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S E Knowles

Publications and source records attributed to S E Knowles.

33 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1981

Effects of microbial proteinase inhibitors on the degradation of endogenous and internalized proteins by rat yolk sacs.

1. The effects of leupeptin and other microbial proteinase inhibitors were measured in rat yolk sacs on the uptake and degradation of formaldehyde-denatured 125I-labelled bovine serum albumin as well as on the degradation of 3H-labelled endogenous protein. 2. Leupeptin, at concentrations between 1 and 100 micrograms/ml, inhibits the degradation of added albumin without affecting pinocytic uptake. Accordingly large amounts of undegraded albumin accumulate within the tissue. 3. Removal of leupeptin produces a rapid recovery of the capacity to degrade albumin. 4. Endogenous protein degradation is rapidly inhibited by leupeptin, but to a far lesser extent than the breakdown of albumin. However, the inhibition is only slightly reversed on removal of leupeptin. 5. Degradation of both albumin and endogenous protein in intact yolk sacs is inhibited by the microbial proteinase inhibitors in the order: leupeptin greater than antipain greater than chymostatin; elastatinal, pepstatin and bestatin are ineffective. 6. Similar results are found when albumin is incubated in yolk-sac homogenates at pH 4 with the inhibitors. 7. The marked inhibitory effects of leupeptin, antipain and chymostatin suggest that cathepsin B and possibly cathepsin L participate in the degradation of 125I-labelled albumin in yolk sacs. By comparison, the smaller inhibitory effects of the proteinase inhibitors on endogenous protein breakdown imply a minor role of lysosomal cathepsins in this process.

Animals↗
PubMed1981

Regulation of intracellular protein degradation by insulin and growth factors.

Protein breakdown in many cell lines is inhibited by growth factors. The response is specific, rapid and additive only at suboptimal concentrations. Transformed cells are typically more sensitive to growth factors than nontransformed cells while the effectiveness of growth factors in human fibroblasts is diminished with senescence. Bovine colostrum has been shown to be an extremely rich source of growth factors as compared to serum.

Animals↗
PubMed1980

Effects of weak bases on the degradation of endogenous and exogenous proteins by rat yolk sacs.

In rat yolk sacs incubated in vitro, the rates of degradation of endogenous [3H]leucine-labelled proteins and of pinocytically ingested 125I-labelled bovine serum albumin were both decreased in the presence of either ammonium, methylammonium or ethylammonium ions (0-20 mM) or much lower concentrations of chloroquine (0-500 microM). These effects were also accompanied by an inhibition of pinocytosis, as measured by the rate of uptake of 125I-labelled polyvinylpyrrolidone, and by a fall in the [ATP]/[ADP] ratio within the tissue. Re-incubation in inhibitor-free medium of yolk sacs previously exposed to a weak base restored pinocytic and proteolytic capacities, except for tissues exposed to chloroquine at concentrations above 0.1 mM (these appeared to be cytotoxic); an attendent rise in [ATP]/[ADP] ratios to near normal values was also observed. Weak bases, at concentrations that fully arrested the breakdown of 125I-labelled albumin, failed to inhibit by more than 45% the degradation of [3H]leucine-labelled endogenous proteins. Since 125I-labelled bovine serum albumin has been shown to be degraded entirely intralysosomally by yolk sacs, this suggests either that the hydrolysis of endogenous proteins is shared between lysosomes and some other site or that, unlike 125I-labelled albumin, some endogenous proteins can be degraded within lysosomes at abnormally high pH.

Adenine Nucleotides↗
PubMed1980

Insulin inhibition of protein degradation in cell monolayers.

Protein degradation has been measured in confluent monolayers of eleven lines of contact-inhibited cells and ten transformed lines as the rate of release of trichloroacetic acid-soluble radioactivity after prelabeling cell protein with [3H]leucine. Insulin, at contrations from 10(-12) M to 10(-6) M, has been added at the beginning of the 4-hour degradation period to detect selective effects of this hormone as an inhibitor of the inducible proteolysis occurring in serum-free medium. In addition insulin binding measurements have been performed on selected cell lines in an attempt to relate receptor properties to insulin action. Substantial effects of insulin are found in most cells with a selective inhibition at low insulin concentrations noted in several of the transformed lines. The difference in insulin sensitivity is not entirely definitive because temperature-sensitive transformation mutants of NRK cells are not more sensitive to insulin at a temperature where they show the transformed phenotype. Although insulin receptors on different cell lines have similar binding properties, two of the hepatomas used, H35 and MH1C1, show inhibition of protein degradation at insulin concentrations where receptor occupancy is extremely low. Calvarial osteoblast-like cells have a high rate of protein degradation which can be reduced by growth factors but not by insulin. The lack of an insulin response is a consequence of poor insulin binding to the cells. Insulin binds to the osteogenic sarcoma cells in substantial amounts. However, its normal action to inhibit the induced proteolysis is restricted because with these cells no increase of proteolysis occurs in serum-free medium. Generally higher rates of protein degradation are observed in the contact-inhibited lines than the transformed cells. We suggest that this difference may provide a selective growth advantage to transformed cells.

