Intestinal brush borders prepared from vitamin D-deficient rats demonstrate increased susceptibility in vitro to fragmentation by shear forces or to loss of microvillus enzymes on treatment with EDTA. These effects are relatively nonspecific and are also observed in normal rats starved for 48 h. They may underlie prior observations that purport to demonstrate a vitamin D-dependent increase in b...

Phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) have been extensively investigated in vivo and in vitro for antisense control of gene expression. It has been shown that cellular uptake of phosphorothioate ODNs in some in vitro cell systems increases in the presence of divalent cations. In this work, we analyze the conformation of phosphorothioate ODNs and specific changes induced in it by various...

Effects of divalent cations on the regulation of glucose transport and cAMP phosphodiesterase in isolated rat epididymal adipocytes were studied. EDTA (5 mM) moderately inhibited the binding of insulin to adipocytes in Krebs-Henseleit Hepes buffer. In the same buffer, A-23187 (an ionophore specific for divalent cations; 50 p ~ ) plus EDTA (5 mM) almost completely blocked the insulinor hydrogen ...

As we previously reported, synaptic vesicles isolated from sheep brain cortex contain a Ca2+/H+ antiport that permits Ca2+ accumulation inside the vesicles ( approximately 5 nmol/mg protein) at expenses of the pH gradient generated by the H+-pumping ATPase. We observed that the system associates Ca2+ influx to H+ release and operates with low affinity for Ca2+. In the present work, we found tha...

Large conductance calcium-dependent (Slo1 BK) channels are allosterically activated by membrane depolarization and divalent cations, and possess a rich modulatory repertoire. Recently, intracellular heme has been identified as a potent regulator of Slo1 BK channels (Tang, X.D., R. Xu, M.F. Reynolds, M.L. Garcia, S.H. Heinemann, and T. Hoshi. 2003. Nature. 425:531-535). Here we investigated the ...

Effects of divalent cations on the regulation of glucose transport and cAMP phosphodiesterase in isolated rat epididymal adipocytes were studied. EDTA (5 mM) moderately inhibited the binding of insulin to adipocytes in Krebs-Henseleit Hepes buffer. In the same buffer, A-23187 (an ionophore specific for divalent cations; 50 microM) plus EDTA (5 mM) almost completely blocked the insulin- or hydro...

The mechanism of block of voltage-dependent Na+ channels by extracellular divalent cations was investigated in a quantitative comparison of two distinct Na+ channel subtypes incorporated into planar bilayers in the presence of batrachotoxin. External Ca2+ and other divalent cations induced a fast voltage-dependent block observed as a reduction in unitary current for tetrodotoxin-sensitive Na+ c...

Calixarenes are a readily available and important class of macrocycles in supramolecularchemistry. Calixarenes have generated considerable interest due to their basket shaped structureand as useful building blocks to synthesize selective receptors for the guest species, notably alkali,alkaline earth, lanthanide and transition metal cations. In this work studied on the complexingproperties of a ...

Cations have generally been reported to prevent jellyfish venom-induced hemolysis through multiple mechanisms by spectrophotometry. Little attention has been paid to the potential interaction between cations and hemoglobin, potentially influencing the antagonistic effect of cations. Here, we explored the effects of five reported cations, La3+, Mn2+, Zn2+, Cu2+ and Fe2+, on a hemolytic test syst...

Several divalent cations were studied as agonists of a Ca2+-activated K+ channel obtained from rat muscle membranes and incorporated into planar lipid bilayers. The effect of these agonists on single-channel currents was tested in the absence and in the presence of Ca2+. Among the divalent cations that activate the channel, Ca2+ is the most effective, followed by Cd2+, Sr2+, Mn2+, Fe2+, and Co2...