Studies on the nutrition of marine flatfish. The metabolism of glucose by plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) and the effect of dietary energy source on protein utilization in plaice

1. The effects of dietary energy level and dietary energy source on protein utilization by plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) were examined by giving diets containing 400 g crude protein/kg to nine groups of fish. Five of these diets contained only lipid as a source of energy (in addition to protein) and their energy contents were varied by increasing the lipid level in a step-wise manner from 56 to 176 g/kg. The remaining four diets contained both lipid and carbohydrate (glucose plus dextrin) together as energy sources: two levels of carbohydrate (100 and 200 g/kg) being used at each of two (56 and 86 g/kg) lipid levels. 2. Weight gains of plaice given the diets containing only lipid as an energy source did not differ significantly from each other. Weight gains of plaice given diets containing carbohydrate as well as protein and lipid were superior to those given diets lacking carbohydrate. 3. Values obtained for protein efficiency ratio (PER) and net protein utilization (NPU) increased with increasing dietary energy level in both those fish given the diets containing carbohydrate and those given diets lacking it. Both PER and NPU values were greater for plaice given diets containing carbohydrate than for fish diets without carbohydrate even when the total energy content of the diets was approximately the same. 4. Liver glycogen levels were significantly higher in plaice given diets containing 200 g carbohydrate/kg than in plaice given diets without carbohydrate. Blood glucose levels and hepatic hexokinase (EC 2-7-1-1) levels were not significantly different in plaice given these diets. No glucokinase (EC 2-7-2-2) was detected in plaice given either diet. 5. The metabolic fate of glucose carbon in plaice was investigated by injecting the fish intraperitoneally with [U-14C] glucose and examining, 18 h afterwards the distribution of radioactivity in different biochemical fractions from the fish. 6. Glucose was respired much less rapidly in the carnivorous plaice, irrespective of dietary treatment, than in omnivorous mammals (mouse and rat). The rate of production of 14CO2 from (U-14C) glucose by plaice given diets containing carbohydrate was not significantly greater than that by plaice given diets lacking carbohydrate. 7. More glucose was incorporated into liver glycogen when plaice were given carbohydrate in their food than when it was absent. Otherwise no differences were apparent in the fate of glucose C by plaice which could be related to the diets used. 8. No mortalities occurred nor was any histopathology observed in the plaice as a consequence of the inclusion of carbohydrate in the food.

Tetramethylenedisulphotetramine: an inhibitor of gamma-aminobutyric acid induced depolarization of the isolated superior cervical ganglion of the rat

Tetramethylenedisulphotetramine (TETS), a potent convulsant, antagonized the depolarizing action gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the isolated superior cervical ganglion of the rat. No antagonism of responses to the cholinomimetic agent carbachol was observed. TETS appeared to act in a non-competitive manner and was reversible. Its activity profile was comparable to that of bicuculline in the same tissue except that the latter appears to act in a competitive manner.

Changes of intracellular sodium and potassium ion concentrations in isolated rat superior cervical ganglia induced by depolarizing agents

1. Na and K contents of isolated rat superior cervical ganglia were measured by flame photometry, and intracellular Na and K concentrations ([Na](i) and [K](i)) calculated using Li and (35)SO(4) to determine extracellular space (e.c.s.).2. Resting concentrations after 1-2 hr incubation at 25 degrees C in normal Krebs solution were: [Na](i), 19.8 +/- 0.9 m-mole (kg cell water)(-1); [K](i), 192.7 +/- 2.8 m-mole (kg cell water)(-1) (mean +/- S.E. of mean of thirty-five ganglia). Correction for losses during e.c.s. measurement gave 22 mM [Na](i) and 207 mM [K](i) as probable fresh concentrations.3. Carbachol (180 muM for 4 min) increased [Na](i) by 47.8 +/- 2.9 m-mole (kg cell water)(-1) and decreased [K](i) by 54.6 +/- 4.3 m-mole (kg cell water)(-1). Maximal exchange with carbachol or nicotine (at approximately 1 mM for 4 min) amounted to 80-100 m-mole (kg cell water)(-1). On washing with Krebs solution containing 2.5 mM hexamethonium recovery of ionic concentrations occurred with a rate constant of 0.3-0.4 min(-1).4. Restitution of ganglionic Na and K after carbachol was inhibited by washing with K-free solution, and slowed by ouabain (0.14 mM), cyanide (2 mM) or cooling (Q(10) 2.7 between 17 and 27 degrees C).5. Equilibrium potentials for Na and K (E(Na), E(K)) at rest were calculated to be +49 and -88 mV. At a membrane potential (E(m)) of -70 mV, the permeability ratio P(Na):P(K) was calculated at 0.04:1 (assuming P(Cl):P(K) < 0.1).

