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Biomedical subjects

K Reinhard

Publications and source records attributed to K Reinhard.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

Techniques of DNA-studies on prehispanic ectoparasites (Pulex sp., Pulicidae, Siphonaptera) from Animal mummies of the Chiribaya culture, southern Peru.

During a paleoparasitological survey of several animal mummies (Cavia aperea f. porcellus and Canis familiaris) from Chiribaya Baja, an archaeological site in Southern Peru, an unexpected find was made. In the well preserved fur, large numbers of mummified fleas (Pulex simulans/irritans) that parasitized the animals during life were encountered. Due to the relative recent event of the host mummification and the outstanding preservation of the fleas, an attempt for the retrieval of DNA was made. A DNA extraction and sequencing protocol for archaeological ectoparasitic remains has been established, taking additional studies for tissue and protein preservation into account. Tissue preservation was assessed with transmission electron microscopy and the protein preservation was tested through the racemisation ratios of aspartic acid. Regions of the 28S rDNA gene were successfully amplified and sequenced. Further research perspectives are outlined.

Animals↗
PubMed2002

Crab louse infestation in pre-Columbian America.

Until now, Pthirus pubis infestation in ancient human populations had only been recorded in the Old World. We found crab lice on South American mummified bodies from the Atacama Desert region. Crab louse eggs were found attached to the pubic hairs of a 2,000-yr-old Chilean mummy. Well-preserved adults were found in sediment and clothing from a Peruvian mummy dated 1,000 yr ago. Paleoparasitological evidence expands the knowledge of the distribution of this ectoparasite in ancient populations. As with many other parasites, pubic lice recorded in Andean populations show the antiquity of this parasite in the New World. It is likely that P. pubis entered the continent with early human migration to the New World.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

NMDA receptor blockage protects against permanent noise-induced hearing loss but not its potentiation by carbon monoxide.

While a clear role has been proposed for glutamate as a putative neurotransmitter at the inner hair cell type I spiral ganglion cell synapse, the possible role of excessive glutamate release in cochlear impairment and of NMDA receptors in such a process is uncertain. The present study compares the protective effects of (+)-MK-801, an NMDA receptor antagonist, and the relatively inactive isomer (-)-MK-801 against permanent noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). The study also asks whether (+)-MK-801 can protect against the NIHL potentiation by carbon monoxide (CO). Rats (n = 6) were exposed to 100-dB, 13.6-kHz octave-band noise for 2 h after receiving injection of (+)-MK-801 hydrogen maleate (1 mg/kg), (-)-MK-801 hydrogen maleate (1 mg/kg), or saline. Other groups of animals were exposed to the combination of noise and CO (1200 ppm) after receiving (+)-MK-801 or saline. Additional subjects received (+)-MK-801, saline or CO exposure alone. Compound action potential (CAP) threshold sensitivities were compared 4 weeks after the exposures. The results show significant protection by (+)-MK-801 against the permanent CAP threshold elevation induced by noise alone, but no protective effect of (-)-MK-801. (+)-MK-801 produced limited protection against threshold shifts induced by the combination of noise and CO. Outer hair cell (OHC) loss was not protected by (+)-MK-801 administration. The data suggest that NMDA receptor stimulation may play a role in NIHL resulting from fairly mild noise exposure. The data do not support a role for NMDA receptor stimulation in the potentiation of NIHL that results from simultaneous exposure to CO and noise.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed2000

Paleoparasitology of Chagas disease revaled by infected tissues from Chilean mummies.

Mummified tissues were sampled from bodies stored at the Museo Arqueologico de San Pedro de Atacama, northern Chile, dated from 2000 years BP-1400 AD, and Trypanosoma cruzi DNA was recovered using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methodology. Amplification of the conserved region of the minicircle molecule of T. cruzi was achieved in four of the six samples tested. Amplified products corresponding to genetic fragments of the parasite were tested by hybridization experiments with positive results for T. cruzi specific molecular probe. The origin and dispersion of T. cruzi human infection is discussed as well as the molecular paleoparasitological approach, and what it may represent in an evolutionary perspective.

Animals↗
PubMed1999

An analysis and report of custodial deaths in Nebraska, USA.

