This study examines the levels of acylated and desacylated ghrelin, preptin, leptin, and nesfatin-1 peptide changes related to the body mass index (BMI). The subjects were allocated to 5 groups depending on their BMIs as follows: Group I (BMI <18.5 kg/m(2)); Group II (BMI 18.5-24.9 kg/m(2)); Group III (BMI 25-29.9 kg/m(2)); Group IV (BMI 30-39.9 kg/m(2)); Group V (BMI >40 kg/m(2)). Serum acylat...

Ghrelin is an orexigenic hormone secreted from endocrine cells in the stomach and other tissues. Acylation of ghrelin is essential for appetite regulation. Vigorous exercise induces appetite suppression, but this does not appear to be related to suppressed concentrations of total ghrelin. This study examined the effect of exercise and feeding on plasma acylated ghrelin and appetite. Nine male s...

The effects of purified soluble fibrin and of fibrinogen fragments (fibrin mimic) on the activation of Lysplasminogen (i.e. plasminogen residues 77-790) to plasmin by streptokinase plasminogen activator complex and by tissue-type plasminogen activator were studied. Dissociation constants of both activators were estimated to lie in the range 90-160 nm (fibrin) and 16-60 nM (CNBr-cleavage fragmen...

Radioactive O-phosphoryl-L-serine was detected after alkaline deacylation of rat and rooster liver [(3)H]seryl-tRNA acylated in vitro with homologous synthetases. Ribonuclease treatment of this tRNA yielded a compound with the properties of phosphoseryl-adenosine. Benzoylated DEAE-cellulose chromatography of seryl-tRNA yielded four distinct peaks, only one of which contained phosphoserine. A un...

A novel lysosomal phospholipase A(2) (LPLA2) with specificity toward phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine was previously purified and cloned. LPLA2 transfers sn-1 or sn-2 acyl groups of phospholipids to the C1 hydroxyl of the short-chain ceramide N-acetylsphingosine (NAS) under acidic conditions. The common features of lipophilic alcohols serving as acceptor molecules in the transac...

The structure of lignins isolated from the herbaceous plants sisal ( Agave sisalana), kenaf ( Hibiscus cannabinus), abaca ( Musa textilis) and curaua ( Ananas erectifolius) has been studied upon spectroscopic (2D-NMR) and chemical degradative (derivatization followed by reductive cleavage) methods. The analyses demonstrate that the structure of the lignins from these plants is highly remarkable...

The mechanism of protein synthesis is still unknown due to inability to detect the so-called enzyme "peptidyl transferase" even after elucidation of high-resolution crystal structure of ribosome. We have recently shown by model building and semi-empirical energy calculation that the tRNA molecule at P-site of ribosome may act as peptidyl transferase (Das et al. (1999) J. Theor. Biol. 200, 193-2...

Two histochemical techniques, the PAT/KOH/PAS and the PBT/KOH/PAS, were used to investigate the side chain O-acyl substitution patterns of the sialic acids of the colonic epithelial mucins in cases of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. In both diseases there was, as compared to normal, a reduction in the proportion of sialic acids O-acylated at C7C8, the reduction being greater in ulcerati...

A series of acylated derivatives of 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (3,4-MDMA) are prepared and evaluated in gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) studies. The perfluoroalkyl amides of 3,4-MDMA show the lowest GC retention, while the aromatic amides such as the benzamide show the greatest retention on the dimethylpolysiloxane stationary phase (Rtx-1). The mass spectral properties of t...

The functional significance and regulation of reversible S-acylation on diverse proteins remain unclear because of limited methods for efficient quantitative analysis of palmitate turnover. Here, we describe a tandem labeling and detection method to simultaneously monitor dynamic S-palmitoylation and protein turnover. By combining S-acylation and cotranslational fatty acid chemical reporters wi...