Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P02794 (ferritin)
 17,525 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

alpha-Actinin isolated from dog muscle was used to incite antibodies in rabbits, Antibodies, purified by affinity chromatography on CNBr-Sepharose coupled with alpha-actinin and then ferritin-labeled were found to localize on the Z disc of muscle sarcomeres. Molecules of alpha-actinin as an adsorbed monolayer on the surface of polystyrene Lytron particles could bind muscle-actin and tropomyosin from solution. Both the ATPase activity and superprecipitation of an erythrocyte-actin and muscle-myosin hybrid actomyosin complex were altered by alpha-actinin, while tropomyosin diminished these alpha-actinin effects. The binding properties of alpha-actinin are consistent with those of an anchoring protein for microfilaments in nonmuscle cells.
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PMID:alpha-Actinin and tropomyosin interactions with a hybrid complex of erythrocyte-actin and muscle-myosin. 14 86

The major protein associated with actin in the microfilament core of intestinal microvilli has been purified. This protein, for which we propose the name villin, has a polypeptide molecular weight of approximately 95,000. Two arguments suggest that villin may be the microvillus crossfilament protein that links the microfilament core laterally down its length to the cytoplasmic side of the plasma membrane. First, electron microscopy shows that crossfilaments stay attached to isolated membrane-free microvillus cores. Calculation of the expected abundance of the crossfilament protein shows that only villin is present in sufficient quantity to account for these structures. Second, decoration of microvillus cores by antibodies to either actin or villin, followed by ferritin-labeled second antibody in a sandwich procedure, results in specific labeling of the cores in both cases. The antivillin decoration, however, gives rise to a greater increase in diameter, in agreement with a model in which villin projects from the F-actin microfilament core. Villin is distinct from alpha-actinin, a protein suggested to be involved in membrane anchorage of microfilaments in nonmuscle cells. The two proteins differ in molecular weight. Specific antibodies against villin and alpha-actinin show no immunological crossreactivity. Immunofluorescence microscopy reveals that villin is located in the microvilli of the brush border whereas alpha-actinin is absent from the microvilli but is found in the terminal web. In addition, villin is not found in microfilament bundles of tissue culture cells, which are rich in alpha-actinin. Thus, villin and alpha-actinin appear to be immunologically and functionally different proteins.
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PMID:Villin: the major microfilament-associated protein of the intestinal microvillus. 28 75

alpha-Actinin was localized in chicken intestinal epithelial cells by immunofluorescence and immunoferritin labeling of thin frozen sections. Most of the label of the brush border was confined to the terminal web area. The label there was concentrated mainly along the "roots" of the microvilli core microfilaments and in the vicinity of the zonula adherens. In the latter structure, the narrow electron-dense zones adjacent to the cell membranes, however, were not significantly labeled. This suggests that alpha-actinin does not mediate directly the association of the transverse terminal web microfilaments to the membrane at the zonula adherens. Sparse ferritin labeling was found near the tight junction, whereas the staining associated with the spot desmosome was negligible. The microvilli were not significantly labeled by either immunofluorescence or immunoferritin staining unless the sections were previously treated with detergent. Moreover, alpha-actinin (or a structurally related protein) was not detected in preparations of purified microvillar vesicles, suggesting the possibility that the alpha-actinin staining in the microvilli may be an artificial due to its translocation by the detergent from the terminal web onto the microvilli. The possible roles of alpha-actinin in the organization and function of the brush border are discussed.
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PMID:Immunocytochemical localization of alpha-actinin in intestinal epithelial cells. 37 65

The presence and distribution of alpha-actinin, an actin-bundling protein, was investigated at sites where frog skeletal muscle forms junctions with tendon collagen fibers. These sites, called myotendinous junctions, are regions where myofibrils terminate and where the force of muscular contraction is transmitted from muscle cells to the substratum. An antibody manufactured to chicken smooth muscle alpha-actinin was used as a probe for alpha-actinin localization in this study. The cross-reactivity of this antibody with frog skeletal muscle alpha-actinin is demonstrated in immunoblots of one-dimensional (1D) electrophoretic separations of muscle proteins. Immunofluorescent localization of anti-alpha-actinin and electron microscopic immunolabelling confirms that the antibody binds to Z-discs with high affinity. However, in sections treated for electron microscopy with affinity-purified anti-alpha-actinin and a ferritin-conjugated, second antibody, there was no significant difference between experimental or control preparations in the number of ferritin grains overlying dense, subsarcolemmal material at junctional or non-junctional regions. Furthermore, Z-discs near myotendinous junctions displayed less binding of anti-alpha-actinin than Z-discs located several micrometers or more from the cells' termini. These findings indicate that thin filaments are not bundled by alpha-actinin near the sarcolemma. The results also provide evidence for molecular heterogeneity between Z-discs at the ends of muscle cells compared with other regions of the cell in that the terminal Z-discs of myofibrils contain very little or no alpha-actinin relative to non-terminal Z-discs.
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PMID:Alpha-actinin is absent from the terminal segments of myofibrils and from subsarcolemmal densities in frog skeletal muscle. 349 31

