Toshiharu Matsumura

Polyacrylamide containing sugar residues : synthesis, characterization and cell compatibility studies

Hydrophilic poly (acrylamide) compounds having simple mono saccharides (such as glucose and galactose) as pendent groups were synthesized. Cell culture polystyrene plates were coated with these polymers. A distinct transition for water contact angle from higher to a lower value was noted for coated plates. FTIR-ATR of coated plates showed a characteristic band at 1653 cm-1, 1706 cm-1 and 1611 cm-1 due to amide carbonyl for native, glucose and galactose poly (acrylamides) respectively. The XPS spectra of cell culture plates coated with native and sugar derivatives of poly (acrylamides) showed peaks around 277, 287 eV(C Is), 401 eV(N Is) and 525, 534 eV(O Is). The growth rate of mouse fibroblast L929 cells was found to be higher on poly (acrylamide) having galactose residues than that of glucose. A high degree of cell aggregation was also observed in case of galactose poly (acrylamides).

Multilayer rat hepatocyte aggregates formed on expanded polytetrafluoroethylene surface.

Feasibility of using a macroporous membrane material, expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE), for culturing hepatocytes on its surface was examined. Adult rat hepatocytes were attached to an ePTFE surface and cultured in a hormonally defined medium supplemented with or without fetal calf serum (FCS, 10%) or bovine serum albumin (BSA, 0.03–3%). When cultured in a FCS-suplemented medium, hepatocytes reorganized themselves into multilayer cell aggregates on an ePTFE surface. The morphological characteristics of hepatocytes were influenced by the modification of the ePTFE surface as well as the culture medium. Hepatocytes cultured on a polyvinylalcohol (PVA)-coated ePTFE surface formed many more multilayer cell aggregates than those cultured on an uncoated ePTFE surface. Such highly multilayered hepatocyte aggregates were also noted when the cells were cultivated in a BSA-supplemented medium. On the other hand, when cultured in a FCS- or BSA-free medium, hepatocytes formed cell monolayers on both PVA-coated and uncoated ePTFE surfaces as did the cells on a collagen-coated polystyrene surface. The hepatocytes in the aggregates exhibited high albumin expression capability and low DNA synthesis rate as compared with those in monolayer cultures. The multilayer hepatocyte aggregates, as immobilized on a PVA-coated ePTFE surface in a serum-supplemented medium, are shown to be not only morphologically, but functionally differentiated, and will provide us a model system for the development of a bioreactor using hepatocytes, particularly for a hybrid-type artificial liver.

Polyacrylamides containing sugar residues : synthesis, characterization and hepatocyte attachment studies

Homo polymers of acrylamide having glucose (PAAm-glucose) and galactose (PAAm-galactose) as pendent groups were synthesized. Tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS) plates coated with these polymers showed increased surface wettability. Coating of PAAm-glucose and PAArn-galactose on to TCPS plates was also confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) characterization. Rat hepatocytes in primary culture attached to the surfaces of PAArn-galactose homopolymer, but not to those of PAAm-glucose homopolymer.

Double-compartment cell culture apparatus: construction and biochemical evaluation for bioartificial liver support.

Functional demands on a bioartificial liver support (BAL) device are not limited to biosynthetic activities, but must also encompass metabolic removal of potentially toxic substances. For most BALs, however, the concept and design are exclusively directed to biosynthetic support. To add the ability to metabolize and remove toxic substances, we designed a double-compartment cell culture apparatus (DCCA). Two compartments are separated from each other by a compact epithelial cell sheet spread over a synthetic microporous membrane. When a renal proximal convoluted tubular cell line that had been transduced with the human multidrug-resistant (MDR) gene, PCTL-MDR, was introduced into one of the compartments (hereafter referred to as the “inner” compartment) of the DCCA, a compact cellular monolayer was formed on the membrane. Ammonium ions passed across the membrane, but glucose and its metabolite lactate could not, indicating that the DCCA allowed selective transportation of cellular metabolites. In addition to PCTL-MDR, HepG2, a cell line of hepatic-origin, transduced with CYP3A4 (designated GS-3A4-HepG2), was seeded on the opposite side of the membrane, and the metabolism and transportation of lidocaine were studied. The lidocaine metabolite, monoethylglycinexylidide, was detected in the inner compartment across the PCTL-MDR cell layered membrane, indicating that metabolism and the selective transportation of metabolites between the two compartments occurred by cooperation of renal and hepatic cells. These results suggest that this type of DCCA represents a novel BAL that possesses biotransporting activities, as well as biosynthetic and metabolic activities.

