The electrophoretic pattern of cysteine proteinases in axenically grown myxamoebae of Dictyostelium discoideum can be altered by the addition of either Gram-negative (Klebsiella aerogenes, Escherichia coli) or Gram-positive (Micrococcus lysodeikticus, Bacillus subtilis) bacteria to the culture. No changes occurred, however, if either yeast or latex beads were used in place of bacteria. The chan...

Cysteine proteinases, particularly cathepsins B and L, have been strongly implicated in fostering metastasis in mice. In this work four different inhibitors of cysteine proteinases have been shown to inhibit the invasion of the human amnion by murine melanoma and mammary carcinoma cells in vitro. Two of the inhibitors are synthetic peptides [ZPhePheCHN2 (benzyloxycarbonyl-L-phenylalanyl-L-pheny...

Proteinases like thrombin, trypsin and tissue kallikreins are now known to regulate cell signaling by cleaving and activating a novel family of G-protein-coupled proteinase-activated receptors (PARs 1-4) via exposure of a tethered receptor-triggering ligand. On their own, short synthetic PAR-selective PAR-activating peptides (PAR-APs) mimicking the tethered ligand sequences can activate PARs 1,...

The structures of the native Saccharomyces cerevisiae proteinase A have been solved by molecular replacement in the monoclinic and trigonal crystal forms and refined at 2.6-2.7A resolution. These structures agree overall with those of other uninhibited aspartic proteinases. However, an unusual orientation for the side chain of Tyr75, a conserved residue on the flexible "flap" that covers the ac...

The aim of the study is to investigate the interrelationships between the expression of genes for structural extracellular matrix molecules, proteinases and their inhibitors in the bovine fetal growth plate. This was analyzed by RT-PCR in microsections of the proximal tibial growth plate of bovine fetuses in relationship to expression of genes associated with chondrocyte proliferation, apoptosi...

Neuroserpin is an axonally secreted serine proteinase inhibitor that is expressed in neurons during embryogenesis and in the adult nervous system. To identify target proteinases, we used a eucaryotic expression system based on the mouse myeloma cell line J558L and vectors including a promoter from an Ig-kappa-variable region, an Ig-kappa enhancer, and the exon encoding the Ig-kappa constant reg...

The protein from chicken egg white that inhibits cysteine proteinases, and has been named 'cystatin', was purified by ovomucin precipitation, affinity chromatography on carboxymethylpapain-Sepharose and chromatofocusing. The final purification step separated two major forms of the protein (pI 6.5 and 5.6), with a total recovery of about 20% from egg white. By use of affinity chromatography and ...

Theglomerular damage during the early phase ofthe passive antiglomerular basement membrane (GBM)' nephritis, a well-known model of experimental renal disease, is dependent on complement and polymorphonuclear granulocytes (PMN) in most animal species studied (1-3) . Recently we have described a murine model of anti-GBM nephritis, in which the massive albuminuria occurring after the injection ofh...