Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0019204 (hepatocellular carcinoma)
 71,386 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

MC2 is a ternary enzyme complex consisting of MAT, methyltransferase and SAHH. Three isozymes of SAHH have been identified from rat and mouse livers based on different kinetic properties. The Km values are 0.35 +/- 0.05 microM, 1.63 +/- 0.38 microM and 0.37 +/- 0.07 mM for SAHH-L, SAHH-I, and SAHH-H respectively. The corresponding low Km isozymes of MAT and SAHH form MCs-L which include RNA MCs, the intermediate Km isozymes form MC-I, and the high Km isozymes form MC-H which is glycine MC. MCs-L are common to all tissues whereas MC-I and MC-H are organ specific enzyme complexes. Low levels of MC-H in the liver of C3H/HeN mouse are correlated with the slow maturation of hepatocytes and the genetic predisposition to develop spontaneous PHC. Rat Novikoff ascites hepatoma and mouse spontaneous PHC have been shown to contain a SAHH isozyme displaying kinetic properties different from the corresponding normal SAHH-L. The abnormal kinetic properties of tumour SAHH are analogous to those of tumour MAT previously shown by the authors to be uniquely associated with malignant tissues. The tumour isozyme, which is named SAHH-LT, has a Km (AR) value of 2.18 +/- 0.22 microM. The altered tumour MC isozymes appear to play an important role in perpetuating malignant growth, because once the tumour growth was inhibited by poly (I) (C), the abnormal kinetic properties were no longer detectable. Thus abnormal tumour MCs may be exploited as selective targets for cancer chemotherapy. Evidence is presented to indicate that antineoplaston is a potent inhibitory effector of tumour rRNA MCs and an effective antitumor agent.
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PMID:Altered methylation complex isozymes as selective targets for cancer chemotherapy. 374 83

The O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase activity was measured in rat hepatoma cells (H4 cells) at different times after N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG), methylmethane sulfonate (MMS) or ethylmethane sulfonate (EMS) treatment. Incubation with MNNG (10 microM) first depletes the methyltransferase activity, then the number of methyltransferase molecules per cell increases and reaches approximately 3-fold the constitutive level after 48 h. Incubations with MMS (0.5 or 1 mM) or with EMS (5 or 10 mM) do not modify or partially decrease the constitutive methyltransferase level. However, an enhancement of the activity is also observed after 48 h: the activity in 5- and 4-fold higher than the control value in MMS- and EMS-treated cells, respectively. The methyltransferase increase is due to de novo protein synthesis. It is not observed in cells constitutively lacking this protein. The data suggest that the O6-methylguanine (O6-meGua) repair capacity of H4 cells can be increased after a single treatment with alkylating agents, by a process different to the adaptive response.
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PMID:The O6-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase activity of rat hepatoma cells is increased after a single exposure to alkylating agents. 380 98

The tRNA methyltransferase activities of C57BL/6J, C57L/J, C58/J, AKR/J, and C3H/HeJ inbred mice were studied with the use of various amino acid-specific Escherichia coli tRNA's as substrates. Mice from two strains with high incidence of spontaneous leukemia (AKR/J and C58/J) exhibited levels of liver N2-guanine tRNA methyltransferase II (N2-MeGII) activity that were double those of two strains of mice with low incidence of spontaneous leukemia (C57BL/6J and C57L/J). Activities of liver and kidney N2-MeGII of the high spontaneous hepatoma strain C3H/HeJ were also found to be twice as high as those of C57BL/6J mice. The activities of other tRNA base-specific liver tRNA methyltransferases were very similar in all strains studied. The N2-MeGII activity of the F1 progeny of a cross between C57BL/6J and C3H/HeJ showed levels of activity intermediate to those of the parental strains. Activities of liver N2-MeGII of two inbred strains of mice that differ in their H-2 haplotype (C57BL/10SnJ and the congenic strain B10.BR/SgSnJ) were also compared. Both C57BL/10SnJ and B10.BR/SgSnJ strains exhibited low levels of liver N2-MeGII activity, indicating that H-2 does not directly control the activity of this enzyme.
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PMID:Differences in activity of N2-guanine tRNA methyltransferase II among several inbred strains of mice. 385 80

