The temperature-dependent catalytic activity of rat liver 3-hydroxy-3 -methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMG-CoA reductase) displays the nonlinear Arrhenius behavior characteristic of many membrane-bound enzymes. A two-conformer equilibrium model has been developed to characterize this behavior. In the model, HMG-CoA reductase undergoes a conformational change from a low specific activity to a high specific activity form. This conformation change is apparently driven by a temperature-dependent phase transition of the membrane lipids. It has been found that this model accurately describes the data from diets including rat chow, low-fat, high-carbohydrate, and diets supplemented with fat, cholesterol or cholestyramine. The effects characterized by the model are consistent with the regulation of HMG-CoA reductase by enzyme-lipid interactions.

Two aspects of the biological activity of N-nitrosamines were studied. First, the effect of ascorbate on the mutagenicity of N-nitrosopiperidines was studied in the Ames Salmanella/ mammalian microsome mutagenicity test. The addition of ascorbate significantly enhanced the mutagenicity of these compounds. This enhancement was selective for N-nitrosamines suggesting a possible role of ascorbate in N-nitrosamine induced carcinogenicity. Second, the technique of velocity sedimentation in alkaline sucrose density gradients was applied to the detection of N-nitrosamine induced DNA damage in Balb/c 3T3 cells. This technique detected N-nitrosamine induced DNA damage when the cells were made permeable before treatment. This technique compares favorably with other test systems used to evaluate N-nitrosamines and should be useful in further studies of N-nitrosamines.

Huian plasma high-density lipoprotein (HDL) were isolated by a procedure employing polyanion precipitation and column chromatography. Lipid and protein composition of the HDL isolated by this method was found to be similar to another HDL preparation isolated by ultracentrifugation. However, minor differences were noted, including a higher phospholipid and apoproteinE content and lower triglyceride content of the HDL isolated by column chromatography. Four subfraction of HDL were obtained following chromatography on an anion exchange column. The subfraction four had the highest esterified to free cholesterol ratio, the second highest phospholipid to unesterified cholesterol, and the lowest molecular weight. In addition it was consistently coincided with lecithin: cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) activity and found to be the best substrate for the enzyme.

Two swine kidney proteins (PI 4.8 and 5.8) both possessing 9-prostaglandin ketoreductase (9-PGKR) and 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (15-PGDH) activities were purified to homogeneity. Purification increased specific activities in parallel. Molecular weight, subunit size, amino acid composition, coenzyme and substrate specificity and antigenicity of both proteins were similar. Gel filtration and SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis molecular weights of 29,500 and 29,000, respectively, suggested a single subunit. Although a variety of prostaglandins served as substrates, the best for 15-PGDH was PGB, while PGA_1-GSH showed the lowest Km for 9-PGKR. Rabbit antibody against the PI 5.8 protein crossreacted with both purified renal enzymes and with extracts from rat spleen, lung, heart, aorta, and liver.

The objectives of these investigations were (1) the purification of MG reductase from sheep liver and (2) studies of some of its characteristics. MG reductase was purified 40 fold and showed a single band on SDS-PAGE. Molecular weight estimations with SDS-PAGE showed a molecular weight of 44,000; although gel filtration with Sephadex G-150 gave a molecular weight of 87,000 indicating that the enzyme might be a dimer. The Km for MG is 1.42 mM and for NADH it is 0.04 mM. The pH optimum for the purified enzyme is pH 7.0. Isoelectric focusing experiments showed a pI of 9.3. In vivo experiments involving rats treated with 3,3',5-triiodothyronine (T_3) and 6-n-propyl-2-thiouracil (PTU) indicated that MG reductase was depressed by T_3 and elevated by PTU.

This work examines the synthesis of poly(ADP-ribose) in normal and SV40-transformed monolayer cultures of 3T3 cells as a function of growth and DNA fragmentation. A review of the relevant literature is given in the introduction of this work. Poly(ADP-ribose) synthesis has been implicated in transcription, replication, repair, differentiation and regulation of cell growth. The results of this study suggest that poly(ADP-ribose) synthesis is involved in some aspect of cell-growth control and DNA repair.

A method has been developed for the rapid, quantitative separation of normal and abnormal phosphoglucose isoemrase allozymes from individuals heterozygous for genetic variant forms of the enzyme. The method utilizes a substrate gradient elution of the enzyme from carboxymethyl Biogel and is far superior in terms of resolution and recovery to methods based on electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing. Four different genetic variant forms of the enzyme were isolated and subjected to a systematic comparison of their physical, catalytic and stability properties. The physical and catalytic properties of the variants were similar; however, clear differences in the stability of the allozymes were apparent.