Evidence for the uptake of a vitamin D analogue (OCT) by a human carcinoma and its effect of suppressing the transcription of parathyroid hormone-related peptide gene in vivo

The present study was undertaken to clarify the pharmacokinetics of 22-oxa-1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (22-oxa-1,25-(OH)2D3, OCT), a vitamin D3 analogue with little calcemic activity, and its effect on the transcription of parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTHRP) gene in nude mice bearing a human carcinoma (FA-6) associated with humoral hypercalcemia. FA-6 tumor expressed vitamin D receptor (VDR) mRNA, and its nuclear extract contained a specific and saturable 1,25-(OH)2D3 binding activity. Although [3H]OCT administered intravenously into FA-6 tumor-bearing nude mice was cleared from the circulation more rapidly than [3H]1,25-(OH)2D3, the uptake of [3H]OCT into the tumor tissue, relative to the radioactivity in the circulation, was greater than that of [3H]1,25-(OH)2D3. Intravenous or oral administration of OCT reduced the steady-state levels of PTHRP mRNA in FA-6 tumor, and nuclear run-off assays demonstrated that the effect of OCT on PTHRP gene expression occurred at a transcriptional level. RNase mapping analysis revealed that both upstream and downstream promoters of the human PTHRP gene were down-regulated by OCT. Finally, OCT exerted a preventive as well as therapeutic effect on cancer-associated hypercalcemia with a marked prolongation of the survival time in tumor-bearing animals. These results suggest that OCT is effectively taken up by a VDR-positive human carcinoma in vivo and has a therapeutic potential for cancer-associated hypercalcemia through suppression of PTHRP gene transcription.

1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 and 22-oxa-1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 in vivo nuclear receptor binding in developing bone during endochondral and intramembranous ossification

Target cells for 3H-labeled 1 alpha, 25(OH)2 vitamin D3 [1,25(OH)2D3, vitamin D] and its analog 3H-labeled 22-oxa-1 alpha, 25(OH)2 vitamin D3 (OCT) have been identified during endochondral and intramembranous ossification in developing, undecalcified, unembedded bone, using thaw-mount autoradiography. Two-day-old neonatal rats were injected with [3H]1,25(OH)2D3 or [3H]OCT; after 2 h leg, spine, and head were frozen and sectioned. In the epiphyseal-metaphyseal region specific nuclear concentrations of [3H]1,25(OH)2D3 and [3H]OCT were observed in identical cell populations, being low in cells of the articular and resting zone, intermediate in the proliferating zone, and highest in hypertrophic chondrocytes and in osteoblasts and precursor cells. In the primary spongiosa intertrabecular spaces there were a large number of cells with nuclear labeling--probably osteoblasts and precursor cells. In contrast, in the secondary spongiosa intertrabecular spaces, apparent blood-forming cells were mostly unlabeled. Osteoblasts along bone spicules and compact bone in long bones, vertebrae, and head also showed strong nuclear labeling, as did cells of the periosteum. These data suggest that 1,25(OH)2D3 and OCT regulate development, differentiation, and activities of chondrocytes and osteoblasts, including differentiation of resting chondrocytes into proliferating and hypertrophic chondrocytes that involve "chondroclastic" enlargement of lacunae and "trans-differentiation" of surviving hypertrophic chondrocytes; differentiation of stroma cells into osteoblasts; and in periosteum and other regions of intramembranous ossification differentiation of precursor cells and osteoblasts. Nuclear receptor binding and their selective and hierarchical distribution during cell differentiation appear to correspond to multiple genomic effects toward growth, regeneration and repair. The findings indicate a physiological significance and therapeutic potential of 1,25(OH)2D3 and in particular of its less hypercalcemic analog OCT.

Nerve supply to the accessory soleus muscle

An accessory soleus muscle was found in the right leg of a cadaver in the dissecting room. This anomalous muscle was situated medially between the distal part of the tibia and the tendo calcaneus. The muscle arose from the anterior aponeurosis of the soleus muscle and was attached with a separate tendon to the calcaneus anteromedial to the tendo calcaneus. The soleus muscle was supplied by two nerves from the tibial nerve. The ramus posterior entered its posterior surface near the proximal border, and the ramus anterior entered the bipenniform part which was located on the anterior aspect of the soleus. One of branches from the r. anterior descended on the surface of the medial half of the bipenniform part and gave off a few twigs for this muscle part. Finally, its terminal entered the accessory soleus muscle and ramified in this muscle. In a teased preparation of the tibial nerve, both the nerve fibres composing this branch to the anomalous muscle and those constituting the r. anterior proper which supplied the bipenniform part were contained in the same funiculus. This mode of nerve supply to the soleus and the accessory soleus muscle suggested that this anomalous muscle derived from the part of the proper soleus muscle supplied by the r. anterior.

