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It was shown that cytosol of primary sheep vesicular gland cells inhibits peroxidase activity of prostaglandin H synthase (PGHS). The degree of the enzyme inactivation depends on cytosol concentration. It was established that cytosol contains glycoprotein haptoglobin that is one of the cytosol basic components responsible for its property to inhibit PGHS. Haptoglobin is supposed to participate in endogenous regulation of PGHS activity in sheep vesicular glands.

The changes in AA incorporation and release as well as prostanoid synthesis upon differentiation of human premonocytic cell line, U937, induced by three functionally diverse agents—phorbol ester (TPA), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and retinoic acid (RA) have been investigated. The rate of AA incorporation into the cells remained unchanged whereas a 3- to 6-fold increase in AA release upon stimulation with Ca 2+ -ionophore A23187 as compared to undifferentiated cells was observed. While undifferentiated cells were incapable to metabolise AA via the cyclooxygenase pathway all three types of differentiated U937 cells produced TxB 2 and PGE 2 . Only TPA-differentiated cells responded with a 6-fold increase of prostanoid synthesis after A23187 stimulation, whereas in DMSO-differentiated cells prostanoid synthesis was slightly stimulated by A23187 and in RA-differentiated cells it was not stimulated at all. Thus, agonist-induced prostanoid synthesis in differentiated cells is dependent on the nature of differentiating agent and does not correlate with AA liberation.

A new method is proposed for assaying transketolase activity. The method is based on determining erythrulose, the product of the transketolase reaction, by its optical activity.

Thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP), when bound with transketolase (TK) induces some changes in the absorption of the enzyme and coenzyme which can be registered by difference spectrophotometry. The binding of a donor substrate to the binary complex give rise to changes in the absorption region of the TPP thiazolium ring and in the charge transfer spectrum. With low concentrations of hydroxypyruvate, the kinetics of these changes may be revealed. The possibility is discussed of the charge transfer complex (CTC) being involved in the catalytic reaction.

Prostaglandins (PGs) have an important physiological role in the modulation of various cell immune functions. The main sources of PGs during immune responses are monocyte cells. We report here the ability of non-stimulated macrophages to synthesize prostanoids and show that peritoneal mouse macrophages synthesize PGE2, PGF2a and thromboxane B2, spleen macrophages produce PGE2 and PGF2a, and in a fresh medium this synthesis reaches a constant basal level in a few hours. We studied the kinetics of Con A-induced proliferation of murine splenocytes under the influence of a wide range of PGE2 concentrations (10(-14)-10(-7) M). The suppressive effect of PGE2 decreased when its concentration was lowered and disappeared at 10(-9) M PGE2 (this concentration corresponded to the basal level of non-stimulated macrophage synthesis of PGE2). Further lowering of the concentration became essential for the proliferation process once again, and at picomolar concentrations PGE2 caused a suppressive effect comparable with that for 10(-8) M PGE2. We also found that PGE2 significantly inhibited cell proliferation when it was added 1 h before the addition of mitogen, as compared with simultaneous mitogen addition. The effect was obtained for both low (10(-12) M) and high (10(-8) M) PGE2 concentrations. This phenomenon of PGE2 biphasic control of lymphocyte proliferation may play an important role in cellular homeostasis, in particular in immune cell function regulation.

Prostaglandin H synthase (PGHS) as apo-PGHS, holo-PGHS, and holo-PGHS, inactivated in the course of catalysis was studied using chemical modification with diethyl pyrocarbonate (DEPC). The exhausted reaction with DEPC corresponded to the modification of 7 histidine residues in apo-PGHS and 4 in holo-PGHS. All 18 histidine residues became accessible for modification with DEPC in the enzyme, inactivated in the course of catalysis. The velocities of tryptic cleavage of all the three forms into two fragments were fairly different but independent of modification. Based on the results we hypothesize fast and dramatic changes in the protein structure in the course of the substrate conversion.

The influence of 10−10–10−6 M morphine on the release of [3H]arachidonic acid and its metabolites ([3H]AAM) from prelabeled resident peritoneal murine macrophages was investigated. Morphine enhanced [3H]AAM release from A23187- and LPS-stimulated macrophages, as well as the basal release of [3H]AAM. Dose-response curves showed a maximum at 10−8 M morphine. Naloxone had no effect on morphine enhancement of [3H]AAM release. These results are in agreement with the hypothesis that [3H]AAM may be involved in the effects of morphine.