Effects of polyamines on nucleosidediphosphate kinase activity

Polycation inhibition of exocytosis from sea urchin egg cortex

The Ca2+-stimulated release of vesicle contents from cortical fragments prepared from sea urchin eggs is an in vitro model for exocytosis. Cortical fragments have been isolated either in suspension (cell surface complex, CSC preparation), or attached to polycation-coated surfaces (cortical lawn, CL preparation). CL, but not CSC, have been reported to undergo a rapid "aging" process whereby they fail to respond to micromolar free Ca2+. Since, in principle, the only difference between the two preparations is the use of polycations in the CL preparation, polycations were suspected of being inhibitory. This hypothesis was tested by evaluating the effects of polycation-containing buffers on the Ca2+ threshold, rate, and extent of exocytosis in CL prepared from the eggs of Strongylocentrotus purpuratus. A sensitive microphotometric assay, based on light scattering by the individual cortical vesicles in the CL, was used to quantitate the exocytotic response. Buffers containing polylysine were found to be potent inhibitors of cortical exocytosis. The Ca2+ threshold of CL that had been treated for 15 min at room temperature with 50 micrograms/ml of polylysine was more than three orders of magnitude greater than that of freshly prepared CL. The other polycations tested (protamine, spermine and neomycin) were also found to be inhibitory, but to a lesser degree than polylysine. Two lines of evidence suggested that the polycations used in the preparation of CL are responsible for the rapid "aging" phenomenon: CSC fragments that had been affixed to polylysine-coated coverslips were shown to acquire "aging" characteristics similar to the CL preparations; control CSC that had been maintained in suspension did not. Radiolabeled poly-L-lysine was shown to dissociate from coated coverslips and redistribute onto CL.

Urinary polyamine levels in patients with psoriasis

Polyamine contents in 24 h urine of 16 psoriatic patients and seven healthy individuals are measured. The average values of putrescine and spermine showed slight increase in the psoriatic group, while those of spermidine were unchanged. When psoriatic patients are divided into three groups according to the extent of their skin lesion, the putrescine level is found to be higher in the group more severely affected.

Effects of polyamines on prostatic chromatin- and non-histone-protein-associated protein kinase reactions

Studies are presented on the influence of polyamines on prostatic chromatin- and non-histone-protein-associated protein kinase reactions involving both exogenous and endogenous substrates. The activities toward the model acidic protein substrate, dephosphophosvitin, were maximal at 160--200mM-NaCl (or -KCl or -NH4Cl). Under these conditions, spermidine and spermine added in concentrations up to 2mM were essentially without effect. However, without addition of NaCl to the medium, marked stimulation of these reactions was elicited by these polyamines at 1--2mM concentrations. The stimulatory effects were not due to non-specific changes in the ionic strength or to substitution of spermine for Mg2+, as maximal stimulation by 1 mM-spermine was observed only at optimal (2--4mM) Mg2+ concentrations. Qualitatively similar effects of polyamines were observed with enzyme preparations from the prostates of castrated rats, and with chromatin and non-histone-protein preparations from other tissues besides ventral prostate. When phosphorylation of endogenous non-histone proteins of the chromatin was measured, spermine stimulated both the initial rates and the final extent of transphosphorylation, even in the presence of optimal concentration of NaCl. By contrast, spermine or spermidine had no effect on the chromatin- and non-histone-protein-associated protein kinase reactions determined with lysine-rich histones as substrates. Chemically NN-dimethylated dephosphophosvitin was a less active substrate for the chromatin-associated protein kinase, but its phosphorylation was more markedly stimulated by spermine in comparison with unmodified dephosphophosvitin. These observations hint that the polyamine stimulations of the various protein kinase reactions may be due to effects on the conformations of the non-histone protein substrates rather than on the kinases themselves.