Naturally occurring metallothionein (MT) is a metal binding protein, which binds to seven Zn2+ through 20 conserved cysteines and forms two metal binding clusters with a Zinc-Blende structure. We demonstrate that the MT, when substituting the Zn2+ ions by Mn2+ and Cd2+, exhibits magnetic hysteresis loop observable by SQUID from 10 to 330 K. The magnetic moment may have originated from the bridg...

Binding of Cd2+ to concanavalin A and the subsequent induction of saccharide-binding activity has been studied at pH 6.5. We found that Cd2+ bound to both metal sites, S1 and S2, and that Cd2+ alone would induce sugar binding in concanavalin A. Using the fluorescent sugar 4-methylumbelliferyl alpha-D-mannopyranoside we determined that full saccharide-binding activity was obtained only when the ...

The ninth component of complement (C9) polymerizes to tubules either spontaneously at a very slow rate (3 days at 37 degrees C) or within minutes if induced by C5b-8 as part of the membrane attack assembly (Tschopp, J., Podack, E. R., and Müller-Eberhard, H. J. (1984) J. Immunol., in press). The spontaneous formation of tubular sodium dodecyl sulfate-resistant C9 polymers was completely inhibit...

Flat-sheet-supported liquid membranes incorporating lasalocid A (a natural ionophore), were previously shown to be permeable to metal cations (Cd2+ and Zn2+) against a proton gradient (∆pH), which is the driving force of the process [1]. This transport process has been extended to other metal species such as Pb2+, Na+, and Ag+ and also to the case where two metal species compete for transport. ...

Metallothionein (MT) is a metal-binding protein rapidly accreted in many tissues in response to trace elements or hormones. To gain an understanding of the regulation of MT accretion, rates of MT synthesis and degradation were determined by using a decay-kinetics technique. A chicken macrophage-cell line (HD11) that rapidly accretes incremental amounts of MT when stimulated with increasing conc...

The three isozymes of 3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonate-7-phosphate synthase from Escherichia coli were overproduced, purified, and characterized with respect to their requirement for metal cofactor. The isolated isozymes contained 0.2-0.3 mol of iron/mol of enzyme monomer, variable amounts of zinc, and traces of copper. Enzymatic activity of the native enzymes was stimulated 3-4-fold by the addi...

The effects of the heavy-metal ions Cd2+ and Zn2+ on the homoeostasis of intracellular free Ca2+ in E367 neuroblastoma cells were examined using 19F-NMR spectroscopy with the fluorinated chelator probe 1,2-bis-(2-amino-5-fluorophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N', N'-tetra-acetic acid (5F-BAPTA). First, the technique was used to quantify the uptake and intracellular free concentrations of the heavy metals aft...

The effects of nitrogenous synergists on the potentiometric responses to divalent transition metal ions were investigated concerning polymeric liquid membranes containing thenoyltrifluoroacetone (Htta) as an ionophore. The tested synergists were pyridine (py) and 4,4'-dioctyl-2,2'-bipyridyl (C8bpy). The potentiometric responses to metal ions, such as Cd2+, Co2+, Ni2+ and Zn2+, were induced by a...

The human body is full of various ions, which play an important role in the normal physiological activities. For example, Zinc ion (Zn2+) plays a vital role in protein organism and in many biochemical processes, such as inducing apotosis, enzyme regulation, and gene expression. Also, Ferrous ion (Fe2+) is vital in the oxygen transporting. But there are some ions harmful to human body. When expo...