All medico-legal cases from the Lancaster County Coroner's Office in Lincoln, Nebraska USA, between 1991 and 1996, were reviewed for deaths which occurred in custody. The leading causes of death, in ranked order include: natural 45.1% (23/51), suicide 33.3% (17/51), homicide 11.8% (6/51), accident 7.8% (4/51), and undetermined 2% (1/51). Each cause of death was explored using the following variables: cause of death, age, sex, and race of the decedents. The findings of this investigation are compared with previous studies in other geographic regions of the country. Many similarities and differences in the frequencies of the modes of death are discussed. In addition, six unusual case studies including one accidental death, one homicide, and four suicides are presented and may serve as a reference for pathologists, forensic physicians and other forensic scientists confronted with aberrant cases.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1998

Analysis and regulation of vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein serine 239 phosphorylation in vitro and in intact cells using a phosphospecific monoclonal antibody.

The development and functional analysis of a monoclonal antibody (16C2) are reported; the antibody recognizes vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein (VASP; an established substrate of both cAMP- and cGMP-dependent protein kinase) only when serine 239 is phosphorylated. VASP serine 239 represents one of the best characterized cGMP-dependent protein kinase phosphorylation sites in vitro and in intact cells. Experiments with purified, recombinant human VASP and various VASP constructs with mutated phosphorylation sites (S157A, S239A, T278A) and experiments with intact cells (human/rat platelets and other cells) treated with cyclic nucleotide-elevating agents demonstrated the specificity of the monoclonal antibody 16C2. Quantitative analysis of the VASP shift from 46 to 50 kDa (indicating VASP serine 157 phosphorylation) and the appearance of VASP detected by the 16C2 monoclonal antibody (VASP serine 239 phosphorylation) in human platelets stimulated by selective protein kinase activators confirmed that serine 239 is the VASP phosphorylation site preferred by cGMP-dependent protein kinase in intact cells. Immunofluorescence experiments with human platelets treated with cGMP analogs showed that the 16C2 monoclonal antibody also detects VASP serine 239 phosphorylation in situ at established intracellular localization sites. Analysis of VASP serine 239 phosphorylation by the 16C2 antibody appears to be the best method presently available to measure cGMP-dependent protein kinase activation in intact cells. Also, the 16C2 antibody promises to be an excellent tool for the evaluation of VASP function in intact cells.

Animals↗
PubMed1997

Characterization and heterologous expression of hydroxycinnamoyl/benzoyl-CoA:anthranilate N-hydroxycinnamoyl/benzoyltransferase from elicited cell cultures of carnation, Dianthus caryophyllus L.

Benzoyl-CoA:anthranilate N-benzoyltransferase catalyzes the first committed reaction of phytoalexin biosynthesis in carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.), and the product N-benzoylanthranilate is the precursor of several sets of dianthramides. The transferase activity is constitutively expressed in suspension-cultured carnation cells and can be rapidly induced by the addition of yeast extract. The enzyme was purified to homogeneity from yeast-induced carnation cells and shown to consist of a single polypeptide chain of 53 kDa. Roughly 20% of the sequence was identified by micro-sequencing of tryptic peptides, and some of these sequences differed in a few amino acid residues only suggesting the presence of isoenzymes. A specific 0.8 kb cDNA probe was generated by RT-PCR, employing degenerated oligonucleotide primers complementary to two of the tryptic peptides and using poly(A)+ RNA from elicited carnation cells. Five distinct benzoyltransferase clones were isolated from a cDNA library, and three cDNAs, pchcbt1-3, were sequenced and shown to encode full-size N-benzoyltransferases. The translated peptide sequences revealed more than 95% identity among these three clones. The additional two clones harbored insert sequences mostly homologous with pchcbt 1 but differing in the 3'-flanking regions due to variable usage of poly(A) addition sites. The identity of the clones was confirmed by matching the translated polypeptides with the tryptic enzyme sequences as well as by the activity of the benzoyltransferase expressed in Escherichia coli. Therefore, carnation encodes a small family of anthranilate N-benzoyltransferase genes. In vitro, the benzoyltransferases exhibited narrow substrate specificity for anthranilate but accepted a variety of aromatic acyl-CoAs. Catalytic rates with cinnamoyl- or 4-coumaroyl-CoA exceeded those observed with benzoyl-CoA, although the corresponding dianthramides did not accumulate in vivo. Thus the cDNAs described represent also the first hydroxycinnamoyl-transferases cloned from plants, which classifies the enzymes as hydroxycinnamoyl/benzoyltransferases.

Acyltransferases↗
PubMed1991

Different types of microsomal enzymes catalyze ortho- or para-hydroxylation in the biosynthesis of carnation phytoalexins.

