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J S Handler

Publications and source records attributed to J S Handler.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Molecular cloning of the cDNA for an MDCK cell Na(+)- and Cl(-)-dependent taurine transporter that is regulated by hypertonicity.

Cells in the hypertonic renal medulla maintain their intracellular ion concentration at isotonic levels, despite much higher concentrations of extracellular electrolytes, by accumulating high concentrations of nonperturbing small organic solutes termed osmolytes. Taurine has been identified as a nonperturbing osmolyte in the renal medulla and Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells. In hypertonic medium, the increased accumulation of taurine in MDCK cells is the result of increased activity of a Na(+)- and Cl(-)-dependent taurine transporter. We have isolated a cDNA encoding a Na(+)- and Cl(-)-dependent taurine transporter, whose sequence corresponds to a protein of 655 amino acids with significant amino acid sequence similarity to previously cloned Na(+)- and Cl(-)-dependent transporters, including the MDCK cell betaine/gamma-aminobutyric acid transporter and several brain neurotransmitter transporters. Northern hybridization indicates that mRNA for the taurine transporter is present in renal cortex and medulla, ileal mucosa, brain, liver, and heart. The abundance of mRNA for the taurine transporter is increased in MDCK cells cultured in hypertonic medium, suggesting that regulation of transport activity by medium hypertonicity occurs at the level of mRNA accumulation.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1992

Cloning of the cDNa for a Na+/myo-inositol cotransporter, a hypertonicity stress protein.

Kidney medullary cells in situ, as well as kidney-derived Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells accumulate nonperturbing, small organic solutes (osmolytes), including myo-inositol, when bathed in hypertonic media. Accumulation of osmolytes balances the osmolality of extracellular fluid without raising intracellular salts that would perturb cellular functions. In hypertonic media, increased myo-inositol accumulation is the result of increased activity of a Na+/myo-inositol cotransporter. We have isolated a cDNA encoding a Na+/myo-inositol cotransporter from MDCK cells using expression in Xenopus oocytes. The cDNA sequence predicts a protein of 718 amino acids with a significant amino acid sequence similarity to the Na+/D-glucose cotransporters of absorbing epithelia. Transporter mRNA is present in kidney and brain and is markedly induced in MDCK cells by medium hypertonicity, demonstrating that adaptation to hypertonic stress involves up-regulation of transporter mRNA accumulation.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1992

Cloning of a Na(+)- and Cl(-)-dependent betaine transporter that is regulated by hypertonicity.

Many hypertonic bacteria, plants, marine animals, and the mammalian renal medulla are protected from the deleterious effects of high intracellular concentrations of electrolytes by accumulating high concentrations of the nonperturbing osmolyte betaine. When kidney-derived Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells are cultured in hypertonic medium, they accumulate betaine to 1,000 times its medium concentration. This results from induction by hypertonicity of high rates of betaine transport into cells. We have isolated a cDNA (BGT-1) encoding a renal betaine transporter by screening an MDCK cell cDNA library for expression of a betaine transporter in Xenopus oocytes. The cDNA encodes a single protein of 614 amino acids, with an estimated molecular weight of 69 kDa. The deduced amino acid sequence exhibits highly significant sequence and topographic similarity to brain gamma-amino-n-butyric acid (GABA) and noradrenaline transporters, suggesting that the renal BGT-1 is a member of the brain GABA/noradrenaline transporter gene family. Expression in oocytes indicates that the BGT-1 protein has both betaine and GABA transport activities that are Cl(-)- as well as Na(+)-dependent and functionally similar to betaine and GABA transport in MDCK cells. Northern hybridization indicates that transporter mRNA is localized to the kidney medulla and is induced in MDCK cells by hypertonicity.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed1992

Congenital syphilis in the past: slaves at Newton Plantation, Barbados, West Indies.

Hutchinson's incisors and Moon's molars are specific lesions of congenital syphilis. The extensive but fragmentary clinical literature on these conditions describes reduced dimensions and thin enamel in the permanent incisors and first molars, crowding and infolding of the first molar cusps, notching of the upper incisors, and apical hypoplasias of the permanent canines. A Barbados slave cemetery (ca. 1660-1820 AD) includes three individuals with these features, suggesting a frequency at birth of congenital syphilis in the population approaching 10%. These three cases show triple the frequency of all hypoplasias and more than seven times the frequency of pitting hypoplasia present in the remainder of the series. The recognizable congenital syphilis cases account for much of the remarkably high frequency of hypoplasias in the series as a whole. We infer that syphilis contributed substantially to morbidity, infant mortality, and infertility in this population. Presence or absence of congenital syphilis may account for much of the variability in health and mortality seen among nineteenth century African-American populations.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Toad urinary bladder epithelial cells in culture: maintenance of epithelial structure, sodium transport, and response to hormones.

Epithelial cells from the toad urinary bladder have been grown in continuous culture. Many of the cells resemble the granular cell type of the urinary bladder. They form an epithelium with typical tight junctions and gap junctions. The transport properties of two cell lines have been examined. When cells of the line designated TB-M or of line TB-6c are grown on collagen-coated nucleopore filters, epithelia are formed that have transepithelial potential differences of 40 and 20 mV, resistances of 5000 and 10,000 omega-cm2, and short-circuit currents (ISC) of 8.5 and 2.5 muA/cm2, respectively. Net mucosa to serosa sodium transport accounts for all of ISC in line TB-M and for 70% of ISC in line TB-6c. Vasopressin, which stimulates adenylate cylase and ISC in the intact bladder, has no effect on the cells in culture. Cyclic AMP stimulates ISC and lowers resistance in both lines. Aldosterone stimulates ISC in both lines. This is accompanied by a fall in resistance in line TB-M and no change in resistance in line TB-6c. Amiloride inhibits ISC in TB-M cells under basal conditions and after stimulation by aldosterone. In line TB-6c amiloride has no effect under basal conditions but lowers ISC of aldosterone-treated cells to the basal level. Thus, the cells have retained the ability to form oriented, high-resistance epithelial membranes that manifest hormone-sensitive transepithelial sodium transport.