Movements of labelled sodium ions in isolated rat superior cervical ganglia

1. Isolated rat superior cervical ganglia were incubated in Krebs solution containing (24)Na and carbachol for 4 min at 25 degrees C. They were then washed at 3 degrees C for 15 min to remove extracellular (24)Na and the efflux of residual intracellular (24)Na stimulated by warming to 25 degrees C.2. During the 15 min wash at 3 degrees C desaturation curves became exponential with a rate constant of 0.012 +/- 0.001 min(-1) (n = 24). This was assumed to represent loss of intracellular (24)Na, and initial uptake of (24)Na was calculated therefrom by back-extrapolation to zero wash-time. After 4 min in (24)Na + 180 muM carbachol intracellular [(24)Na] so calculated was 61.6 +/- 3.1 mM (n = 18), representing 83% labelling of intracellular Na. In the absence of carbachol intracellular [(24)Na] was 10.0 +/- 0.5 mM, representing 49% labelling. Extracellular Na was labelled by > 90% after 4 min in (24)Na. The apparent rate constant for washout of extracellular (24)Na was 0.6 min(-1) at 3 degrees C and 0.95 min(-1) at 25 degrees C.3. The loss of the residual intracellular (24)Na during temperature stimulation was interpreted quantitatively in terms of an exponential decline of the bulk of intracellular (24)Na with an extrusion rate constant of 0.39 +/- 0.1 min(-1) (n = 18), efflux being delayed by passage through the extracellular space with an effective rate constant of 0.8-1.2 min(-1).4. The peak rate constant (k(C)) for the desaturation curve at 25 degrees C was 0.35 +/- 0.01 min(-1). An Arrhenius plot of log k(C)/T degrees K(-1) yielded a two-stage linear regression with a transition at 20 degrees C. Activation energies of 8 and 31 kcal. mole(-1) were calculated above and below this transition respectively.5. Omission of K from the 25 degrees C temperature-stimulating solution reduced k(C) by 62%. The K-sensitive component of extrusion rate constant was a hyperbolic function of [K](e) with half-saturation at 5.6 mM-[K](e) and maximum k(C) of 0.58 min(-1).6. Cyanide (2 mM), 2,4-dinitrophenol (1 mM) and ouabain (1.4 mM) reduced k(C) by 50-90%. The half-maximally inhibiting concentration of ouabain was about 60 muM.7. Substitution of sucrose, Li or choline for external Na did not reduce the extrusion rate of (24)Na in either 6 mM-[K](e) or 0 mM-[K](e). Li stimulated (24)Na extrusion in Na-free, K-free solution.8. The properties of the ganglionic Na pump deduced from rates of temperature-stimulated (24)Na extrusion accord with the view that the ganglion hyperpolarization observed after Na loading by exposure to nicotinic depolarizing agents results from electrogenic Na extrusion. A comparable hyperpolarization is observed after temperature stimulation following Na loading.