Measles associated with coronary arteritis

A two-year-old girl with measles virus (MV) and chronic Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection developed lethal coronary aneurysmal arteritis accompanied by giant cell pneumonia, systemic lymphadenitis and hepatosplenomegaly. In her coronary arteries, lungs and aorta, cells containing intranuclear and intracytoplasmic inclusions, including syncytial giant cells, were detected, the presence of MV in the organs being proved by electron microscopic and immunofluorescent studies. Immunopathology further demonstrated MV to be disseminated in almost all organs other than lymph nodes. Clinical diagnosis of chronic EBV infection was established on the basis of persistent high titers of antibodies against capsid and early antigens of EBV and viral presence was confirmed by Southern blot hybridization in a mesenterial lymph node obtained at autopsy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first description of MV association with coronary aneurysmal arteritis, raising the possibility that measles infection can cause severe vasculitis under immuno-suppressive states, such as that caused by chronic EBV infection.

Molecular Cloning and Structural Characterization of the Hagfish Proteinase Inhibitor of the Alpha-2-Macroglobulin Family

The “most primitive” living vertebrate the hagfish has a dimeric proteinase inhibitor, a protein homologous to human α2-macroglobulin, in its plasma at high concentration. Although the hagfish proteinase inhibitor has been isolated and its function and quaternary structure studied, its primary structure, subunit composition and fragmentation process remain unclear. In this study, hagfish proteinase inhibitor cDNA was cloned, sequenced and cDNA-deduced amino acid sequence was analyzed. A large fraction of homosubunits in the dimeric structure of the protein has undergone a cleavage at a specific arginyl residue (Arg833) while the rest retained their chain integrity without being processed. Thus random combinations of processed and nonprocessed subunits in the dimeric structure of this protein result in different molecular conformers and generate a complicated multiband pattern in SDS-PAGE. It was further demonstrated by proteolytic analysis that the hagfish inhibitor has no susceptible arginyl residues within its bait region and thus incapable of trapping arginine specific proteinases. This implies that the specific subunit cleavage at Arg833 was caused by an unknown arginine specific proteinase which escaped from the entrapment by the hagfish inhibitor.

A recombinant bait region mutant of human α2-macroglobulin exhibiting an altered proteinase-inhibiting spectrum

Alpha 2-macroglobulin (α2M), a plasma glycoprotein produced in the liver, inhibits a variety of proteinases and thus considered to play important homeostatic roles in the body. This broad inhibitory spectrum has been explained by the trapping theory by which a proteinase recognizes a region of 25–30 amino acid peptide in α2M called bait region and cleaves it, leading to the conformational change of α2M, and to the subsequent entrapment and inhibition of the proteinase. We constructed α2M cDNAs with mutated DNA sequences in the bait region, and obtained recombinant CHO cell lines producing either wild type α2M, or mutant α2Ms, i.e., α2M/K692 and α2M/K696, each with substitution of Arg with Lys at codons 692 and 696, respectively. We tested if lysyl endopeptidase is not inhibited by wild type α2M, but could be inhibited by these engineered mutant α2Ms. Thus, recombinant α2M/K696 protein successfully inhibited lysyl endopeptidase activity, while recombinant α2M/K692 protein was not sensitive to lysyl endopeptidase, suggesting that not all bait region peptide bonds can equally be accessible and susceptible to proteinases. The present results not only provided the trapping theory with additional supportive evidence, but the first experimental evidence for the value of engineered α2M-derived proteinase inhibitor with an artificial proteinase inhibitory spectrum of potential industrial and/or therapeutic usefulness.