Animals↗
PubMed1979

Inactivation of cytosol enzymes by a liver membrane protein.

Non-proteolytic inactivation reactions have been suggested to play an important role in determining the relative rates of enzyme degradation within cells. An inactivation factor is present at high specific activity in hepatocyte plasma membrane which inactivates cytosol enzymes at rates roughly proportional to their rates of degradation in vivo. This factor has been purified about 100-fold and has similar catalytic selectivity to the crude factor. The inactivation reaction is accelerated by disulphide compounds and can be partially reversed by thiols. Furthermore, inactivation of enzymes is accompanied by a loss of measurable thiols in the enzymes. From these experiments it is concluded that the inactivation factor carries out a disulphide attack on surface thiol groups in cytosol enzymes leading to the formation of mixed disulphides which have lost catalytic activity. The inactive enzymes may be substrates for lysosomal or non-lysosomal proteolysis.

Animals↗
PubMed1978

Effects of amino acid analogues on protein synthesis and degradation in isolated cells.

1. Naturally-occurring and synthetic analogues of phenylalanine, tyrosine, histidine, arginine, proline, tryptophan and the sulphur amino acids have beeen tested in rat reticulocytes and in the Reuber H35 hepatoma for effects on protein synthesis and protein degradation and on the heat lability of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (EC 4.1.1.32) in the hepatoma cells. The experiments were designed to test whether the analogues could be incorporated into mammalian proteins and whether the resultant proteins would be degraded at an accelerated rate. 2. Several analogues, including thiazolylanine, triazolalanine and selenocystine both stimulated protein synthesis and produced labile protein in reticulocytes. Other analogues, such as dihydroxyphenylalanine, thioproline and pipecolic acid accelerated protein breakdown but probably indirectly via an inhibition of protein synthesis. Azetidine-2-carboxylic acid had the largest effect on protein breakdown in reticulocytes. 3. Labile protein was produced in hepatoma cells incubated in the presence of azetidine-2-carboxylic acid, canavanine, indospicine, triazolalanine, 2-, 3- and 4-fluorophenylalanine. These same analogues, together with 3,4-dehydroproline, beta-2-thienylalanine, dihydroxyphenylalanine, histidinol, 5- and 6-fluorotryptophan, selenocystine and selenomethionine produced heat-labile phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase. Enzyme induced in the presence of selenomethionine or indospicine showed the largest increases in heat lability, and for these analogues equimolar concentrations of methionine and arginine respectively were needed to nullify the enzyme abnormality. 4. The toxicity of the same naturally-occurring analogues has been discussed in terms of their ability to be incorporated into cell proteins.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1977

Attempts to relate enzyme inactivation to degradation in vivo.

Inactivation of liver cytosol proteins has been measured in vitro in the presence of various membranes and disulphides. Inactivation rates correlate with the known degradation rate constants of the enzymes in the intact liver. More extensive studies were carried out with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) using either cytosol as a source of these enzymes or alternatively highly purified preparations of each enzyme. All membranes purified from liver had a considerable capacity to inactivate the enzymes with higher activity found in the hepatocyte plasma membrane. Various lipid preparations or plasma membranes from other tissues were virtually ineffective. Inactivation was dependent on disulphides in the membranes as shown by the inhibition of activity if membranes were pretreated with thiols. Preliminary experiments of the fate of inactivated G6PD or PEPCK show binding to membranes and subsequent proteolysis. A model is proposed for the degradation of labile enzymes.

Alkylation↗
PubMed1976

Selective control of the degradation of normal and aberrant proteins in Reuber H35 hepatoma cells.