Cell suspension cultures of carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) accumulate, upon challenge with crude fungal elicitor, various dianthramide phytoalexins, all of which derive from N-benzoylanthranilate. In vitro, microsomes from the elicited carnation cells hydroxylated N-benzoylanthranilate in the 4- and/or 2'-positions to yield the hydroxyanthranilate and/or salicyloyl derivatives. 2'-Hydroxylation was shown to precede 4-hydroxylation in the formation of N-salicyloyl-4-hydroxyanthranilate, and both these activities depended strictly on NADPH and molecular oxygen. 4-Hydroxylation was shown to be catalyzed by cytochrome P-450-dependent monooxygenase(s), whereas the 2'-hydroxylating activity appeared to be due to a novel class of enzymes, also responding synergistically to NADH in combination with NADPH and showing apparent inhibition by cytochrome c but not by carbon monoxide. The difference in type of 4- and 2'-hydroxylases was corroborated by the exclusive inhibition of either activity in imidazole vs. MOPS buffers as well as their differential heat sensitivities. In the course of these studies, low concentrations of N-salicyloylanthranilate turned out to inhibit the cytochrome P-450-dependent 4-hydroxylation more strongly than any of the commercial inhibitor chemicals tested, while neither the substrate, N-benzoylanthranilate, nor the final product, N-salicyloyl-4-hydroxyanthranilate, exhibited such significant inhibition. In addition, 2'-hydroxylation activity was affected much less by N-benzoylanthranilate, N-salicyloylanthranilate or by inhibitor chemicals. The results demonstrate the requirement of two different classes of hydroxylase activities that appear to introduce the antimycotic quality to the dianthramides for phytoalexin defense.

Carbon Monoxide↗
PubMed1989

The biosynthesis of phytoalexins in Dianthus caryophyllus L. cell cultures: induction of benzoyl-CoA:anthranilate N-benzoyltransferase activity.

It has been shown that cell cultures of Dianthus caryophyllus L. c.v. Eleganz accumulate N-benzoyl-4-methoxyanthranilic acid, previously identified as the phytoalexin methoxydianthramide B, in response to treatment either with a crude elicitor isolated from the cell walls of Phytophthora megasperma f.sp. glycinea or with a commercial yeast extract. Cell-free extracts from the induced cells efficiently catalyzed the N-benzoylation of anthranilate in the presence of benzoyl-CoA. The partially purified transferase was shown to be specific for anthranilate with almost no activity toward 4-hydroxyanthranilate, whereas acyl donors other than benzoyl-CoA such as salicyloyl-, cinnamoyl-, or 4-coumaroyl-CoA were also accepted. Elicitor treatment of the cells additionally induced an S-adenosyl-L-methionine:N-benzoyl-4-hydroxyanthranilate 4-O-methyltransferase activity. We propose, therefore, that methoxydianthramide B is derived from N-benzoylanthranilic acid via N-benzoyl-4-hydroxyanthranilic acid. Dark-grown cells contained little N-benzoyltransferase activity (approx 8 mu kat/kg), which increased roughly ninefold within 6 h following the addition of the elicitor. In addition, phenylalanine ammonia-lyase activity of the cells increased about twofold under these conditions to a maximum (approx 40 mu kat/kg) at 5 h. The rapid induction of both enzyme activities suggests that the shikimate pathway is of crucial importance in the disease resistance response of carnation cells.

Acyltransferases↗
PubMed1989

[The occurrence of perchloroethylene in indoor air and food in dwellings in the vicinity of dry cleaning plants].

In this presentation the results of investigations concerning the concentration of Tetrachloroethylene in indoor-air and in food in residential quarters in the vicinity of dry cleaners are reported. It could be demonstrated that a significant enrichment of Tetrachloroethylene becomes evident in fat containing food, increasing with the time of storage. Particularly in butter the limit of concentration admissible for the consumption of food was exceeded in four out of five apartments after seven days. The examination of the concentration of Tetrachloroethylene over the course of the day indicates that in dependence of the hours of operation significant differences were measurable in the concentration of Tetrachloroethylene in the indoor-air of an apartment examined, without indoor rooms building up accumulation of Tetrachloroethylene. The investigations confirm that residents in the neighbourhood of dry cleaners are exposed to high load of Tetrachloroethylene by indoor-air and food.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Paleoparasitology: perspectives with new techniques.

Paleoparasitology is the study of parasites found in archaeological material. The development of this field of research began with histological identification of helminth eggs in mummy tissues, analysis of coprolites, and recently through molecular biology. An approach to the history of paleoparasitology is reviewed in this paper, with special reference to the studies of ancient DNA identified in archaeological material.

Animals↗