Detection and cDNA cloning of H-strand mitochondrial regulatory region RNAs in cultured human cells and human tissues.

In the mitochondrion, essential genetic elements for replication and transcription are mostly housed within a shortsegment of its DNA located between tRNAPhe and tRNAPro genes, which is called mitochondrial regulatoryregion (mrr). RNAs are known to be transcribed from mrr, thestructures and the functions of which are yet to be fullycharacterized.We detected ca. 1.3 kb H-strand transcripts of mrr (mrrH-RNAs),and 0.2 kb L-strand transcripts of mrr (mrrL-RNAs) in varioushuman cultured cells and tissues using double stranded mrrDNAprobes. The steady state levels of mrrL-RNAs were generally highin cultured cells, while they varied among tissues. On the otherhand, the levels of mrrH-RNAs varied among tissues and amongcultured cells. A tendency was observed in these cells andtissues that a high level of mrrL-RNA is associated with cellproliferation, and a high level of mrrH-RNA withdifferentiation. Several cDNA clones to 1.3 kb mrrH-RNA were obtained from humanskeletal muscle polyadenylated RNAs. The 5′ terminus of the 1.3 kb RNA was determined to be at nucleotide position 15953 whichis immediately downstream of tRNAThr sequence.Polyadenylation site for most of the clones was demonstrated tobe at nucleotide position 576 which is immediately upstream oftRNAPhe sequence. The longest cDNA insert obtained was 1177 bps long spanning from nucleotide positions 15969 to 576 which could code for a peptide of 76 amino acids. The cDNAs isolatedhere are the first cDNA clones reported to human mrrH-RNAs.These results, together with previous results, furthersubstantiate that polyadenylated mrrH- and mrrL-RNAs are commonly present at varying levels among human tissues andcells. The 3′ end sequences of the cloned mrrH-cDNA provideswith insights into the mechanisms of transcription termination.The cDNA clones will provide tools to further the study of thefunction of mrr RNAs.

Structure and expression of integrated hepatitis B virus genes in an HBs antigen producing human cell line (huGK-14).

A human continuous cell line (huGK-14) within a lineage of passaged cultures was investigated in the mode of integration and expression of hepatitis B virus (HBV) genes. HBV DNA was integrated in eight different sites of the cellular DNA, in each of which HBV genome was rearranged, fragmented, and/or partly deleted. Complete HBV genome that may lead to production of infectious virus particles was not detected in the cells nor in the culture medium. Clones of cDNA containing a complete coding frame for small HBs antigen protein (type adr) were obtained from mRNA of the cells. The cells were stable over the period of six months of cultivation and more than 60 population doublings in the mode of HBV integration and HBs mRNA expression.These results provide substantial evidence for the absence of an ability for the integrated DNA to create an infectious product in the cell; for the stable production of HBs mRNA from the cells, and suggest the usefulness of this cell line as a substrate for HBV vaccine production.

Construction of Improved Mammalian Expression Vectors

To improve the productivity of recombinant protein using mammalian cells, we modified an expression vector particularly in its post promoter region to regulate the leader sequence of mRNA and obtained improved vectors with significantly high production efficiency in this paper. Here, the original vector we used, pK2SRα/hTfr, for the production of a foreign protein, i.e., human transferrin in our case. Our attention was particularly paid to the translation initiation codons in the 5′-leader sequence of mRNA, which we noted varying when the original vector was used One of the Tfr mRNAs contained additional initiator colon, ATG3, near the 5′ cap site. We constructed a vector by changing ATG3 to ATC3 and this modified vector turned out to show the highest productivity among other modified vectors.