No abstract

Despite the continued importance of tuberculosis as a world-wide threat to public health, little is known about the mechanisms used by human lymphocytes to contain and kill the intracellular pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We previously described an in vitro model of infection of human monocytes (MN) with virulent M. tuberculosis strain H37Rv in which the ability of peripheral blood lymphocytes to limit intracellular growth of the organism could be measured. In the current study, we determined that lymphocyte-

The epitope of the 3F4 antibody most commonly used in human prion disease diagnosis is believed to consist of residues Met-LysHis-Met (MKHM) corresponding to human PrP-(109 -112). This assumption is based mainly on the observation that 3F4 reacts with human and hamster PrP but not with PrP from mouse, sheep, and cervids, in which Met at residue 112 is replaced by Val. Here we report that, by brain histoblotting, 3F4 did not react with PrP of uninfected transgenic mice expressing elk PrP; however, it did show distinct immunoreactivity in transgenic mice infected with chronic wasting disease. Compared with human PrP, the 3F4 reactivity with the recombinant elk PrP was 2 orders of magnitude weaker, as indicated by both Western blotting and surface plasmon resonance. To investigate the molecular basis of these species-and conformer-dependent preferences of 3F4, the epitope was probed by peptide membrane array and antigen competition experiments. Remarkably, the 3F4 antibody did not react with MKHM but reacted strongly with KTNMK (corresponding to human PrP-(106 -110)), a sequence that is also present in cervids, sheep, and cattle. 3F4 also reacted with elk PrP peptides containing KTNMKHV. We concluded that the minimal sequence for the 3F4 epitope consists of residues KTNMK, and the speciesand conformer-dependent preferences of 3F4 arise largely from the interactions between Met 112 (human PrP) or Val 115 (cervid PrP) and adjacent residues.

Platelets contain a polypeptide growth factor that stimulates the replication of normal connective tissue cells; this platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) is released during the clotting process. Human platelets from normal volunteers were disrupted by nitrogen cavitation, and the subcellular organelles were fractionated by ultracentrifugation through a 30%--60% sucrose gradient. Electron microscopy revealed that fraction 7 (density 1.23 g/liter) contained the largest number of alpha granules. The specific activity of platelet fibrinogen, an alpha- granule marker, was also highest in this fraction. The subcellular fractions were assay for the presence of PDGF and for beta- thromboglobulin. PDGF was assayed quantitatively by the stimulation of DNA synthesis in confluent growth-arrested BALB/c-3T3 cells, whereas the concentration of beta-thromboglobulin was determined by radioimmunoassay. The highest concentrations of both PDGF and beta- thromboglobulin were found in the alpha-granule fraction. In contrast, beta-glucuronidase, a lysosomal enzyme, was more diffusely distributed and had its highest specific activity in fractions of lower density than those for PDGS, beta-thromboglobulin, or fibrinogen. The data demonstrate that the alpha granules of platelets provide a unique delivery system for PDGF, a polypeptide hormone with growth-promoting activity for connective tissue cells.