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Biomedical subjects

I Ueda

Publications and source records attributed to I Ueda.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Do anesthetics fluidize membranes?

The so-called membrane fluidizing effect of anesthetics as a cause of anesthesia has been questioned, mainly because the magnitude of the increase in "fluidity" is insignificant at clinically relevant anesthetic pressures. However, the term "fluidity" has an unfortunate history of being misrepresented in membrane biology. It is often expressed as the ease of movement of probe molecules incorporated into the hydrophobic region of the membrane, thereby representing the property of the microenvironment where the probe molecules reside. In surface chemistry, "membrane fluidity" means inverse viscosity. Membrane viscosity is an integral property of a total membrane (not a part of membrane), and membrane molecules must dislocate and flow against resistance. The ease of motion of probe molecules, therefore, is not fluidity, and is now expressed by the order parameter. The present study measured the effect of halothane on surface viscosity of a phospholipid monolayer spread on a water surface by an oscillating pendulum surface viscometer. The results indicate a significant decrease of about 31% in the surface viscosity by the clinical pressure of halothane; anesthetics do fluidize membranes. Two factors contribute to the surface viscosity of the lipid monolayer; the property of the membrane proper (association between phospholipid molecules) and dragging of water (association between phospholipid and water molecules). The association between phospholipid molecules is in large part related to the order parameter. The fact that anesthetics show little effect on the order parameter, whereas halothane shows a significant effect on the membrane viscosity, indicates that halothane releases surface-bound water. It is postulated that the primary effect of anesthetics on membranes is to weaken the lipid-water interaction forces.

Anesthetics

Biosynthetic somatomedin C (SM-C/IGF-I) increases the length and weight of Snell dwarf mice.

An Escherichia coli derived somatomedin-C/IGF-I preparation (rec-IGF-I) with an amino acid sequence identical to the natural IGF-I derived from human plasma, increases body length and weight, as well as the growth of several organs of Snell dwarf mice, when administered for 4 wk. After 2 wk of treatment rec-IGF-I (22.2 micrograms/day) induced a significant increase over buffer treated controls, to a comparable degree as obtained with bacterially synthesized human growth hormone (bhGH; 8.4 micrograms/day). The weight/length ratio of rec-IGF-I and bhGH-treated dwarf mice after 4 wk of treatment were not significantly different. A significant increase over controls was obtained with both preparations. Organs with increased weights after bhGH treatment (brain; submandibular salivary glands; heart, liver, kidneys, thymus, and spleen) were also heavier after rec-IGF-I. Significance was only reached for the kidneys and the spleen and the musculus quadriceps femoris. Organ weights expressed as a percentage of body weight of bhGH and rec-IGF-I treated dwarfs were similar except for the relative weight of the heart of the bhGH group, which was significantly increased compared to the controls and the rec-IGF-I group. These data resolve the issue as to whether or not pure SM-C/IGF-I will induce growth in length and demonstrate the usefulness of recombinant IGF-I in the studies of growth regulation.

Animals

Anesthetics release unfreezable and bound water in partially hydrated phospholipid lamellar systems and elevate phase transition temperature.

A dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine multilamellar system with varied water content was prepared by dessiccating sonicated vesicles in vacuo. The water content in the sample was determined by gas chromatography after dissolving the multilamellar system in water-free benzene. Differential scanning microcalorimetry revealed several endothermic peaks in the heating scan at subzero temperature, ranging from -25 to -3 degrees. The peaks that appeared in the subzero temperature range indicate the existence of water molecules bound to the lipid head groups, differing from free water that freezes at 0 degrees. The difference between the amount of water molecules that froze in calorimetry and the total amount of water detected by gas chromatography indicates the presence of unfreezable, tightly bound water molecules. The relative amount of free, intermediate, and unfreezable water was estimated by comparing the differential scanning microcalorimetry data with gas chromatography measurements. The addition of halothane and 1-hexanol significantly decreased the intermediately bound water peaks. The anesthetics dehydrated the lamellar system. The phase polymorphism of partially hydrated phospholipid multilayers is well known, and the temperature that corresponds to the main phase transition of fully hydrated lipid membranes shifts to a higher temperature. The addition of anesthetics increased the phase transition temperature when the water content was less than 18 wt%. This result is the complete reverse of the depressant action of anesthetics in fully hydrated lipid membranes. The present anesthetic effect upon the elevation of the transition temperature is apparently caused by anesthetic-induced dehydration of the lipid-water interface at the present experimental condition.

