Hypoxemic respiratory failure of the neonatal organism involves increased acid sphingomyelinase (aSMase) activity and production of ceramide, a second messenger of a pro-inflammatory pathway that promotes increased vascular permeability, surfactant alterations and alveolar epithelial apoptosis. We comparatively assessed the benefits of topical aSMase inhibition by either imipramine (Imi) or pho...

Rabbit renal papillary collecting tubule cells were isolated as a homogeneous population and grown in primary culture. These cells were maintained in fully defined medium to inhibit fibroblast overgrowth and to facilitate labeling of endogenous inositol phospholipids with myo-[2-3H]inositol with high specific activity. These cells demonstrated the morphology, cyclic AMP responsiveness, and pros...

Acid sphingomyelinase (ASM) converts sphingomyelin (SM) into ceramide. Mutations in the ASM gene cause the mental retardation syndrome Niemann Pick type A (NPA), characterized as a lysosomal disorder because of the SM accumulation in these organelles. We here report that neurons from mice lacking ASM (ASMKO) present increased plasma membrane SM levels evident in detergent-resistant membranes. P...

Kir2.0 channels play a significant role in setting the resting membrane potential, modulating action potential wave form, and buffering extracellular potassium. One member of this family, Kir2.3, is highly expressed in the heart and brain and is modulated by a variety of factors, including arachidonic acid (AA). Using two-electrode voltage clamp and inside-out patch clamp recordings from Xenopu...

Glioblastoma is an aggressive, invasive tumor of the central nervous system (CNS). There is a widely acknowledged need for anti-invasive therapeutics to limit glioblastoma invasion. BKM-120 is a CNS-penetrant pan-class I phosphatidyl-inositol-3 kinase (PI3K) inhibitor in clinical trials for solid tumors, including glioblastoma. We observed that BKM-120 has potent anti-invasive effects in gliobl...

Incubation of slices of the salt gland of the albatross with acetylcholine, which is the physiological secretogogue for this tissue, led to a 13-fold increase in the rate of incorporation of P(32) into phosphatidic acid and a 3-fold increase in the incorporation of P(32) and inositol-2-H(3) into phosphoinositide. The incorporation of P(32) into phosphatidyl choline and phosphatidyl ethanolamine...

The synthesis of lipid by rabbit atherosclerotic intima incubated in vitro has been investigated and compared with that of foam cells isolated from intima] lesions. In the atherosclerotic arterial intima, C-labeled acetate is readily incorporated into the lipid fraction, most of the label being found in the phospholipid and cholesterol ester fatty acid fractions. Minimal incorporation into trig...

Chloroplasts, Lipids, Proteins, Antibody Binding, Thylakoid Membrane Surface The maximal binding of antibodies out of monospecific antisera to proteins and lipids onto three different chloroplast preparations is compared. In these preparations different parts of the thylakoid membrane surface are accessible to antibodies. Whereas stroma-freed chloroplasts bind antibodies only at the outer surfa...