Biomedical subjects

Richard J McCormick

Publications and source records attributed to Richard J McCormick.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Early post-mortem AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activation leads to phosphofructokinase-2 and -1 (PFK-2 and PFK-1) phosphorylation and the development of pale, soft, and exudative (PSE) conditions in porcine longissimus muscle.

Pale, soft, and exudative (PSE) meat has been recognized for decades. Fast glycolysis during early post-mortem stage while the muscle temperature is still high is the cause of PSE meat. To elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying this fast glycolysis in muscle to become PSE meat, post-mortem ATP metabolism, fructose-2,6-diphosphate content, and the activities of AMPK, glycogen phosphorylase, and pyruvate kinase were examined in post-mortem muscle. Earlier and faster post-mortem AMPK activation was responsible for the significantly lower pH and higher lactic acid accumulation (p<0.05) seen in PSE muscle, which resulted in the occurrence of PSE meat. In muscle that became PSE meat, AMPK was activated at 0 h post-mortem and reached maximal activation at 0.5 h post-mortem, whereas AMPK reached maximal activation at 1 h post-mortem in the normal pork loin. Higher fructose-2,6-diphosphate content (p<0.05) was detected in PSE muscle compared to normal muscle at early post-mortem stage. However, no difference in the activities of glycogen phosphorylase and pyruvate kinase, rate-controlling enzymes in glycogenolysis and glycolysis, respectively, was detected between PSE and normal pork loins. Because fructose-2,6-diphosphate is a product of phosphofructokinase-2 (PFK-2), these data suggest that AMPK regulates post-mortem glycolysis through its phosphorylation and activation of PFK-2, which then up-regulates the activity of phosphofructokinase-1 (PFK-1), a key rate-controlling enzyme in glycolysis. Early AMPK activation in PSE muscle is associated with early consumption of ATP, because higher AMP and IMP contents and lower ATP content were detected in PSE meat compared to normal meat. Other mechanisms causing early AMPK activation in PSE meat may exist, which warrants further investigation.

AMP-Activated Protein Kinases↗

PubMed2006

Earliest changes in the left ventricular transcriptome postmyocardial infarction.

We report a genome-wide survey of early responses of the mouse heart transcriptome to acute myocardial infarction (AMI). For three regions of the left ventricle (LV), namely, ischemic/infarcted tissue (IF), the surviving LV free wall (FW), and the interventricular septum (IVS), 36,899 transcripts were assayed at six time points from 15 min to 48 h post-AMI in both AMI and sham surgery mice. For each transcript, temporal expression patterns were systematically compared between AMI and sham groups, which identified 515 AMI-responsive genes in IF tissue, 35 in the FW, 7 in the IVS, with three genes induced in all three regions. Using the literature, we assigned functional annotations to all 519 nonredundant AMI-induced genes and present two testable models for central signaling pathways induced early post-AMI. First, the early induction of 15 genes involved in assembly and activation of the activator protein-1 (AP-1) family of transcription factors implicates AP-1 as a dominant regulator of earliest post-ischemic molecular events. Second, dramatic increases in transcripts for arginase 1 (ARG1), the enzymes of polyamine biosynthesis, and protein inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) activity indicate that NO production may be regulated, in part, by inhibition of NOS and coordinate depletion of the NOS substrate, L: -arginine. ARG1: was the single-most highly induced transcript in the database (121-fold in IF region) and its induction in heart has not been previously reported.

Acute Disease↗

PubMed2003

Maternal undernutrition from early- to mid-gestation leads to growth retardation, cardiac ventricular hypertrophy, and increased liver weight in the fetal sheep.

Early gestation is critical for placentomal growth, differentiation, and vascularization, as well as fetal organogenesis. The fetal origins of adult disease hypothesis proposes that alterations in fetal nutrition and endocrine status result in developmental adaptations that permanently change structure, physiology, and metabolism, thereby predisposing individuals to cardiovascular, metabolic, and endocrine disease in adult life. Multiparous ewes were fed to 50% (nutrient restricted) or 100% (control fed) of total digestible nutrients from Days 28 to 78 of gestation. All ewes were weighed weekly and diets adjusted for individual weight loss or gain. Ewes were killed on Day 78 of gestation and gravid uteri recovered. Fetal body and organ weights were determined, and numbers, morphologies, diameters, and weights of all placentomes were obtained. From Day 28 to Day 78, restricted ewes lost 7.4% of body weight, while control ewes gained 7.5%. Maternal and fetal blood glucose concentrations were reduced in restricted versus control pregnancies. Fetuses were markedly smaller in the restricted group than in the control group. Further, restricted fetuses exhibited greater right- and left-ventricular and liver weights per unit fetal weight than control fetuses. No treatment differences were observed in any gross placentomal measurement. However, caruncular vascularity was enhanced in conceptuses from nutrient-restricted ewes but only in twin pregnancies. While these alterations in fetal/placental development may be beneficial to early fetal survival in the face of a nutrient restriction, their effects later in gestation as well as in postnatal life need further investigation.

Animals↗

PubMed2003

Unloading-induced remodeling in the normal and hypertrophic left ventricle.

To date, no study has assessed the degree of similarity between left ventricular (LV) reverse remodeling and atrophic remodeling. Stable LV hypertrophy was induced by creation of an arteriovenous fistula (AVF) in Lewis rats (32 days). LV unloading was induced by heterotopic transplantation of normal (NL-HT) and/or hypertrophic (AVF-HT) hearts (7 days). We compared indexes of remodeling in AVF, NL-HT, and AVF-HT groups with those of normal controls. LV unloading induced decreases in cardiomyocyte size in NL-HT and AVF-HT hearts. NL-HT and AVF-HT LV were both characterized by relative increases in collagen concentration that were largely a reflection of decreases in myocyte volume. NL-HT and AVF-HT LV were associated with similar increases in matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-2 and -9) zymographic activity, without change in the abundance of the tissue inhibitors of the MMPs. In contrast, AVF-HT, but not NL-HT, was associated with a dramatic increase in collagen cross-linking. Our findings suggest an overall similarity in the response of the normal and hypertrophic LV to surgical unloading. However, the dramatic increase in collagen cross-linking after just 1 wk of unloading suggests a potential difference in the dynamics of collagen metabolism between the two models. Further studies will be required to determine the precise molecular mechanisms responsible for these differences in extracellular matrix regulation. However, with respect to these and related issues, heterotopic transplantation of hypertrophied hearts will be a useful small animal model for defining mechanisms of myocyte-matrix interactions during decreased loading conditions.

Algorithms↗