Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: EC:1.6.99.3 (diaphorase)
 5,903 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The purpose of this work was to isolate thymocyte plasma membranes at high yield and purity to study specific surface molecules in their structural context. A procedure was developed in which 92-95% of the cells were disrupted by homogenization in a dense viscous medium, while nuclei remained intact. Differential centrifugation of the homogenate was avoided; instead, only a brief (2 h) centrifugation at equilibrium-density of membrane components was used. Five fractions were obtained, three by flotation. Membrane-bound enzymatic activities indicated a 60-80% yield of plasma membranes in the three floated membrane fractions, which comprised 1.6% of the homogenate protein. Enrichment factors for three ectoenzymes, alkaline phosphatase, gamma-glutamyltransferase, and ouabain-sensitive adenosine triphosphatase were respectively, 70-74, and 40-50 in the two lightest fractions. Nuclear membranes were then isolated from the remaining whole nuclei and were found to be enriched in esterase and NADH-cytochrome c reductase. Plasma membranes and light nuclear membranes appeared as pure unit-membrane vesicles in thin sections and freeze-etching electron microscopy. Some aggregation of intramembranous particles occurred in plasma membrane vesicles.
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PMID:Isolation of plasma and nuclear membranes of thymocytes. I. Enzymatic composition and ultrastructure. 2 89

Glucuronidation of 4-nitrophenol, nopol (a monoterpenoid alcohol) and bilirubin, which in the rat, are catalyzed by three different enzymes, has been examined in liver biopsies from patients with various liver diseases, in particular cholestasis. These different activities were not correlated, which strongly suggests that at least three independently regulated forms of UDP-glucuronosyltransferases were present in the microsomes. Non ionic detergents (Triton X100, Emulgen 911) and deoxycholate produced similar activation (more than 2-fold) of the glucuronidation of 4-nitrophenol. Amphipathic substances, such as CHAPS (3-[3-cholamidopropyl-dimethylammonio]-1-propane sulfonate), and lysophosphatidylcholines maximally increased this UDP-glucuronosyltransferase activity, the most potent being oleoyl lysophosphatidylcholine (4-fold increase). Discriminant analysis of the data revealed no correlation between the three different UDP-glucuronosyltransferase activities and the age or sex of the patients. A good correlation was found on multidimensional analysis between form 1 of the enzyme (4-nitrophenol glucuronidation) and, in decreasing order of magnitude, epoxide hydrolase (measured with benzo(a)pyrene-4,5-oxide as substrate), cytochrome P-450, 7-ethoxycoumarin deethylase, aspartate aminotransferase and gamma-glutamyltransferase (r = 0.89); and between Form 3 of the enzyme (bilirubin glucuronidation) and NADPH cytochrome c reductase, alkaline phosphatase, (r = 0.81). These relationships may reflect the differential variation in enzymatic activities in various hepato-biliary diseases.
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PMID:Properties of human hepatic UDP-glucuronosyltransferases. Relationship to other inducible enzymes in patients with cholestasis. 288 32

A method is described for the isolation of endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus from hyperplastic liver nodules produced by discontinuous feeding of 2-acetylaminofluorene to male Wistar rats. The procedure involves three centrifugation steps and permits the separation of these cell components and their subfractions from the same sample of liver tissue as little as 1 g, wet weight. The fractions have been characterized by chemical, enzymatic, and morphological techniques and were found to be as pure as preparations from normal tissue. Furthermore, some of the characteristic histochemical features of hyperplastic liver nodules have been quantitated by biochemical methods in the fractions. Glucose-6-phosphatase activity in the endoplasmic reticulum subfractions of nodules is approximately 15% of the corresponding value in normal livers, whereas the activity of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate: cytochrome c reductase is reduced to 85% of the normal activity. The amount of cytochrome P-450 in nodular membranes as measured by differential spectroscopy is 25% of the control, indicating a decreased Phase I activity in drug metabolism. A 5-fold increase in cytosolic glutathione S-transferase activity without change in the corresponding microsomal activity was detected in hepatocyte nodules in rat liver. The activity of gamma-glutamyltransferase is increased more than 20-fold in all membrane fractions prepared from nodular tissue. The cytosolic activity, which is very low in the normal liver, is similarly increased more than 20-fold. The membrane-associated gamma-glutamyltransferase seems to be an integral membrane protein which cannot be washed away from the membranes. Chemically, membranes from nodules have phospholipid and cholesterol:protein ratios as found in membranes from normal liver tissue. However, the composition of individual phospholipids is changed with a 2-fold increase in nodular phosphatidylinositol and a slight decrease in phosphatidylcholine content in nodular membranes. The amount of endoplasmic reticulum membranes is of the same magnitude as in normal liver, although the smooth-surfaced component constitutes almost 60% of the isolated endoplasmic reticulum marker enzymes in nodules, compared with only 32% in preparations from normal tissue. The albumin contents of nodular and normal microsomal and Golgi membrane preparations are similar, indicating a normal synthesis of albumin by nodular tissue.
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PMID:Isolation and characterization of endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus from hepatocyte nodules in male wistar rats. 618 97

Reduction of the blue dye resazurin to pink resorufin is used to estimate the concentration of metabolically active spermatozoa in semen samples. In order to quantify the reduction of resazurin, a spectrophotometric method was developed measuring the change from blue to pink in the butanol extracted colour. The biochemical mechanisms involved in the reduction of resazurin by motile spermatozoa and seminal plasma were investigated. Addition of NADH + H+ to sperm suspension or seminal plasma increased the reduction of resazurin. The reduction reaction was inhibited by high concentrations of dicoumarol, a specific inhibitor of the diaphorase enzyme, in a dose-dependent manner. It is suggested that the sperm diaphorase enzyme transfers electrons from NADH + H+ to resazurin, reducing it to resorufin. The degree of resazurin reduction was strongly correlated with the concentration of motile spermatozoa recovered from the 90% Percoll fraction (r = 0.98, p < 0.001). A positive correlation was also found between the reducing capacity of seminal plasma (n = 62) on the one hand, and sperm concentration (r = 0.72, p < 0.0001), progressive motility (r = 0.45, p < 0.01), normal morphology (r = 0.50, p < 0.01), and gamma-glutamyltransferase (r = 0.36, p < 0.05) on the other hand. These findings, together with our previous observations that the reduction reaction is inhibited by reactive oxygen species and polymorphonuclear white blood cells, increase our understanding of the biochemical basis of the resazurin test and may provide better insight into the interpretation of this test.
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PMID:The correlates and alleged biochemical background of the resazurin reduction test in semen. 980 45