1. Rates of degradation of normal and abnormal protein were measured in hepatoma cells after labelling first for 16h with [14C]leucine plus L-arginine and then for 3h with [3H]-leucine plus the arginine analogue, L-canavanine. 2. Over the first 2h of the degradation period, canavanine-containing proteins were degraded at approximately 5 times the average degradation rate of normal proteins. 3. Degradation of normal proteins was inhibited by about 30% by insulin, cycloheximide, puromycin, leupeptin, antipain and foetal calf serum, whereas these agents had a negligible effect on the breakdown of canavanine-containing proteins. 4. Other compounds inhibited degradation of both classes of protein to equal extents. 5. Combination experiments showed no additional inhibitory effects on the degradation of normal proteins over degradation measured in the presence of a single selective inhibitor. 6. In contrast with the results with a 16 h labelling period, the degradation of normal proteins labelled for only 3 h was not inhibited by insulin. 7. These results are explained by a model with two distinct pathways of protein turnover. The first of these pathways involves the formation of autophagic vacuoles and would be completely inhibited by each of the selective inhibitors. Normal and canavanine-containing proteins would be catabolized by this pathway at equal rates. We propose that degradation by a second pathway is not regulated by the agents tested, but by the inherent stability of each protein.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1975

Properties of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (guanosine triphosphate) synthesized in hepatoma cells in the presence of amino acid analogues.

Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (GTP) was induced by a combination of dibutyryl cyclic AMP, theophyline and dexamethasone in Reuber H35 hepatoma cells under conditions where an amino acid in the medium was replaced by an appropriate analogue. 2. With canavanine replacing arginine or with 5-fluorotryptophan or 6-fluorotryptophan replacing tryptophan the induced enzyme had a lower catalytic activity-relative to antibody reactivity. 3. These aberrant enzyme molecules were heat-labile in vitro. 4. Measurements of enzyme degradation in vivo indicated that the canavanine-containing enzyme and the 6-fluorotryptophan-containing enzyme were degraded more rapidly than the enzyme containing all natural amino acids.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1975

Increased degradation rates of protein synthesized in hepatoma cells in the presence of amino acid analogues.

1. Reuber H35 hepatoma cells incorporate the arginine analogue canavanine into cell protein when arginine is omitted from the incubation medium. 2. By labelling arginine-containing proteins with (14-C)leucine and then canavanine-containing proteins with (3-H)leucine in the same cells, it is possible to measure the degradation of both types of protein during a subsequent 'chase' period. With this technique it has been shown that canavanine-containing proteins are degraded at a rate severalfold greater than normal proteins. Comparable results were found when 6-fluorotryptophan was used as an analogue to tryptophan. 3. Control experiments in which the labelling order was reversed or where the animo acid and its analogue were incubated in separate cell cultures support the conclusion that abberrant proteins are rapidly degraded in vivo.

Amino Acids↗
PubMed1974

Production and utilization of acetate in mammals.

1. In an attempt to define the importance of acetate as a metabolic precursor, the activities of acetyl-CoA synthetase (EC 6.2.1.1) and acetyl-CoA hydrolase (Ec 3.1.2.1) were assayed in tissues from rats and sheep. In addition, the concentrations of acetate in blood and liver were measured, as well as the rates of acetate production by tissue slices and mitochondrial fractions of these tissues. 2. Acetyl-CoA synthetase occurs at high activities in heart and kidney cortex of both species as well as in rat liver and the sheep masseter muscle. The enzyme is mostly in the cytosol fraction of liver, whereas it is associated with the mitochondrial fraction in heart tissue. Both mitochondrial and cytosol activities have a K(m) for acetate of 0.3mm. Acetyl-CoA synthetase activity in liver was not altered by changes in diet, age or alloxan-diabetes. 3. Acetyl-CoA hydrolase is widely distributed in rat and sheep tissues, the highest activity being found in liver. Essentially all of the activity in liver and heart is localized in the mitochondrial fraction. Hepatic acetyl-CoA hydrolase activity is increased by starvation in rats and sheep and during the suckling period in young rats. 4. The concentrations of acetate in blood are decreased by starvation and increased by alloxan-diabetes in both species. The uptake of acetate by the sheep hind limb is proportional to the arterial concentration of acetate, except in alloxan-treated animals, where uptake is impaired. 5. Acetate is produced by liver and heart slices and also by heart mitochondrial fractions that are incubated with either pyruvate or palmitoyl-(-)-carnitine. Liver mitochondrial fractions do not form acetate from either substrate but instead convert acetate into acetoacetate. 6. We propose that acetate in the blood of rats or starved sheep is derived from the hydrolysis of acetyl-CoA. Release of acetate from tissues would occur under conditions when the function of the tricarboxylic acid cycle is restricted, so that the circulating acetate serves to redistribute oxidizable substrate throughout the body. This function is analogous to that served by ketone bodies.

Acetates↗