Anesthetics

Anesthetic-protein interaction: surface potential of bovine serum albumin estimated by a pH-sensitive dye.

It is often contended that inhalation anesthetics act on proteins via perturbation of lipid membranes. However, direct interaction between anesthetics and water-soluble proteins also has been demonstrated. We postulate that the anesthetic action is directed to the interface between water and macromolecules, irrespective of lipid membranes or proteins. The present study deals with anesthetic effects upon interfacial properties of a water-soluble, crystalline delipidated bovine serum albumin. A pH-indicator dye, bromothymol blue, was used to probe the surface potential of the protein. When a pH-indicator dye binds to a macromolecule, the pH, indicated by the color of the dye, differs from the bulk pH measured by a pH meter. This is because the pH of the microscopic area, where the dye is adsorbed, differs from the bulk due to the surface electrostatic potential that interacts with hydrogen ions (electrostatic terms), and the physical property that affects the color of the dye at the bound region is different from the bulk (nonelectrostatic terms). The mismatch between the bulk pH and the color of the bound pH indicator can be used to probe the property of the dye binding site. By screening the electrostatic effects with high ionic strength, the anesthetic effects upon the nonelectrostatic term were shown to be negligible under the present experimental conditions; the pH-color mismatch was mainly caused by the anesthetic effect upon the electrostatic potential of the macromolecular surface interacting with the dye. Accordingly, the surface potential of the dye binding site was estimated from the mismatch. It was found that inhalation anesthetics decreased the surface potential. The partial pressures of diethylether, enflurane, and methoxyflurane that decreased the surface potential by 10 mV were 2.1 X 10(-2), 1.7 X 10(-2), and 0.17 X 10(-2) bar, respectively, which were in agreement with the minimal alveolar concentrations of these anesthetics to achieve surgical anesthesia.

Anesthesia, Inhalation

Stopped-flow rapid kinetics of anesthetic-induced phase transition in phospholipid vesicle membranes: nonlocalized fluctuation.

Kinetics of the gel to liquid-crystalline phase transition of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine vesicle membrane was studied by the stopped-flow technique with turbidity detection. The observed change in turbidity was well characterized by a single-exponential decay curve with relaxation time in the millisecond range, although the existence of a faster process than the dead-time of the stopped-flow apparatus was inferred from the amplitude analysis. Relaxation times were determined as functions of 1-hexanol concentration and temperature just below phase transition. From the analysis based on the theories of nonequilibrium relaxation, it is concluded that the phase transition induced by 1-hexanol is governed by a nonlocalized fluctuation mechanism. The anesthetic-induced nonequilibrium state is unstable rather than metastable.

Anesthetics

Molecular origin of biphasic response of main phase-transition temperature of phospholipid membranes to long-chain alcohols.

A statistical mechanical theory is proposed which explains the molecular mechanism of the nonlinear response of the phase-transition temperature of phospholipid vesicle membranes to added 1-alkanols. By assuming that the free energy of transfer of 1-alkanols from the aqueous phase to the membrane and the interaction energy between 1-alkanol molecules are linear functions of alkanol alkyl chain-length, the nonlinear behavior is explained in the Bragg-Williams approximation. For dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine vesicle membranes, the theory reveals a larger free energy of transfer of 1-alkanols from the aqueous phase to the solid-gel membrane than to the liquid-crystalline membrane when the number of carbon atoms of 1-alkanol exceeds 12. When the intermolecular interaction force between 1-alkanol molecules residing in the gel phase is stronger than the interaction force between those residing in the liquid-crystalline phase, the ligand effect is to tighten the lipid matrix structure, causing the transition temperature to rise. The interaction force is a quadratic function of 1-alkanol concentration; hence, the response of the transition temperature to the 1-alkanol concentration is nonlinear. At low concentrations of the long-chain 1-alkanols that predominantly elevate the transition temperature, this intermolecular interaction force is negligible. In this case, the entropic effect of the incorporated ligand molecules, which loosens the lipid matrix, predominates, and the transition temperature decreases. The biphasic action of long-chain 1-alkanols originates from the balance of these two opposing effects: entropy and intermolecular interaction.

