate separately in dairy products is compared with the officially used reference method (DIN 10335). By means of a mathematical elimination of matrix effects, the pretreatment steps can be clearly reduced. As a result of the immobilization of the enzymes, an appropriate automation software and an adaptation of the system developed to the given medium, the analysis could be performed within 5 min and was distinctly cheaper than alternative methods. The values determined in 15 different dairy products deviated from those of the reference method by 3% at a maximum.
A concept for the development of an automatic flow-injection analyzer with integrated dehydrogenase columns and its application in the control of industrial processes is presented. The system is based upon a kernel consisting of a nested-loop injection unit, pumps for the filling of the injection loops and the transport of buffer and values for switching on the one hand between sample and standard solutions and on the other hand between different enzyme columns. A Microsoft Windows 3.x application 'WIN-FIA' controls interactively the whole system and can be easily adapted to a specific solution of an analytical problem. As an example, the flow-injection system was used for the continuous determination of glucose and lactate, using glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) as indicator enzymes, in a mammalian cell-culture fermentation process. The resulting concentration values are in good agreement with those obtained by discontinuously taken standard spectrophotometric enzyme assays.
A flow injection system is described for the parallel determination of pullulan and glucose during a fermentation of the fungus Aureobasidium pullulans. The polysaccharide was hydrolyzed by pullulanase and amyloglucosidase, immobilized to controlled-pore glass (CPG). The glucose produced was oxidized by glucose dehydrogenase and the NADH formed determined photometrically. The pullulan concentration was calculated from the difference to the response obtained for free glucose. The calibration curves for monomer and polymer were both linear between 2 mg dm-3 and 20 mg dm-3. Analysis of one sample for the determination of glucose and pullulan took about 10 min.
A feasibility study aimed at stabilization of L-lactate-dehydrogenase, L-malate-dehydrogenase, alcohol-dehydrogenase and diaphorase by the recently described method of enzyme 'encagement' was conducted. This method involves derivatizing the enzymes with polyglutaraldehyde, followed by secondary crosslinking with amino derivatives of polyacrylamide. Encagement conditions were optimized for each of the four enzymes, so as to achieve the highest thermal stability combined with highest catalytic activity. Depending on the encagement conditions, residual activities were in the range of 18% to 96% with higher values in the presence of cofactors. Increases in thermal stabilization of up to 26-fold were obtained. For high retention of enzymic activity and stability, the most significant factor was the concentration of polyglutaraldehyde; the crosslinking polymers had only a negligible effect. Furthermore, the significant enhancement in thermal stability could be attained without perturbing the kinetic parameters: Km values for NADH and pH optima remained unaltered for the stabilized enzymes.
Utilization of three milk diets including cream, casein or whey, each naturally labelled with 13C (1 mmol 13C excess) from C4 sources, by six young male calves of the Deutsche Fleckvieh breed was investigated in a Latin-square split-plot design. Each milk diet was examined under resting conditions and during a short period of physical exercise on a treadmill. Delta 13C values (/1000) in carbon dioxide in expired air were measured at intervals of about 1 h during 6.5 h after food intake. Expired air samples for CO2 isolation, subsequent isotopic analysis, measurement of CO2 production and respiratory quotient were taken at about hourly intervals and 13C recovery rates over 6.5 h were calculated. Feeding milk containing enriched milk casein, cream, or whey resulted in maximal significant 13C enrichments over background (delta 13C) in CO2 of +1, +2.4 and +2.2 /1000, and recovery rates of 3.6, 9.9 and 12.2% respectively. This comparison shows the different kinetic behaviour of the main nutrients during the oxidation in tissues. The short exercise period (5 min at 1 J/s per kg body-weight +5 min at 2 J/s per kg body-weight) did not influence the recovery rates significantly. However, after 10 min of muscular exercise there was a brief decrease in delta 13C value of expired air which disappeared within the first 5 min of rest. These experiments demonstrate for the first time the applicability of the 13C breath test with naturally enriched diets in animal nutrition research and that quantitative results may be obtained.
Problems associated with the use of biosensors in process control, e.g. difficulties of sterilization and sensor fouling, are shortly displayed, and possibilities to overcome them are outlined. The advantages of flow injection analysis (FIA) are demonstrated and examples for efficient sampling systems connected with this method are reviewed. Special emphasis is given to problem-orientated sample pretreatments, preventing fast inactivation of immobilized enzymes in the analysis system. Examples of problem-orientated sample pretreatment units are given. A proposal for a computer-controlled self-calibrating FIA system is given.
Six dairy cows of two breeds were fed during three alternating periods with products from C3- and C4- plants to yield different natural 13C enrichments of the diet (delta 13C range: -28.0 to -13.7%). The resulting changes in the 13C enrichment of breath carbon dioxide, serum and milk of the animals followed the 13C:12C of the food, in agreement with the individual biological half-lives of those products, and established isotope discriminations. Breath CO2 was more enriched in 13C than expected. This could be related to isotope discriminations during rumen fermentation. From these results an isotopic balance model for the breath CO2 could be established.
The oxygen isotope effect at the substrate O2 on the oxygenase reaction of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase from spinach is pH and metal dependent. The pH dependence between pH 7.4 and 8.9 is different with Mg2+ (steady decrease in this isotope effect from 1.036 to 1.030) and Mn2+ (minimum isotope effect of 1.028 at pH 8.0). Deuteration of the substrate ([3-2H]ribulose bisphosphate) has no influence on the isotope effect. The results are interpreted as a direct participation of the metal ion in the oxygen-sensitive step, i.e. carbon-oxygen bond formation and the stabilization of the intermediates. In the overall reaction oxygen addition is a major rate-limiting step, and the observed isotope effect is probably close to the intrinsic oxygen isotope effect of the reaction. The basic mechanisms for carboxylation and oxygenation of ribulose bisphosphate appear to be the same.