A procedure has been developed for the immunoelectron microscopic localization of intracellular antigens on thin-sectioned tissues. The tissues were fixed in a periodate-lysine-paraformaldehyde solution or a formaldehyde-glutaraldehyde combination and embedded in the acrylate-methacrylate mixture, Lowicryl K4M (Polaron), which was polymerized under ultraviolet irradiation at -35 degrees C. Thin sections were mounted on gold grids, immunostained using an indirect method with ferritin-labeled antibodies, and, optionally, counterstained with osmium tetroxide and/or lead citrate and uranyl acetate. The procedure provided good morphologic preservation of the cell architecture in adult and embryonic heart, and skeletal and smooth muscle tissue, as well as nonmuscle cells. At the same time it retained the antigenicities of several contractile proteins, including myosin, tropomyosin, actin, and alpha-actinin. The method has advantages over en bloc staining techniques in that the problem of antibody penetration into the cells is eliminated and careful controls can be performed on adjacent sections. This technique will be useful for localizing, at the ultrastructural level, contractile and other selected proteins in a variety of muscle and non-muscle cells. Details of the new protocol and a description of the results of using antibody against the contractile protein, alpha-actinin, are given.
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PMID:Immunoelectron microscopic localization of alpha-actinin on Lowicryl-embedded thin-sectioned tissues. 388 38

The subcellular localization of alpha-actinin (Mr 100,000) in human skeletal muscle is restricted to the Z line, in which it is believed to anchor actin filaments. Recently, this protein was identified in normal and thrombasthenic human platelets by its antigenic cross-reaction with antibodies to chicken gizzard alpha-actinin. In our study, the biochemical interaction between purified platelet alpha-actinin and striated muscle F-actin was examined by electron microscopy of negatively stained preparations. Like its muscle counterpart, platelet alpha-actinin promotes the cross-linking and bundling of actin filaments. Antibodies prepared to human platelet alpha-actinin cross-reacted with chicken gizzard alpha-actinin as shown by immunoelectrophoresis and the western blotting technique. Immunoblots prepared with normal and thrombasthenic platelets with antibodies to human platelet alpha-actinin revealed that this protein is susceptible to proteolysis. Extracts of freshly drawn platelets showed a protein band of 100 K. When the platelet extracts were incubated at 37 degrees C for various times, the immunoblots showed protein bands of 100 and 80 K. The proportion of the 80 K protein band increased with incubation time. This proteolysis can be prevented by chelating agents such as EDTA or the protease inhibitor leupeptin. Indirect immunofluorescent studies of human skin fibroblasts with antibodies to chicken gizzard actin and human skeletal muscle, chicken gizzard, and platelet alpha-actinin revealed the staining pattern characteristic of each protein. The distribution of alpha-actinin in normal and thrombasthenic platelets was assessed by ferritin-labeled immunoelectron microscopy. Ferritin particles were found in the cytoplasm immediately below the membrane and in some granules. There was no labeling associated with the mitochondria.
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PMID:Platelet cytoskeleton alpha-actinin in normal and thrombasthenic platelets: distribution and immunologic characterization. 391 30

The ultrastructural localization of three cytoskeletal proteins, alpha-actinin, tropomyosin, and vinculin, in the brush border of epithelial cells of chicken small intestine and the smooth muscle cells of chicken gizzard was studied by immunofluorescence and immunonelectron microscope labeling of frozen sections of lightly fixed, intact tissues. In the immunoelectron microscope studies, a recently described new type of electron-dense antibody conjugate, imposil-antibody, has been successfully used, along with ferritin-antibody conjugates, in single and double immunolabeling experiments. In the intestinal brush border shows that vinvulin is sharply confined to the junctional complex close to the membrane region of the zonula adherens, in distinct contrast to the more diffuse distributions of the other two proteins. In the smooth muscle cells, the labeling patterns show that vinculin is sharply confined to the membrane-associated dense plaques, closer to the membrane than the alpha-Actinin is also present in the cytoplastic dense bodies, from which vinculin is absent. Tropomyosin is present diffusely distributed in the cytoplasm, but absent from both dense plaques and dense bodies. These findings with the muscle cells demonstrate, therefore, that the dense plaques and dense bodies are chemically and structurally distinct entities. The results with both tissues, along with those in previous papers (Geiger, 1979, Cell. 18:193-205.; Geiger et al., 1980, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 77:4127-4131), suggest that vinculin may play an important and widespread role in the linkage of actin-containing microfilament bundles to membranes.
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PMID:Immunoelectron microscope studies of membrane-microfilament interactions: distributions of alpha-actinin, tropomyosin, and vinculin in intestinal epithelial brush border and chicken gizzard smooth muscle cells. 679 20

The ultrastructural localization of alpha-actinin and vinculin in chicken cardiac muscle was studied by double indirect immunoelectron microscopy, using ferritin and iron-dextran (Imposil) as the electron-dense markers conjugated to the secondary antibodies, on ultrathin frozen sections of fixed tissue. Fixation and immunolabeling procedures were developed that permitted maximal retention of the two proteins at their natural sites as well as their adequate labeling. alpha-Actinin was found both on the Z-bands, as expected, and near the fascia adherens of the intercalated discs, whereas vinculin was confined to the latter sites. At the fascia adherens, the double labeling results clearly showed that vinculin was situated closer to the membrane than was alpha-actinin. These results, coupled with earlier observations, suggest that vinculin may participate in the linkage of actin-containing microfilament bundles to membranes in a variety of cell types.
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PMID:Ultrastructure of chicken cardiac muscle as studied by double immunolabeling in electron microscopy. 680 54