Soluble interleukin-6 receptor triggers osteoclast formation by interleukin 6

It has been reported that soluble interleukin (IL)-6 receptor (sIL-6R) is detected in the serum of healthy individuals and its level is increased in patients with multiple myeloma and human immunodeficiency virus infection. Although several reports have suggested that sIL-6R potentiates IL-6 action, its physiological role remains unclear. In this study, we examined the role of sIL-6R on osteoclast formation by IL-6, using a coculture of mouse osteoblasts and bone marrow cells. Neither recombinant mouse IL-6 (mIL-6) nor mouse sIL-6R (smIL-6R) induced osteoclast-like multinucleated cell (MNC) formation when they were added separately. In contrast, simultaneous treatment with mIL-6 and smIL-6R strikingly induced MNC formation. These MNCs satisfied major criteria of authentic osteoclasts, such as tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) activity, calcitonin receptors, and pit formation on dentine slices. The MNC formation induced by mIL-6 and smIL-6R was dose-dependently inhibited by adding monoclonal anti-mouse IL-6R antibody (MR16-1). It is likely that osteoblasts and osteoclast progenitors are capable of transducing a signal from a complex of IL-6 and sIL-6R through gp130, even though they may have no or a very small number of IL-6Rs. Factors such as IL-11, oncostatin M, and leukemia inhibitory factor, which are known to exert their functions through gp130 (the signal-transducing chain of IL-6R), also induced MNC formation in our coculture system. These results suggest that increased circulating or locally produced sIL-6R induces osteoclast formation in the presence of IL-6 mediated by a mechanism involving gp130. This may play an important physiological or pathological role in conditions associated with increased osteoclastic bone resorption.

Classification of the abdominal splanchnic nerves--a preliminary attempt to re-evaluate their nomenclatures

The abdominal splanchnic nerves were observed in 22 cadavers (41 sides). The purpose of the study is to give more accurate definition to each nerve, for there are uncertainties in the nomenclature of these nerves. According to PNA, the abdominal splanchnic nerves are classified into three categories, on the basis of their sizes and their levels, namely Nn. splanchnici major, minor, and imus. Although Mitchell (1935) had already claimed that more attention should be given to the levels of ganglia which gave rise to these nerves, no revision has ever been made. Moreover, there still remains the matter of their destinations, which are more significant in defining them. Therefore, in addition to the conventional criteria for the classification, destinations of the nerves were taken into consideration. In the present study, 36 out of 41 sides were grouped into four types according to the said criteria. 5 exceptional cases were interpreted as results of minor modifications of these four types. Naturally, what is important in describing these nerves is to give clear idea about the actual condition of them. It is expected to give more reasonable nomenclature to these nerves based on the present result.

Aberrant course of the left gastric vein in the human. Possibility of a persistent left portal vein

Two livers with an aberrant course of the left gastric vein were found in 245 Japanese cadavers. The left gastric vein collects branches from the lesser curvature of the stomach, enters the left side of the hepatogastric ligament from the cardiac region and runs towards the left side of hepatic hilus. The vein enters the liver at the left side and joins an intrahepatic branch ramified from the portal vein.

Plasma Aluminum levels of patients on long term sucralfate therapy

Plasma aluminum levels of 17 patients with gastric and/or duodenal ulcers who had received four grams of sucralfate daily for eight to ten weeks were compared with those of six control subjects. Aluminum levels were determined by flameless atomic absorption spectrometry. Plasma of patients on long term sucralfate therapy contained 8.41 +/- 6.00 (SD) micrograms aluminum per liter and was not significantly different than that of the control subjects which contained 6.50 +/- 7.87 micrograms per liter. These values agreed well with normal values reported previously. In conclusion, long term ingestion of sucralfate in therapeutic doses does not result in an increase in plasma aluminum concentration.

Comparative EPR study on high-spin ferric porphine complexes and cytochrome P-450 having rhombic character

Comparative EPR studies were made on two high-spin Fe(III) porphine model systems and mammalian liver microsomal cytochromes P-450, all of which exhibit approximately the same degrees of rhombicity in their EPR spectra. Comparison of g values and linewidths as a function of temperature, and of the microwave power saturation demonstrated that EPR characteristics of P-450 are more similar to the Fe(III) porphines having the thiolate axial ligand than in the other model systems, the mixed crystals of Fe(III) porphine with the corresponding free base porphine, in which no thiolate ligand is involved. There is, however, a discrepancy between P-450 and the model thiolates with respect to the size of the zero-field parameter D. These observations indicate that P-450 heme has essential structural features in common with thiolates but the Fe-S bond of P-450 may be modified from its normal orientation in model thiolates, probably as a result of the constraints imposed by the protein structure.

