Ornithine aminotransferase, a mitochondrial matrix enzyme, is expressed constitutively in many mammalian tissues and is subject to complex hormonal and dietary regulation in rat liver and kidney. The kidney enzyme is induced by estrogen and thyroid hormone (3,3',5-triiodo-L-thyronine, T3). We demonstrated previously that the hormonal induction in kidney is the result of an increase in ornithine...

We wished to identify metabolic signals governing changes in ornithine decarboxylase (L-ornithine carboxy-lyase, EC 4.1.1.17) activity in Neurospora crassa. By manipulations of the ornithine supply and by the use of inhibitors of the polyamine pathway, we found that spermidine negatively governs formation of active ornithine decarboxylase and that putrescine promotes inactivation of the enzyme....

Poly(A)+ RNA was isolated from liver-free polysomes of rats maintained on a 60% casein diet by sodium dodecyl sulfate-phenol-chloroform extraction and oligo(dT)-cellulose chromatography. Poly(A)+ RNA translated in a rabbit reticulocyte lysate system produced a polypeptide of 49,000 daltons that was immunoprecipitated by monospecific, affinity-purified IgG antibodies to ornithine aminotransferas...

Defensins (e.g., human neutrophil peptides, or HNPs) contribute to innate immunity through diverse actions, including microbial killing; high concentrations are present in the lung in response to inflammation. Arginines are critical for HNP activity, which is decreased by their replacement with ornithine. ADP-ribosyltransferases (ARTs) catalyze transfer of ADP-ribose from NAD to an acceptor arg...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cell spreading on the induction of ornithine decarboxylase and the rate of putrescine uptake in anchorage-dependent and anchorage-independent cells. Plating non-transformed IEC-6 epithelial cells at high versus low cell density restricted cell spreading from 900 microns 2 to approximately 140 microns 2, blunted the transient induction of or...

Ornithine racemase has been purified to homogeneity from Clostridium sticklandii, as shown by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. This is the first racemase known to be highly specific to ornithine. This PLP-dependent enzyme has an M(r) of 92, 000, with a K(m) for L-ornithine of 0.77 +/- 0.05 mM and a k(cat) of 980 +/- 20 s(-1).

A scalable four-step synthesis of the ornithine transcarbamylase inhibitor N(5)-phosphonoacetyl-l-ornithine (PALO) is achieved through boroxazolidinone protection of ornithine. Investigations in the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae found that, in contrast to a previous report, PALO did not influence growth rate or expression of genes involved in arginine metabolism.

The half-life of ornithine decarboxylase in HMOA cells, a variant cell line derived from hepatoma tissue culture (HTC) cells, was 5 t o 10 h compared to 14 min in the parental cell line. The half-lives of two other rapidly turning over proteins, S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase and tyrosine aminotransferase, as well as the turnover of total cellular protein, were the same in the two types of ...

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), the lead enzyme in polyamine biosynthesis, was partially purified from Trichomonas vaginalis and its kinetic properties were studied. The enzyme appears to be of special significance in this anaerobic parasite, since the arginine dihydrolase pathway generates ATP as well as putrescine from arginine. ODC from T. vaginalis had a broad substrate specificity, decarbox...

Patients with gyrate atrophy of the choroid and retina have 10- to 20-fold increased ornithine concentrations in body fluids and significantly reduced activity of ornithine aminotransferase in lymphocytes and cultured fibroblasts. We administered intravenous arginine to six patients and six controls to study in vivo inhibition by high ornithine concentrations of arginine-glycine transamidinase,...