Guanidinoacetate methyltransferase, the enzyme catalyzing the last step in creatine biosynthesis, has previously been considered to be restricted to a few tissues, but it has been found to occur in the cultured cells H4Az C2 rat hepatoma, N4TG1 mouse neuroblastoma, and IMR-90 human fetal lung fibroblast, as well as in skeletal and cardiac muscle of the rat. Activity was highest in the hepatoma, but tissues and cultured cells of nonhepatic origin had 5-20% of the activity of rat liver. Dialyzed 100,000g supernatants prepared from cultured cells or skeletal muscle tissue yielded values for apparent Km in the range of 1.2-3.4 microM for S-adenosylmethionine and 0.050-0.096 mM for guanidinoacetate. Intact monolayers of the three types of cultured cells converted labeled guanidinoacetate in the culture medium to creatine, which was identified by chromatographic behavior and by reaction with creatine kinase. The amounts of guanidinoacetate converted to creatine by fibroblasts and neuroblastoma cells during an 18-h period of incubation suggested that synthesis was proceeding at rates approaching Vmax, even in medium containing the relatively low physiological concentrations of guanidinoacetate. Fibroblast and neuroblastoma cell monolayers also have the capacity to take up creatine provided in the culture medium. The amounts of creatine taken up by monolayers of those cells were measured under the same conditions that were used for measurement of creatine synthesis. Comparison of the amounts of creatine synthesized with the amounts taken up showed that synthesis can make a significant contribution to intracellular pools of creatine plus phosphocreatine in fibroblasts and neuroblastoma cells.
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PMID:Guanidinoacetate methyltransferase activity in tissues and cultured cells. 397 May 26

Pretreatment of H4 (rat hepatoma) cells for 48 h with non toxic doses of alkylating agents methylmethane sulfonate, (MMS), N-methyl-N'-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (MNNG) renders the cells more resistant to the toxic and mutagenic effects of these compounds. This adaptive response seems to reflect improved repair of methylated lesions in cellular DNA. Therefore, we measured the activity of the DNA-glycosylase for N-methylated purines (7-MeGua and 3-MeAd) and the activity of the O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase in control and adapted cells. We show that the adaptive response does not significantly increase the DNA-glycosylase activity but involves the induction of methyltransferase molecules.
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PMID:Repair of methylated bases in mammalian cells during adaptive response to alkylating agents. 404 85

The distribution of cytosolic activity of nicotinamide:S-adenosylmethionine methyltransferase (nicotinamide methylase, EC 2.1.1.1) in normal tissues from adult rat and mouse and in tumors and the change in the enzyme activity during the development of rat tissues were studied. (1) Rat liver exhibited the highest nicotinamide methylase activity among all adult tissues tested; other rat tissues, like adrenal, pancreas, kidney, brain and mouse tissues, had only less than 15% of the adult rat liver activity. (2) 3 days before birth, fetal liver showed a very low nicotinamide methylase activity (2% of adult rat liver), which, however, increased already 1 day before birth and reached the adult level on the day 28 after birth. (3) In a variety of hepatomas and ascites tumors, an inverse correlation, with some exceptions, between tumor growth rate and nicotinamide methylase activity could be seen. In all hepatomas, with the exception of Morris hepatoma 5123tc, nicotinamide methylase activity was significantly decreased in comparison to normal adult rat liver. The highly malignant Zajdela hepatoma, Yoshida sarcoma, sarcoma 180 and Ehrlich ascites tumor methylated nicotinamide only at a negligibly low rate. (4) Cultured RLC cells (an established rat liver cell line) from the stationary growth phase or G1-arrested RLC cells had about half of the adult rat liver activity, yet the activity was 70% higher than that of the logarithmically growing RLC cells.
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PMID:Nicotinamide methylation. Tissue distribution, developmental and neoplastic changes. 623 53