Alcohols

Atypical Langmuir adsorption of inhalation anesthetics on phospholipid monolayer at various compressional states: difference between alkane-type and ether-type anesthetics.

Adsorption of chloroform, halothane, enflurane and diethyl ether on the air/water interface was compared with adsorption on the dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine monolayer, spread on the air/water interface, at four compressional states; 88.5, 77.0, 66.5 and 50.5 A2 surface area per phosphatidylcholine molecule. Anesthetics were administered from the gas phase. The affinities of these agents to the phosphatidylcholine monolayer varied according to the state of the monolayer. Chloroform and halothane showed a stronger affinity to the highly compressed phosphatidylcholine monolayer (50.5 A2) than to the expanded monolayer (88.5 A2) or to the air/water interface without the monolayer. Diethyl ether behaved in reverse; a stronger affinity to the expanded monolayer was exhibited than to the compressed monolayer. Enflurane showed the highest affinity to the intermediately compressed monolayer (77.0 A2). The adsorption isotherm of anesthetics to the monolayer was characterized by atypical Langmuir-type, in which available number of binding sites changed when anesthetics were adsorbed. The mode of adsorption onto the monolayer was dissimilar to adsorption onto air/water interface, where adsorption followed the Gibbs surface excess. A theory is presented to explain the above differences. The adsorbed anesthetic molecules do not stick to phosphatidylcholine molecules but penetrate into the monolayer lattice and occupy the phosphatidylcholine sites at the interface. Quantitative agreement between the theory and the experimental data was excellent. For the monolayer at 50.5 A2 compression, the changes in the transfer free energy accompanying the anesthetic adsorption from the gas phase to the monolayer were in the order of chloroform greater than halothane greater than enflurane greater than diethyl ether, in agreement with the clinical potencies.

Adsorption

Alcohol effects on rapid kinetics of water transport through lipid membranes and location of the main barrier.

The effect of 1-alkanols (from 1-butanol up to 1-dodecanol) on the water permeability of dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine vesicle membranes was studied by measuring the osmotic swelling rate as functions of 1-alkanol concentrations and temperatures above the gel-to-liquid-crystalline phase transition. For 1-butanol and 1-hexanol, the activation energy for water permeation was invariant with the addition of alkanols, whereas for 1-octanol, 1-decanol and 1-dodecanol, the activation energy decreased depending on the alkanol concentration, and the extent of the decrease was larger for alkanol with a longer hydrocarbon chain. These results suggests that hydrocarbon moiety beyond seven or eight carbon atoms from the head group in phospholipid molecules constitutes the main barrier for water permeation through the dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine vesicle membrane. The relative volume change of the vesicle due to osmotic swelling increased with the addition of 1-alkanols. Presumably, the membrane structural strength is weakened by the presence of 1-alkanols in the membrane. Contrary to the dependence of the swelling rate upon the alkanol carbon-chain length, no significant difference in the effect on the relative volume changes was seen among the 1-alkanols. This result suggests that weakening of the membrane structure is caused by perturbation of the membrane/water interface induced by incorporation of 1-alkanols into the membrane.

Alcohols

Fractionation of L-fucose-containing oligosaccharides on immobilized Aleuria aurantia lectin.

