A New Preparative Method for Isolation of Human C3 with Affinity Chromatography

A new preparative method for isolation of highly purified human C3 was developed by using a reversed application of affinity chromatography. Antisera against contaminations usually present in crude C3 preparations were produced. These antibodies were irreversibly coupled to Sepharose 4B and as a whole used in column form. When crude C3 preparations were applied to these columns the impurities were bound and thus eliminated. The resulting C3 preparations were pure when tested in concentrations of 5 mg/ml against anti-human serum and when tested by immunizing rabbits. C3 appeared to be homogeneous in the analytical ultracentrifuge, in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and according to N-terminal amino acid analysis. The recovery from 400 ml normal human serum was about 65 mg.

Biochemical cytology of trichomonad flagellates. I. Subcellular localization of hydrolases, dehydrogenases, and catalase in Tritrichomonas foetus

To determine the localization of several enzymes in Tritrichomonas foetus, the axenic KV-1 strain was grown in Diamond's medium with bovine serum, homogenized in 0.25 M sucrose, and subjected to analytical differential and isopycnic centrifugation. The fractions were assayed for their enzymatic composition and examined electron microscopically. NADH and NADPH dehydrogenases, about 90% of the catalase, and two hydrolases, alpha-galactosidase and manganese-activated beta-galactosidase I are in the nonsedimentable part of the cytoplasm. alpha-Glycerophosphate and malate dehydrogenases are associated with a large particle, whose equilibrium density in sucrose gradients is 1.24. This particle corresponds to that population of the paracostal and paraxostylar granules which, having a uniform granular matrix surrounded by a single membrane, resemble microbodies from other organisms. The small sedimentable portion of catalase (about 10% of the total activity) is not associated with these granules and equilibrates at density 1.22. The nature of the subcellular entity carrying catalase could not be ascertained. Hydrolases with a pH optimum around 6-6.5 (protease, beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase, beta-N-acetylgalactosaminidase, and cation-independent beta-galactosidase II), as well as a large part of acid phosphatase, are associated with a population of large particles which equilibrate at densities from 1.15 to 1.20. The hydrolases in these granules lose their structure-bound latency easily after freezing and thawing. These particles correspond to another population of the paracostal and paraxostylar granules which have varied shape and inhomogeneous content with frequent myelin figures, indicating a digestive function. The rest of the phosphatase and most of the acid beta-glucuronidase activity are in a smaller granule fraction with an equilibrium density around 1.18. The latency of these enzymes is quite resistant to freezing and thawing. This particle population consists of smaller, very often flattened vesicles and granules, many of which are clearly fragments of the prominent Golgi apparatus of the cell.

Lysosomes of the arterial wall. I. Isolation and subcellular fractionation of cells from normal rabbit aorta

Smooth muscle cells were dissociated from normal rabbit aorta by incubating the tissue in Hanks' solution containing elastase, collagenase, and hyaluronidase. The isolated cells contained significant amounts of the following acid hydrolases: N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase, N-acetyl-beta-galactosaminidase, beta-galactosidase, beta-glucuronidase, alpha-mannosidase, beta-glucosidase, acid phosphatase, and cathepsins C and D. The cells were disrupted and fractionated by isopycnic centrifugation on sucrose density gradients in the Beaufay automatic zonal rotor. Lysosomes with a modal density of 1.16 were identified by the distribution of these acid hydrolases and by the latency of N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase and beta-galactosidase. Other particulate enzymes studied in these sucrose gradients included cytochrome oxidase and monoamine oxidase (mitochondria), 5'-nucleotidase and leucyl-beta-naphthylamidase (plasma membrane), and catalase (? peroxisome). This microanalytical subcellular fractionation technique is applicable to the study of milligram quantities of many other tissues, both normal and pathological.

Secretion of acid hydrolases and its intracellular source in Tetrahymena pyriformis

Axenic Tetrahymena pyriformis, syngen 1, mating type II cells were grown in Cox's defined medium. When washed and transferred into nonnutrient dilute salt solution or resuspended in the defined medium, the intact cells secrete acid hydrolases into the medium. Cells starving in the salt solution release in 5 hr about two-thirds of their beta-glucosidase, beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase, alpha-glucosidase, and amylase activities, about one-third of their deoxyribonuclease and phosphatase activities, smaller amounts of ribonuclease, and only a negligible fraction of their proteinase activity and protein content. During this period there is practically no change in the enzyme activities (except for a sudden increase of ribonuclease activity) and protein content of cells and medium together. Cells resuspended in the nutrient medium secrete enzymes as do the starved cells, but replace this loss, so that there is a continuous increase of the activities in the total system. According to isopycnic centrifugation experiments performed in sucrose gradients, the source of the hydrolases is a special population of lysosomes which disappear from the cells during starvation. This population equilibrates in the high density region of the gradients and contains the various acid hydrolases in about the proportion in which these enzymes appear in the medium.