[3H]Spiperone binding has been used to study neurotransmitter receptors in bovine caudate nucleus in displacement and saturation binding experiments. Displacement curves for several antagonists are biphasic and can be analysed into contributions from dopaminergic and serotonergic sites. Antagonist binding at each class of sites follows the simple mass action equations for binding at a homogeneous set of sites (slope factors close to unity). Agonist displacement curves also indicate complex behaviour, but agonist binding to the dopaminergic sites alone exhibits heterogeneous properties (slope factors less than unity). Saturation binding experiments have been conducted on each class of site, defining dopaminergic binding of [3H]spiperone as that binding displaced by 0.1 mM-dopamine and serotonergic binding as that displaced by 0.3 microM-mianserin. In each case, a single class of binding sites was detected: the binding parameters derived in this way have been used to calculate the proportions of the two classes of binding site observed in displacement experiments. Good agreement was obtained between calculated and observe values.

The tetrodotoxin binding component of the voltage-sensitive sodium channel from Electrophorus electricus electroplax was purified by using a monoclonal antibody. An impure preparation oftetrodotoxin binding component was mixed with the pure monoclonal antibody, and the immune complex so formed was isolated by affinity chromatography on a protein A-Sepharose column. Excess antibody was removed by ion-exchange chromatography. The purified material has a specific activity of over 1j800 pmol of [ H] Mrs of -95,000, z44,000, and =23,000.The action potential of excitable tissue results from transient changes in the permeability of the membranes to Na' and K+ ions (1). The increase in Na' conductance is mediated through a voltage-regulated Na' channel (reviewed in refs. 2 and 3), which can be studied using the specific neurotoxins tetrodotoxin (TTX) and saxitoxin. These toxins bind reversibly and with high affinity to part ofthe Na' channel involved in Na' permeation; they block ion conductance but do not perturb the structures involved in channel gating.

Partially purified protein preparations containing megakaryocyte growth factor activity were prepared from human embryonic kidney (HEK) cell conditioned medium using ammonium sulfate precipitation, Cibicron blue affinity chromatography, and wheatgerm lectin affinity chromatography. Treatment of these preparations with neutralizing antibodies directed against erythropoietin (EPO) and interleukin 6 (IL6) resulted in a dramatic reduction in their capacity to stimulate megakaryocyte maturation in vitro. The presence of EPO in these preparations was confirmed by both immunoblotting and use of a mouse spleen erythroid progenitor cell proliferation assay routinely used to quantitate EPO activity in vitro. Northern blot analysis of HEK cell-derived mRNA with IL6 DNA probes revealed the presence of an IL6 transcript with a molecular size of 1.3 kb. Analysis of the HEK cell-derived preparation by ELISA confirmed the presence of immunologically reactive IL6. In addition, it was shown that purified recombinant human EPO and IL6 stimulated megakaryocyte maturation in the in vitro assay used in this study. These data indicate that the activity in HEK cell conditioned medium that stimulates megakaryocyte maturation in vitro is predominantly due to the presence of IL6 and EPO. Immunoneutralization studies of another HEK cell-derived preparation, which was inhibitory in the megakaryocyte maturation assay, demonstrated that it contained transforming growth factor beta (TGF beta), a potent inhibitor of megakaryocyte maturation. Taken together, these studies indicate that HEK cell conditioned medium, which has previously been reported to contain megakaryocyte growth factor activity, is comprised of a complex mixture of growth and differentiation factors, some of which promote and others that inhibit the process of megakaryopoiesis.

The distribution of 5'-nucleotidase activity, dopaminergic [3H]spiperone binding sites, and [3H]quinuclidinyl benzilate (QNB) binding sites in different subcellular fractions of bovine caudate nucleus has been studied. Each activity was enriched in a microsomal (P3) preparation from that tissue. The microsomal preparation was further fractionated by different techniques. First, the P3 fraction, or a sonicated P3 fraction, was fractionated on a discontinuous sucrose density gradient. Second, the P3 fraction, or a digitonin pretreated P3 fraction, was fractionated on a continuous sucrose density gradient. The results obtained demonstrate that 5'-nucleotidase activity does not cofractionate with radioligand binding activity, although no difference between the distributions of [3H]spiperone binding and [3H]QNB binding were seen. It is concluded that the two radioligand binding activities are located on nonglial membranes.

The sequences of nine different cytokines, growth hormone, and prolactin have been aligned and their secondary structure predicted. The alignment reveals that each exon has a characteristic sequence pattern shared by all cytokines. The most striking sequence similarity is observed in exon 4, where the residue pair Phe-Leu is conserved in many cytokines. In addition, there are discreet homologous regions between two specific growth factors, including a high degree of homology between granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin 3 (IL-3). The secondary structure analysis predicts that exon 3 of all cytokines has an antiparallel helix-turn-helix motif, which is likely to form the central helical segments of a four alpha-helical bundle-type structure. Based on the secondary structure and the disulfide-bonding pattern, the topological connectivity for a number of cytokines has been predicted.