The carbohydrate-binding specificity of Aleuria aurantia lectin was investigated by analyzing the behavior of a variety of fucose-containing oligosaccharides on an A. aurantia lectin-Sepharose column. Studies with complex-type oligosaccharides obtained from various glycoproteins by hydrazinolysis and their partial degradation fragments indicated that the presence of the alpha-fucosyl residue linked at the C-6 position of the proximal N-acetylglucosamine moiety is indispensable for binding to the lectin column. Binding was not affected by the structures of the outer chain moieties nor by the presence of the bisecting N-acetylglucosamine residue. These results indicated that A. aurantia lectin-Sepharose is useful for the group separation of mixtures of complex-type asparagine-linked sugar chains. Studies of glycosylated Bence Jones proteins indicated that this procedure is also applicable to intact glycoproteins. The behavior of oligosaccharides isolated from human milk and the urine of patients with fucosidosis indicated that the oligosaccharides with Fuc alpha 1----2Gal beta 1----4GlcNAc and Gal beta 1----4(Fuc alpha 1----3)GlcNAc groups interact with the lectin, but less strongly than complex-type sugar chains with a fucosylated core. Lacto-N-fucopentaitol II, which has a Gal beta 1----3(Fuc alpha 1----4)GlcNAc group, interacts less strongly than the above two groups with the matrix. Oligosaccharides with Fuc alpha 1----2Gal beta 1----3GlcNAc and Gal beta 1----4GlcNAc beta 1----3Gal beta 1----4(Fuc alpha 1----3)GlcNAc groups showed almost no interaction with the matrix.

Acetylglucosamine

Anesthetic-resistant spontaneous mutant of drosophila melanogaster: intensified response to 60Cobalt radiation damage.

Accumulating evidence suggests that the extent of acute damage by ionizing irradiation is closely related to the state of membrane orderliness. Decreased orderliness apparently protects organisms from ionizing irradiation. Because anesthetics decrease membrane orderliness, anesthesia is expected to affect damages caused by ionizing irradiation. The present study compared the effects of 60Co irradiation on Drosophila melanogaster between an anesthetic-resistant spontaneous mutant and an anesthetic-sensitive strain. We have previously established an anesthetic-resistant mutant strain, Eth-29, of Drosophila melanogaster. Eth-29 is resistant to diethylether, chloroform and halothane. The anesthetic-resistant strain was found to be radiosensitive when evaluated by survival at the eighth day after irradiation or by dyskinesia (knock-down) at the second day. The results indicate that anesthetic resistance may be related to an increase in orderliness. The findings in reciprocal crosses between Eth-29 and the control strain indicate that the mechanism of survival is different from that of knock-down. Presumably, knock-down is the direct sequela of irradiation, and the present result suggests that membrane damage may be involved in inducing knock-down.

Anesthesia

Stopped-flow study of anesthetic effect on water-transport kinetics through phospholipid membranes. Interfacial versus lipid core ligands.

We have compared ligand effects between polar and apolar anesthetic molecules upon water transport across phospholipid membranes by kinetic analysis of the osmotic swelling rate, using a stopped-flow technique. Chloroform and 1-hexanol were used as interfacial ligands, and carbon tetrachloride and n-hexane were used as their counterparts, representing lipid core action. Because anesthetics transform the solid-gel membrane into a liquid-crystalline state, and because phospholipid membranes display an anomaly in permeability at the phase transition, dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine vesicles were studied at temperatures above the main phase transition to avoid this anomaly. All these molecules increased the osmotic swelling rate. However, a significant difference was observed in the activation energy, delta Ep, between polar and apolar molecules; delta Ep was almost unaltered by the addition of polar molecules (chloroform and 1-hexanol), whereas it was decreased by apolar molecules (carbon tetrachloride and n-hexane). The obtained results were analyzed in terms of the dissolution-diffusion mechanism for water permeation across the lipid membrane. It is suggested that polar molecules affect water permeability by altering the partition of water between the membrane interior and water phase, and apolar molecules affect it by altering both the partition and the diffusion of water within the membrane interior.

Anesthetics