Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P56851 (epididymal)
 11,273 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We have been able to culture caput epididymal tubules from rats by modifying an organ culture system (Orgebin-Crist et al, 1980) which was used to culture rabbit corpus epididymal tubule segments. The morphology of the epithelium was consistently good throughout seven days in culture, although sloughed epithelium was commonly seen during the first 24 hours. Evidence of this sloughing was much less frequent thereafter. Throughout seven days of culture, autoradiography of SDS-PAGE of luminal fluid obtained from tubules cultured in medium containing 14C-L-leucine showed incorporation into bands identical to those stained by Coomassie Blue. Rat epididymal alpha-lactalbumin was consistently localized on the luminal surface of the epithelium and the middle piece of the spermatozoa. Spermatozoa appeared to have normal morphology throughout the first three days in culture; thereafter, decapitated spermatozoa were frequently seen. Caput spermatozoa only quiver in place prior to culture, but after three days in culture, 53% of the spermatozoa from distal caput tubules are progressively motile upon dilution in a balanced salt solution. Since the transit time for spermatozoa in the caput epididymidis of the rat is approximately three days, it should be possible with this culture system to study maturational events involving interactions between spermatozoa and the epididymal epithelium.
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PMID:Organ culture of rat caput epididymal tubules in a perifusion chamber. 646 62

The substrate specificity of rat testicular and epididymal peptidase was investigated using chromogenic substrates, D. L-alanine-, L-arginine-, gamma-N-L-glutamine-, L-leucine-, D. L-methionine-, alpha-N-benzoyl-D. L-arginine-, and N-benzoyl-L-leucine-beta-naphthylamide. The histochemical distribution of peptidase activity demonstrated with these substrates was also investigated in the testis and epididymis. L-Arginine-beta-raphthylamide (Arg-beta-NA) and gamma-N-L-glutamine-beta-naphthylamide (Glu-beta-NA) were mostly hydrolyzed in the testis and epididymis, respectively. Histologically, the activity using Arg-beta-NA as substrate (aminopeptidase B) appeared in both the cytoplasms and nuclei of interstitial cells and spermatogonia and the heads of spermatozoa, while activity using other substrates was found only in the cytoplasms of cells in the germinal epithelium. In the epididymis, strong reaction with Glu-beta-NA (gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase) was found in the apical part of the epithelial cells and in the heads of spermatozoa. Neither alpha-N-benzoyl-L-arginine- nor N-benzoyl-L-leucine-beta-naphthylamide was utilized in either the testis or the epididymis.
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PMID:Substrate specificity and histochemical distribution of aminopeptidase in rat testis and epididymis. 705 30

Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) was measured in 15 sheep tissues by spectrophotometric assay with hippuryl-L-histidyl-L-leucine as substrate. Captopril inhibited the ACE activities of all the tissues. The ACE activity was highest in caput epididymidis, corpus epididymidis, cauda epididymidis, kidney and testis. The ACE activity was moderate in retina, little in cornea and lowest in lens. The greater increase in epididymal ACE activity than that of testicular ACE activity on maturation indicates that epididymal ACE may be highly sensitive to hormones. Chloride functioned as non-essential activator of corneal and retinal ACE. The ACE activities of sheep tissues are compared with those found in other species and probable role of ACE in different tissues is discussed.
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PMID:Distribution and some properties of sheep (Ovis aries) angiotension converting enzyme. 813 3

We have shown previously that prolonged exposure to insulin and glucose impairs the insulin-responsive glucose transport system in primary cultured adipocytes. To assess the ability of insulin and glucose to regulate other cellular insulin actions, epididymal rat adipocytes were cultured in media containing 0-15 mM D-glucose and with or without insulin (50 ng/ml). After 24 h, cells were washed and basal and maximally insulin-stimulated rates of 2-deoxy-D-glucose uptake, L-leucine incorporation into protein, glucose oxidation to CO2, glucose incorporation into lipids, and glycogen synthase activity were measured. The results confirmed that glucose potentiates insulin's chronic ability to decrease basal and maximal glucose transport rates by approximately 50% at 5 mM glucose and by approximately 70% at 15 mM glucose compared with control cells. However, neither glucose nor insulin, alone or in combination, affected rates of leucine incorporation into protein. In addition, basal and maximal rates of glucose oxidation and of glucose incorporation into lipids were not regulated by glucose, and maximal responses declined approximately 50% over 24 h only when insulin was not present during preincubation (i.e., chronic insulin exposure was necessary to maintain full maximal responses). Glycogen synthase activity was measured in a cell-free system (0.5 mM UDP-glucose, with 10 or 0.01 mM glucose-6-phosphate) after exposing intact cells to glucose and insulin. Both short-term (1 h) and long-term (24 h) exposure to glucose alone led a dose-dependent increase in I-form and D-form glycogen synthase activity. Chronic exposure to insulin also increased total glycogen synthase activity (I- plus D-form) but did not affect absolute rates of maximally stimulated I-form activity. Glucose (but not insulin) increased the cellular content of immunoreactive glycogen synthase by 70% after 1 h. These results show that 1) chronic exposure to glucose and insulin impairs insulin responsiveness of the glucose transport system but does not affect rates of amino acid incorporation into protein; 2) the chronic presence of insulin is necessary for the maintenance of normal maximally stimulated rates of glucose oxidation and of glucose incorporation into lipids in cultured cells; and 3) glucose increases both D-form and I-form glycogen synthase activity, in part by increasing the amount of synthase protein, whereas chronic insulin exposure increases total glycogen synthase activity without altering maximal absolute rates of I-form activity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:Biological actions of insulin are differentially regulated by glucose and insulin in primary cultured adipocytes. Chronic ability to increase glycogen synthase activity. 826 17

The 94-kDa ram epididymal fluid form of the sperm membrane-derived germinal angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) was purified by chromatography, and some of its enzymatic properties were studied. For the artificial substrate furanacryloyl-L-phenylalanylglycylglycine (FAPGG), the enzyme exhibited a Michaelis constant (K(m)) of 0.18 mM and a V(max) of 34 micromoles/(min x mg) and for hippuryl-L-histidyl-L-leucine a K(m) of 2.65 mM and a V(max) of 163 micromoles/(min x mg) under the defined standard conditions (300 mM NaCl and 50 mM Tris; pH 7.5 and 8.3, respectively). The FAPGG hydrolysis was decreased by 82.5% and 67.5% by EDTA and dithioerythritol, respectively, and was totally inhibited by specific ACE inhibitors such as captopril, P-Glu-Trp-Pro-Arg-Pro-Glu-Ile-Pro-Pro, and lisinopril. Optimum activity for FAPGG was with pH 6.0, 50 mM chloride, and 500 microM zinc. Under the various conditions tested, bradykinin, angiotensin (Ang) I, Ang II, and LHRH were competitors for FAPGG. Bradykinin and angiotensin I were the best competitors. The enzyme cleaved Ang I into Ang II, and the optimal conditions were with pH 7.5 and 300 mM chloride. The relationship between the carboxypeptidase activity in seminal plasma and the prediction of fertility of young rams was also studied. These results indicated a correlation between sperm concentration and ACE activity in semen but showed no statistically significant correlation between such activity and fertility of the animal. Finally, we tested the role of ACE in fertilization; no difference in the in vitro fertilization rate was observed in the presence of 10(-4) M captopril.
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PMID:Physiological and enzymatic properties of the ram epididymal soluble form of germinal angiotensin I-converting enzyme. 1167 47