Genetic differences in induction of cytosol reduced-NAD(P):menadione oxidoreductase and microsomal aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase in the mouse

The stimulation of reduced-NAD(P):menadione oxidoreductase (EC 1.6.99.2) activity in liver cytosol is highly correlated with the stimulation of hepatic microsomal aryl hydrocarbon (benzo[a]pyrene) hydroxylase (EC 1.14.14.2) activity in 3-methylcholanthrene-, beta-naphthoflavone-, phenobarbital-, or pregnenolone-16alpha-carbonitrile-treated inbred C57BL/6N and DBA/2N mice and in eight other inbred strains treated with 3-methylcholanthrene. No oxidoreductase activity is detectable in mouse liver microsomes. Cytochrome c and 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol are equally good electron acceptors for the oxidoreductase. There is no preferential in vitro inhibition of induced versus control oxidoreductase activities by either alpha-naphthoflavone or metyrapone. In 3-methylcholanthrene-treated F1 and F2 progeny and offspring from backcrosses between the F1 and either C57BL/6N or DBA/2N parent, however, there is not a strict correlation between induced or noninducible aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase and oxidoreductase activities. 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, at doses (80 mug kg-1) sufficiently high to induce the hydroxylase almost as well in DBA/2N as in C57BL/6N mice, induces the oxidoreductase about 3-fold in C57BL/6N and less than 50% in DBA/2N mice. All the data are consistent with an hypothesis that two loci (Ox-1 and Ox-2) regulate oxidoreductase induction by 3-methylcholanthrene, that one of the genes is linked to the Ah locus (with an estimated recombination frequency between 2% and 23%), and that the other gene is not linked to the Ah locus. These experimental data might be useful in the protein activator hypothesis of the Britten-Davidson model for gene regulation.

Association of the Ah locus with specific changes in metyrapone and ethylisocyanide binding to mouse liver microsomes

The genetic trait of "responsiveness," which refers to the capacity for induction of cytochrome P-448 and numerous monooxygenase activities by certain aromatic hydrocarbons, is known to segregate almost exclusively as a single autosomal dominant gene among progeny of appropriate crosses originating from the responsive C57BL/6 and the nonresponsive DBA/2 inbred mouse strains. In this report the allele for responsiveness is shown to be associated with (a) increases in the apparent KS values for metyrapone bound to reduced P-450; (b) increases in the ethylisocyanide difference ratio (deltaA455-490/deltaA430-490);(c) increases in the deltaA455-490 per mg of microsomal protein but not in the deltaA430-490 per mg of protein from the reduced P-450-ethylisocyanide complex; (d) an approximately 2-nm hypsochromic shift in the spectral maximum in the 446 nm region for the reduced P-450-metyrapone complex; (e) an approximately 2-nm hypsochromic shift of the absorption maximum in the 455 nm region, but not of the maximum in the 430 nm region, for the reduced P-450-ethylisocyanide complex; and (f) larger increases in the deltaA455-490 than in the deltaA430-490 per mg of microsomal protein for the reduced P450-ethylisocyanide complex as a function of increasing pH. All of these phenomena are felt to be associated with the genetically regulated induction of liver microsomal cytochrome P-448 by polycyclic aromatic compounds. Whereas increases in the total hepatic P-450 content appear to be expressed almost exclusively as a single autosomal dominant trait, the increase in apparent KS value for metyrapone bound to reduced P-450 appears to be expressed additively. The reason for this finding is unclear. The increase in apparent KS value for metyrapone in 3-methylcholanthrene-treated rats is known to occur even when the induction process is presumably blocked by treating the rat concomitantly with cycloheximide. Several lines of evidence in this report indicate that, although total P-450 content does not increase in C57BL/6N mice treated with 3-methylcholanthrene plus cycloheximide, hepatic P-448 induction does occur; P-448 induction does not occur in DBA/2N mice under these same conditions. These results indicate that cytochrome P-448 induction is relatively resistant to the inhibition of protein synthesis and that a responsive animal treated with 3-methylcholanthrene plus cycloheximide cannot be considered experimentally the same as a genetically nonresponsive animal treated with 3-methylcholanthrene alone.

Genetic expression of aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase activity in the mouse

Monooxygenases require NADPH and molecular oxygen during the metabolism of numerous endogenous hydrophobic substrates and carcinogenic and toxic exogenous chemicals. The complexity of these membrane-bound multicomponent drug-metabolizing enzyme systems is reviewed. What "aryl hydrocarbon (benzo[a]pyrene) hydroxylase activity" actually represents is reviewed and discussed. At least two forms of the hydroxylase activity exist and we suggest that they are associated with different molecular species of membrane-bound CO-binding hemoprotein (i.e., they are associated with different enzyme active-sties). At least two, and probably more than two, nonlinked loci are responsible for the genetic expression of new cytochrome P1450 formation and aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase induction--and the stimulation of 10 other monooxygenase "activities"--in the mouse treated with certain aromatic hydrocarbons. The individual variability of hydroxylase activity in an inbred and in a random-bred strain of micr is illustrated. The basal hydroxylase activity appears to be inherited differently from the aromatic hydrocarbon-inducible hydroxylase activity. The potent inducer 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin can stimulate increases in these hepatic monooxygenase activities and p1450 formation in so-called "nonresponsive" mice, whereas inducers such as beta-naphthoflavone and 3-methylcholanthrene cannot. Thus, the genetically "nonresponsive" micr apparently possess the structural and regulatory genes necessary for expression of these inducible monooxygenase activities and associated new formation of cytochrome P1450. We suggest that a mutation has occurred in the "nonresponsive" inbred strains that results in production of an inducer-binding receptor having a diminished affinity for aromatic hydrocarbons.