Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:4.2.2.7 (heparinase)
 1,270 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Dissociated embryonic chick ciliary ganglion cells in culture were used as a bioassay to isolate a cholinergic growth-promoting protein from extracts of autopsied adult human muscle. An active protein was purified after acid and salt precipitation of extract, cation exchange, molecular sieving, heparin affinity chromatography, and in some cases, SDS-PAGE. This protein increased levels of choline acetyltransferase activity and ACh synthesis with time in culture. The protein was identified as basic FGF by several criteria. It shared the high affinity for heparin and was the same approximate molecular weight, 18 kD, as basic FGF. Activity was removed from solution by antibodies specific for basic FGF. Recombinant human basic FGF was equally effective in stimulating CAT activity, but was not additive with our purified protein at saturating concentrations. Basic FGF was also found in extracellular matrix and conditioned medium from cultured embryonic chick muscle. The activity could be released from extracellular matrix by treatment with heparinase or high salt extraction. Basic FGF stimulates neurite outgrowth as well as the capacity for transmitter synthesis. Thus, basic FGF is present in embryonic and adult muscle and capable of acting as a growth regulator for cholinergic neurons.
 ...
PMID:Identification of basic fibroblast growth factor as a cholinergic growth factor from human muscle. 274 97

The heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPGs) is a components of the extracellular matrix of skeletal muscle that is concentrated at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Recent studies have suggested that HSPG, together with its bound peptide growth factors, plays important roles in autocrine or paracrine types of regulation of cell growth and differentiation. Heparin-binding growth-associated molecule (HB-GAM; also known as pleiotrophin, or p18) is a newly discovered HSPG-bound factor that is expressed at high levels in the developing CNS and PNS. In this study, we examined the role of this factor in NMJ development by examining its relationship to the formation of ACh receptor (AChR) clusters. Using an antibody against recombinant rat brain HB-GAM, we found that this protein is present prominently on the surface of cultured Xenopus myotomal muscle cells by immunocytochemistry. It is associated with HSPGs as evidenced by the fact that heparin and heparinase treatment greatly diminished the antibody labeling. HB-GAM is concentrated at preexisting AChR hot spots as well as at those induced by polystyrene beads. In addition, this molecule is also concentrated at AChR clusters induced by spinal cord neurons in nerve-muscle cocultures. To assess its function in synaptic induction, we applied recombinant HB-GAM-coated beads to cultured muscle cells to effect its focal presentation. Over 70% of these beads induced the formation of AChR clusters as shown by fluorescent alpha-bungarotoxin labeling. Furthermore, bath application of HB-GAM inhibited the nerve-induced formation of AChR clusters. Thus, HB-GAM is an endogenous muscle-derived factor that may be a component of the molecular mechanism in postsynaptic induction.
 ...
PMID:The role of heparin-binding growth-associated molecule (HB-GAM) in the postsynaptic induction in cultured muscle cells. 772 43