Aldosterone↗
PubMed1977

Vasopressin-stimulated prostaglandin E biosynthesis in the toad urinary bladder. Effect of water flow.

Prostaglandin E biosynthesis and its effect on water permeability were investigated in the toad urinary bladder. Arginine vasopressin (1 mU/ml) increased prostaglandin E (PGE) biosynthesis from 0.5+/-0.1 to 5.0+/-0.4 pmol/min per hemibladder (mean +/-SEM, n= 8, P less than 0.001). Maximal vasopressin-stimulated PGE biosynthesis, 6.4+/-0.2 pmol/min per hemibladder, occurred at vasopressin concentrations in excess of 3 mU/ml. Half-maximal stimulation of PGE biosynthesis occurred at a vasopressin concentration of approximately 0.7 mU/ml, whereas half-maximal stimulation of water flow occurred at a vasopressin concentration of approximately 5 mU/ml. Vasopressin-stimulated PGE biosynthesis did not depend on water flow along an osmotic gradient or upon sodium transport. Thin-layer chromatographic analysis of the lipids released from hemibladders labeled with tritium-arachidonic acid revealed that vasopressin stimulates the release of arachidonic acid from intracellular lipid stores without affecting the percentage of free arachidonic acid converted to PGE. Neither cyclic AMP nor theophylline stimulated PGE biosynthesis although they mimic arginine vasopressin (AVP) in stimulating water permeability. Biosynthesis of PGE was inhibited by mepacrine, a phospholipase inhibitor, and by agents that inhibit arachidonic acid oxygenase. The inhibition of PGE biosynthesis resulted in augmented vasopressin- and theophylline-stimulated water flow, but had no effect on cyclic AMP-stimulated water flow. We interpret these results to mean that endogenous PGE inhibits basal and vasopressin-stimulated adenylate cyclase activity. In contrast to the effects of AVP on permeability and transport, AVP stimulates PGE biosynthesis by a mechanism that does not depend on an increase in cellular cyclic AMP levels. The water permeability response of the toad urinary bladder to vasopressin is inhibited by PGE synthesized by the bladder in response to vasopressin.

Adenylyl Cyclases↗
PubMed1977

Inhibition of vasopressin-stimulated prostaglandin E biosynthesis by chlorpropamide in the toad urinary bladder. Mechanism of enhancement of vasopressin-stimulated water flow.

Chlorpropamide is known to enhance the water permeability response of the toad urinary bladder to vasopressin and to theophylline. In other studies, we have shown that prostaglandin E synthesis by the toad bladder inhibits the water permeability response to arginine vasopressin and to theophylline. In this study, the effect of chlorpropamide on vasopressin-, theophylline-, and cyclic AMP-stimulated water flow and on prostaglandin E biosynthesis was investigated in the toad urinary bladder in vitro. Chlorpropamide inhibited prostaglandin E biosynthesis during vasopressin-, theophylline- and cyclic AMP-stimulated water flow. Tolbutamide and glyburide, two other sulfonylurea compounds, also enhanced vasopressin-stimulated water flow and inhibited vasopressin-stimulated prostaglandin E biosynthesis. We conclude that the mechanism of enhancement on vasopressin-stimulated water flow by the sulfonylureas is the inhibition of prostaglandin E biosynthesis.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

Study of enzymes regulating vasopressin-stimulated cyclic AMP metabolism in separated mitochondria-rich and granular epithelial cells of toad urinary bladder.

The epithelial cells of the toad urinary bladder are morphologically heterogenous. In order to relate the effect of vasopressin on cyclic AMP metabolism to cell type, the epithelial cells were separated by the density gradient technique of Scott, Sapirstein and Yoder (Science 184:797, 1974). The separation was verified by electron-microscopy and by observing that the band of cells enriched in mitochondria-rich cells was enriched in carbonic anhydrase activity compared to the band of granular cells. A large portion of cells collected from the gradient was considered to be nonviable, precluding further study of their function as intact cells. Vasopressin-stimulated adenylate cyclase activity in homogenates of granular cells was simular to that in homogenates of mitochondria-rich cells. Cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase activity was also similar in the two types of cell. Thus, the enzymes known to be involved in cyclic AMP metabolism in response to vasopressin appear to be located in both major cell types.

3',5'-Cyclic-AMP Phosphodiesterases↗
PubMed1975

Release of cyclic AMP by toad urinary bladder.

Cyclic AMP accumulates in the Ringer solution bathing the toad urinary bladder in vitro. At least 4 times more cyclic AMP is released into the solution bathing the serosal surface than into the solution bathing the mucosal surface. Most of the cyclic AMP originates in the epithelial cells rather than the stroma. Vasopressin increased the content of cyclic AMP in the epithelial cells and increases the amount of cyclic AMP in the Ringer solution. Since there is not an increase in medium cyclic AMP when cell cyclic AMP levels are increased by theophylline, it is suggested that theophylline may reduce the permeability of the cell membrane to cyclic AMP. Finally, it is demonstrated that 10 mM NaF increase the amount of cyclic AMP in the epithelial cells and in the solution bathing the bladder, but block the effect of vasopressin on water permeability, presumably at a step subsequent to the formation of cyclic AMP.

Animals↗