Gamma aminobutyrate (GABA) is a non-protein amino acid that is thought to play an important role in the modulation of the central response to stress. Mechanisms by which GABA may facilitate these responses to stress are metabolic and/or mechanical disruptions. Environmental stresses increase GABA accumulation through cytosolic acidification, induce an acidic pH-dependent activation of glutamate...

Plants are naturally exposed to frequent changes in environmental conditions such as salt stress affecting their growth and development, and consequently a considerable reduction in total productivity. Monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR), a key enzyme in ascorbate-glutathione cycle, serves as an important antioxidative enzyme in scavenging of reactive oxygen spices (ROS). In this study, ...

The translocation of synaptic Zn(2+) to the cytosolic compartment has been studied to understand Zn(2+) neurotoxicity in neurological diseases. However, it is unknown whether the moderate increase in Zn(2+) in the cytosolic compartment affects memory processing in the hippocampus. In the present study, the moderate increase in cytosolic Zn(2+) in the hippocampus was induced with clioquinol (CQ)...

The cardiac muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ release channel (ryanodine receptor) is a ligand-gated channel that is activated by micromolar cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentrations and inactivated by millimolar cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentrations. The effects of sarcoplasmic reticulum lumenal Ca2+ on the purified release channel were examined in single channel measurements using the planar lipid bilayer m...

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) treatment of rats decreases gain of body weight without affecting food intake; simultaneously, the activities of liver malic enzyme and cytosolic glycerol-3-P dehydrogenase are increased. In the present study experiments were conducted to test the possibility that DHEA enhances thermogenesis and decreases metabolic efficiency via transhydrogenation of cytosolic NAD...

Glucose is an important source of energy for mammalian cells and enters the cytosol via glucose transporters. It has been thought for a long time that glucose entering the cytosol is swiftly phosphorylated in most cell types; hence the levels of free glucose are very low, beyond the detection level. However, the introduction of new fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based glucose nanosensor...

Human cytosolic leucyl-tRNA synthetase is one component of a macromolecular aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase complex. This is unlike prokaryotic and lower eukaryotic LeuRSs that exist as free soluble enzymes. There is little known about it, since the purified enzyme has been unavailable. Herein, human cytosolic leucyl-tRNA synthetase was heterologously expressed in a baculovirus system and purified to...

La3+ uptake was measured in fura 2-loaded Chinese hamster ovary cells expressing the bovine cardiac Na+/Ca2+ exchanger (NCX1.1). La3+ was taken up by the cells after an initial lag phase of 50-60 s and achieved a steady state within 5-6 min. Neonatal cardiac myocytes accumulated La3+ in a similar manner. La3+ uptake was due to the activity of the exchanger, because no uptake was seen in nontran...

Phillippe, Mark, Trevania Saunders, and Andrew Basa. Intracellular mechanisms underlying prostaglandin F2a-stimulated phasic myometrial contractions. Am. J. Physiol. 273 (Endocrinol. Metab. 36): E665–E673, 1997.—These studies sought to test the hypothesis that prostaglandin F2a (PGF2a)-stimulated phasic myometrial contractions are characterized by the activation of the phosphatidylinositolsigna...

Recent studies have demonstrated the existence of a novel family of calcium-independent plasmalogen-selective phospholipases A2 in canine myocardium that have been implicated as enzymic mediators of ischemic membrane damage. We now report that human myocardium contains two functionally distinct isoforms of cytosolic calcium-independent phospholipase A2. The major cytosolic phospholipase A2 isof...