O6-Methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase activity, i.e., the capacity of cells to transfer the methyl group from O6-methylguanine in DNA to protein, was determined in 10 hepatoma cell lines, all derived from Reuber H35 hepatoma but differing in their status of differentiation. Methyltransferase activity of the six differentiated lines tested was at least 4-5 times higher than that of two dedifferentiated lines. The activity of the two poorly differentiated lines examined was low to intermediate. Some of the differentiated lines possessed methyltransferase activities comparable to those in hepatocytes freshly isolated from adult rat. The results suggest that certain differentiated hepatoma lines are capable of mimicking liver in the capacity for repair of O6-methylguanine lesions and in this respect may be useful as model systems for studying liver-specific effects of monofunctional alkylating agents.
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PMID:The capacity of rat hepatoma cell lines for O6-methylguanine-DNA repair correlates with their status of differentiation. 673 58

The expression of rat liver phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase-2 (PEMT2) in McA-RH7777 rat hepatoma cells resulted in the unexpected inhibition of cell growth. There was a strict correlation (r = 0.973) between the level of expression of the enzyme activity and the generation time for hepatoma cell division. Expression of other foreign proteins via the same vector did not inhibit McA-RH7777 cell growth; thus, retardation of cell division was specific for the methyltransferase. Addition of 1 microM 3-deazaadenosine, which causes inhibition of phosphatidylethanolamine methylation, reversed the PEMT2-mediated inhibition of cell division. Transfection of a line of Chinese hamster ovary cells with PEMT2 had no effect on the division of these cells. Induction of hepatic tumors in rats with N-nitrosodiethylamine coincided with a striking decrease in methyltransferase activity and immunoreactive protein in the tumor nodules. Thus, data from studies in cell culture and intact rats suggest a regulatory role for PEMT2 in hepatocyte cell growth and possibly in the development of liver cancer.
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PMID:Suppression of rat hepatoma cell growth by expression of phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase-2. 792 20

Cirrhosis is a risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma. O6-methylguanine is a promutagenic and potentially carcinogenic DNA lesion produced by environmental alkylating agents. If it is not repaired, DNA replication can lead to a G-to-A transition mutation, which is a known mechanism of oncogene activation. We have found that the activity of the repairing methyltransferase enzyme is significantly lower in cirrhotic tissue than in non-cirrhotic diseased liver or in normal liver. This finding suggests a mechanism for cirrhosis being a risk factor for cancer of the liver: increased cellular proliferation together with persistence of O6-methylguanine might lead to malignant transformation of liver cells through mutation and oncogene activation.
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PMID:Deficient repair of DNA lesion O6-methylguanine in cirrhosis. 809

Phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase catalyzes the synthesis of phosphatidylcholine from phosphatidylethanolamine and is most active in liver. A cDNA for this enzyme from a rat liver cDNA library has been cloned, sequenced, and expressed in COS-1 cells, McArdle-RH7777 rat hepatoma cells, and Sf9 insect cells. The expressed protein was capable of converting phosphatidylethanolamine into phosphatidylcholine in intact COS-1 cells, which normally have very low methyltransferase activity. The calculated molecular mass of the methyltransferase protein is 22.3 kDa, which is equivalent to that of the pure protein isolated from rat liver. Comparison of the sequence of the cloned rat liver methyltransferase with the yeast phosphatidylethanolamine methyltransferase PEM2 gene product revealed 44% identical amino acids and 68% similarity in the two predicted protein sequences. A polyclonal antibody was raised against a synthetic peptide corresponding to the carboxyl-terminal region of the enzyme and was affinity purified. The antibody recognized a single protein with a molecular mass of approximately 20 kDa when either rat liver proteins or proteins derived from the transfected COS-1 cells were electrophoresed on polyacrylamide gels containing sodium dodecyl sulfate. Surprisingly, the antibody exhibited no reactivity with endoplasmic reticulum proteins, even though the major phosphatidylethanolamine methyltransferase activity resides on this subcellular organelle. Instead, the antibody specifically recognized a protein in a unique subcellular membrane fraction purified from a crude mitochondrial preparation on a Percoll gradient. Immunocytochemical examination by electron microscopy showed positive labeling only in unique regions of the hepatocytes. The data suggest that this phosphatidylethanolamine methyltransferase is a specific marker for this unique membrane fraction.
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PMID:Cloning and expression of a novel phosphatidylethanolamine N-methyltransferase. A specific biochemical and cytological marker for a unique membrane fraction in rat liver. 834 45


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