Abiotic factors are thought to be primarily responsible for the loss of bacteriophages from the environment, but ingestion of phages by heterotrophs may also play a role in their elimination. Tetrahymena thermophila has been shown to ingest and inactivate bacteriophage T4 in co-incubation experiments. In this study, other Tetrahymena species were co-incubated with T4 with similar results. In addition, T. thermophila was shown to inactivate phages T5 and lambda in co-incubations. Several approaches, including direct visualization by electron microscopy, demonstrated that ingestion is required for T4 inactivation. Mucocysts were shown to have no role in the ingestion of T4. When (35)S-labeled T4 were fed to T. thermophila in a pulse-chase experiment, the degradation of two putative capsid proteins, gp23(*) and hoc, was observed. In addition, a polypeptide with the apparent molecular mass of 52 kDa was synthesized. This suggests that Tetrahymena can use phages as a minor nutrient source in the absence of bacteria.

The glycosaminoglycan (GAG)-protein linkage regions of various proteoglycans share the common tetrasaccharide GlcA-Gal-Gal-Xyl-attached to Ser residues in the core proteins. In previous analysis we demonstrated unique modifications by epimerization, sulfation and phosphorylation of the component sugars. Here we developed a sensitive analytical method for the linkage region oligosaccharides to detect or monitor structural variations and changes. This will be useful for investigation of their biological roles, which are largely unknown, but they have been implicated in biosynthesis. A variety of linkage region-derived hexasaccharides was first prepared as reducing sugar chains from peptide chondroitin/dermatan sulfate of whale cartilage, shark cartilage, and bovine aorta by means of chondroitinase digestion in conjunction with beta-elimination in the absence of reducing reagents, but involving a mild alkali, 0.5 M LiOH, at 4 degrees C to prevent peeling reactions. The structures of these oligosaccharides were determined by the combination of HPLC, enzymatic digestion, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry, and (1)H NMR spectroscopy, which revealed eleven different hexasaccharides including a novel structure, DeltaHexAalpha1-3GalNAcbeta1-4IdoAalpha1-3Gal(4-O-sulfate)beta1-3Galbeta1-4Xyl (DeltaHexA and IdoA represent unsaturated hexuronic acid and L-iduronic acid, respectively). These oligosaccharides were labeled with a fluorophore, 2-aminobenzamide, to prepare analytical probes using the recently developed procedure [Kinoshita and Sugahara (1999) Anal. Biochem. 269, 367-378]. The fluorophore-tagged hexasacharides of low picomoles were well separated by HPLC and successfully analyzed by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. The principle of the method should be applicable to the analysis of the linkage region oligosaccharides derived from heparin and heparan sulfate as well.

The effects of stilbene derivatives, including resveratrol, diethylstilboestrol and stilbene, as antioxidants or prooxidants were examined. Resveratrol and diethylstilboestrol, but not stilbene, strongly inhibited NADPH- and adenosine 5'-diphosphate (ADP)-Fe3+-dependent lipid peroxidation at the initial and propagation stages. In addition, phenolic stilbenes also inhibited ultraviolet light-induced lipid peroxidation. Resveratrol and diethylstilboestrol efficiently scavenged 2,2'-azobis-(2-amidinopropane)-dihydrochloride peroxyl radicals. However, 2,2'-diphenyl-p-picrylhydrazyl radicals were trapped only by resveratrol, but not by diethylstilboestrol. These results suggest that the inhibitory effect of phenolic stilbenes on lipid peroxidation was due to their scavenging ability of lipid peroxyl and/or carbon-cantered radicals. Resveratrol efficiently reduced ADP-Fe3+, but not EDTA-Fe3+. Stilbenes and diethylstilboestrol did not reduce either ADP-Fe3+ or EDTA-Fe3+. The strand breaks of DNA were stimulated during the interaction of resveratrol with ADP-Fe3+ in the presence of H2O2. These results suggest that phenolic stilbenes act as antioxidants of membrane lipids and that resveratrol has a prooxidative effect DNA damage during interaction with ADP-Fe3+ in the presence of H2O2.

Heparinase was purified to homogeneity from the cell extract of an oral bacterium, Prevotella heparinolytica, by a combination of anion exchange chromatography, gel filtration chromatography, and hydroxyapatite chromatography. Properties of the purified P. heparinolytica heparinase (P. heparinase) were investigated. The enzyme exhibited a maximum activity in 50 mM Tris-HCl buffer, pH 7.5-8.0, containing 75 mM sodium acetate, 0.1 M NaCl, and 1 mM CaCl2. Optimum conditions for the maximum activity of P. heparinase were similar to those of the heparinase from Flavobacterium heparinum (F. heparinase). The two enzymes also yielded similar digestion profiles of various glycosaminoglycans and heparin tetrasaccharides, suggesting that they have a similar substrate specificity. Kinetic study of the P. heparinase reaction using porcine intestinal heparin as substrate gave a Km value of 3.8 x 10(-5) M and a Vmax value of 11.4 micromol/min x mg protein. The Michaelis constant of P. heparinase was slightly larger than but not significantly different from that of F. heparinase. The amino acid composition of P. heparinase was also similar to that of F. heparinase, but its N-terminal sequence of 20 amino acid residues was different and hitherto unreported. These results together indicate that these heparinases are different proteins with closely similar enzymatic properties. Since F. heparinum produces not only heparinase but also heparitinase II, which has a broad substrate specificity, F. heparinase may be contaminated with this enzyme. In contrast, P. heparinolytica does not produce heparitinase II, and P. heparinase should prove a useful tool for degrading heparin without the risk of contamination with heparitinase II.