Temporal stimulation of chemotaxis in Escherichia coli

We used the tracking microscope to study the chemotactic responses of E. coli to temporal gradients of L-glutamate generated in isotropic solutions by the action of the enzyme alanine aminotransferase. Positive gradients suppress directional changes which occur spontaneously in the absence of a stimulus. Negative gradients have little effect. The data can be fit with a model in which the suppression is proportional to the time rate of change of the fractional amount of chemoreceptor bound. The model accounts for the behavior of individual cells and populations of cells in spatial gradients. A computer simulation of the motion in spatial gradients indicates that if the bacteria have a "memory," its decay time cannot be much longer than a few seconds. The relationship between the responses observed in these experiments and in experiments in which solutions of an attractant at different concentrations are mixed is discussed.

Depolarizing actions of gamma-aminobutyric acid and related compounds on rat superior cervical ganglia in vitro

1 Potential changes in rat superior cervical ganglia were recorded in vitro with surface electrodes.2 gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) produced a transient, low-amplitude ganglion depolarization at rest, and a transient hyperpolarization in ganglia depolarized by carbachol. Depolarization was not prevented by preganglionic denervation. The log dose-response curve for depolarization was sigmoid with a mean ED(50) of 12.5 muM.3 The ganglion was depolarized in similar manner by the following compounds (mean molar potencies relative to GABA (=1) in brackets): 3-aminopropane sulphonic acid (3.4), gamma-amino-beta-hydroxybutyric acid (0.27), beta-guanidino-propionic acid (0.12), guanidinoacetic acid (0.057), delta-aminovaleric acid (0.048), beta-alanine (0.01), 2,4-diaminobutyric acid, gamma-guanidinobutyric acid, taurine and N-methyl-GABA (all <0.01). The following compounds did not depolarize the ganglion at 10 mM concentrations: alpha- and beta-amino-n-butyric acids, alpha-amino-iso-butyric acid, glycine and glutamic acid.4 Depolarization declined in the continued presence of GABA. Ganglia thus ;desensitized' to GABA showed a diminished response to other amino acids but not to carbachol.5 The effect of GABA was not antagonized by hyoscine and hexamethonium in combination, in concentrations sufficient to block responses to carbachol.6 Responses to GABA were blocked more readily than those to carbachol by bicuculline (IC(50), 14 muM) and picrotoxin (IC(50), 37 muM). Strychnine (IC(50), 73 muM) was a relatively weak and less selective GABA-antagonist.7 It is concluded that sympathetic ganglion cells possess receptors for GABA and related amino acids which are (a) different from the acetylcholine receptors and (b) similar to GABA receptors in the central nervous system.

Intracellular pH in rat isolated superior cervical ganglia in relation to nicotine-depolarization and nicotine-uptake

1. The intracellular pH (pH(i)) of rat isolated superior cervical ganglia incubated in normal Krebs solution (pH(o)=7.37) was estimated to be 7.33 from the uptake of a weak acid, (14)C-5,5-dimethyloxazolidine-2,4-dione (DMO). Addition of 30 muM nicotine for 30 min reduced the DMO-estimated pH(i) by 0.15 units to 7.18. This effect was prevented by hexamethonium (2.5 mM) or by depolarizing the ganglion with K(+) (124 mM).2. (3)H-Nicotine (30 muM) was concentrated within the ganglia to an intracellular/extracellular concentration ratio (C(i)/C(o)) of 5.54 in normal Krebs solution and 4.61 in 2.5 mM hexamethonium. This would suggest an intracellular pH of 6.54 and 6.63 respectively. In ganglia previously depolarized by K(+) the corresponding values for C(i)/C(o) were 4.02 (minus hexamethonium, estimated pH(i) 6.95) and 4.17 (plus hexamethonium, estimated pH(i) 6.94).3. A multicompartment cell interior comprising an acid cytoplasm (pH approximately 6.6) and more alkaline nucleus and mitochondria is proposed to explain the difference between the values of pH(i) estimated from the uptake of DMO and nicotine. It is suggested that the fall in pH(i) during nicotine-depolarization results from metabolic stimulation following Na(+) entry.