The isotope effect at C-1 on the H2O2-catalysed decarboxylation of pyruvate (used as a model reaction for the enzymic reaction) increases between pH 3 and 10 from 1.0007 +/- 0.0004 to 1.0283 +/- 0.0014 (25 degrees C). This result indicates a change in the rate-determining step from formation of the tetrahedral intermediate to decarboxylation of this intermediate. Practically no isotope fractionation at C-1 (1.0011 +/- 0.0002, pH 6.0, 25 degrees C) is found in the lactate oxidase-catalysed decarboxylation of lactate, which is indicative for the existence of an irreversible O2-dependent step prior to the enzyme-catalysed decarboxylation. In addition, the result provides further evidence that dissociation of pyruvate and H2O2 from the enzyme can be excluded. The isotope effect at C-2 of lactate in the enzymic reaction (1.0048 +/- 0.0004) is attributed to the hydrogen transfer step from lactate to the coenzyme.
The principles on which Nature has developed multifunctional redox centres, covering a large range of potentials, protected from water and oxygen and surrounded by highly specific proteins, are demonstrated. Structures and accessibilities of the active sites of iron-sulphur proteins, sulphur proteins, flavoproteins, cytochromes and copper proteins are correlated with their possibilities and modes of electron exchange with natural partners, artificial mediators and (modified) electrodes. The participation of charge-transfer and tunnelling processes in electron transport is demonstrated, and a suitable relative orientation of the partners is recognized as one of the most important requirements for electrochemical communication between large molecules and electrodes. The use of specifically modified electrode surfaces, for example those based on electroconductive polymers, is proposed as one of the aspects of future developments for direct electron transfer to proteins.
A method has been developed for the positional 13C isotope analysis of pyruvate and acetate by stepwise quantitative degradation. On its base, the kinetic isotope effects on the pyruvate dehydrogenase reaction (enzymes from Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae) for both of the carbon atoms involved in the bond scission (double isotope effect determination) and on C-3 of pyruvate have been determined. The experimental k12/k13 values with the enzyme from E. coli on C-1 and C-2 of pyruvate are 1.0093 +/- 0.0007 and 1.0213 +/- 0.0017, respectively, and, with the enzyme from S. cerevisiae, the values are 1.0238 +/- 0.0013 and 1.0254 +/- 0.0016, respectively. A secondary isotope effect of 1.0031 +/- 0.0009 on C-3 (CH3-group) was found with both enzymes. The size of the isotope on C-1 indicates that decarboxylation is more rate-determining with the yeast enzyme than with the enzyme from E. coli, although it is not the entirely rate-limiting step in the overall reaction sequence. Assuming appropriate values for the intrinsic isotope effect on the decarboxylation step (k3) and the equilibrium isotope effect on the reversible substrate binding (k1, k2), one can calculate values for the partitioning factor R (k3/k2: E. coli enzyme 4.67, S. cerevisiae enzyme 1.14) and the intrinsic isotope effects related to the carbonyl-C (k1/k'1 = 1.019; k3/k'3 = 1.033). The isotope fractionation at C-2 of pyruvate gives strong evidence that the well known relative carbon-13 depletion in lipids from biological material is mainly caused by the isotope effect on the pyruvate dehydrogenase reaction. In addition, our results indicate an alternating 13C abundance in fatty acids, that has already been verified in some cases.
An H2O-forming NADH oxidase from Streptococcus faecalis, recently described [Hoskins, D. D., Whiteley, H. R. and Mackler, B. (1962) J. Biol. Chem. 237, 2647-2651], has been isolated as a uniform protein with specific activity 690 U/mg in a total yield of 50% by a two-step affinity chromatography procedure. The enzyme is metal-free and has a molecular mass of about 51 000 Da and probably consists of a single polypeptide chain. As shown by fluorimetric titration, the prosthetic group is 1 mol FAD/mol protein. The affinity behaviour of the enzyme gives evidence for the existence of a dinucleotide-binding domain capable of binding NADH or FAD. The enzyme is specific for NADH (Km = 4.1 X 10(-5) M), NADPH is not oxidized. O2 is the preferred electron acceptor, in addition FAD and, very slowly, one-electron acceptors are reduced. It is not clear whether the reduction of FAD proceeds through the dinucleotide-binding site or by exchange of the prosthetic group. The stoichiometry of the reaction with O2 corresponds to the consumption of 2 mol NADH/mol O2, and only H2O is formed (2 NADH + 2 H+ + O2----2 NAD+ + 2 H2O). Neither H2O2 nor O2.- is detected as intermediate and H2O2 cannot replace O2 as an oxidant. The enzyme can, mainly in its reduced state, be inhibited by -SH reagents. Spectral data give no evidence for the existence of radical intermediates during reduction. The enzyme can obviously accept more than two electrons/mol. On the basis of these data two possible reaction mechanisms are discussed. A proposal for the biological purpose of the reaction is made.
By the combination of transducers (thermistors, selective electrodes, field-effect transistors, optical systems) with immobilized enzymes or antibodies specific sensors for biologically relevant substances are obtained. The construction, ranges, of linearity, response times and stability of biosensors are demonstrated. Examples are given for their application in clinical analysis and fermentation control. Finally limits and future possibilities are discussed.
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