We prepared homogeneous populations of colloidal gold particles of various sizes. These were analyzed for size distribution and number of particles per unit volume. On exposure to increasing concentrations of insulin, myoglobin, protein A, peroxidase, serum albumin, galactosylated serum albumin, lactoferrin, transferrin, catalase, low-density lipoprotein, ferritin, and polymeric IgA, protein binding was a saturable process. Using serum albumin, we verified that a reversible equilibrium was reached within 15 minutes. Scatchard analysis of the interactions between all of these proteins and the gold particles resulted in a single component, linear relation. For a given particle size, the number of binding sites for various proteins was inversely proportional to their molecular weight. Conversely, when the size of particles was varied, the number of binding sites was directly proportional to the average area of each gold particle. All results are compatible with a monomolecular shell of protein surrounding the particle at saturation, the binding capacity being inversely proportional to the projection area of the protein. We present direct morphological evidence for this model. The affinity of the various proteins for the colloid also increased with molecular weight, and was not related to the protein isoelectric point. For globular proteins, the monomolecular shell model makes possible prediction of the number of molecules that will saturate a gold particle, if the average diameter of the gold particles and the molecular weight of the protein are known.

Trypanosoma brucei glycosomes (microbodies containing nine enzymes involved in glycolysis) have been purified to near homogeneity from bloodstream-form trypomastigotes for the purpose of morphologic and biochemical analysis . Differential centrifugation followed by two isopycnic centrifugations in an isotonic Percoll and in a sucrose gradient, respectively, resulted in 12-to 13-fold purified glycosomes with an overall yield of 31% . These glycosomes appeared to be highly pure and contained <1% mitochondrial contamination as judged by morphometric and biochemical analyses. In intact cells, glycosomes displayed a remarkably homogeneous size distribution centered on an average diameter of 0.27 um with a standard deviation of 0.03 um . The size distribution of isolated glycosomes differed only slightly from that measured in intact cells. One T. brucei cell contained on average 230 glycosomes, representing 4.3% of the total cell volume . The glycosomes were surrounded by a single membrane and contained as phospholipids only phosphatidyl choline and phosphatidyl ethanolamine in a ratio of 2:1 . The purified glycosomal fraction had a very low DNA content of 0.18 hg/mg protein . No DNA molecules were observed that could not have been derived from contaminating mitochondrial or nuclear debris.

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Cortex from rat, dog, and human brain was submitted to subcellular fractionation using an analytical approach consisting of a two-step procedure. First, fractions were obtained by differential centrifugation and were analyzed for their content of serotonin S2 and muscarinic receptors, serotonin uptake, and marker enzymes. Second, the cytoplasmic extracts were subfractionated by equilibration in sucrose density gradient. In human brain, serotonin and muscarinic receptors were found associated mostly with mitochondrial fractions which contain synaptosomes, whereas in rat brain they were concentrated mainly in the microsomal fractions. Density gradient centrifugation confirmed a more marked synaptosomal localization of receptors in human than in rat brain, the dog displaying an intermediate profile. In human brain, indeed, more receptor sites were found to be associated with the second peak characterized in electron microscopy by the largest number of nerve terminals. In addition, synaptosomes from human brain are denser than those from rat brain and some marker enzymes reveal different subcellular distribution in the three species. These data indicate that more receptors are of synaptosomal nature in human brain than in other species and this finding is compatible with a larger amount of synaptic contacts in human brain.