Metabolic functions, activation analysis

In recent years life science researchers have become more earnest in their considerations that trace elements have important roles in physiology and pathology. So far, some of these experimenters have used activation analysis (1) to measure the elemental contents of biological tissues and fluids (2) to determine if a correlation exists between abnormal trace element concentration and certain types of diseases (3) as an investigational method for epidemiological functions (4) to measure metabolic functions (5) as a clinical and investigational method for toxicology (6) in total body in vivo studies (7) in in vivo studies with stable tracers and (8) in individual identifications for forensic requirements. 

In addition to these reports, other researchers have studied metabolic functions with stable isotopic tracers and activation analysis. Examples of these applications are given in part G of Section IV. 

The potentials of using activation analysis techniques for studies in botany and plant biochemistry are good. It offers a practical method to investigate and measure (a) the concentrations of trace elements, (b) the behavior of essential trace elements, (c) the nutritional rates and metabolic functions of the absorption of trace elements from soils, (d) the determination of toxic elements in plants and soils, and (e) the origin of specific flora and their relation to similar flora from other geographical regions. 

Degenhardt, P. and Winterhalter, E., HSCCC a powerful tool for the preparative isolation of bioactive compounds, in Biologically-Active Phytochemicals in Food Analysis, Metabolism, Bioavailability and Function, Pfannhauser, W. et ah, Eds., Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 2001, 143. 

The experimental exploration and confirmation of protein functions are relatively slow processes and always require dedicated experiments. The analysis of protein-protein associations as such improved remarkably in quality and speed. This is accompanied by the creation of new databases that will reflect the network of interacting proteins (the Protein Function and Metabolic Pathway project, http //bioinformer.ebi. ac.uk 80/newsletter/archives/4/pfmp.html, and the Biomolecular Interaction Network Database project http //bioinfo.mshri.on.ca/ BIND/). These activities contribute to the idea that cellular mechanisms can be better understood when they are seen as a multicomponent networked process. 

Some 40 years later we basically stand in awe when reading those matter-of-facdy spoken but definitely at that time prophetic words from Dr. Mirsky. Already in 1950 Stedman had discussed the role of histones in differentiation [2] and in 1964 Allfrey reported on the acetylation of histones [3]. The words of Mirsky are the concluding remarks of a Ciba Foundation symposium on histones and their role in transfer of genetic information. There it was discussed that chromatin represents a. .. metabolically active region of the nucleus (p. 48). Many fine bands had been resolved in electrophoretic analysis of the histones but of course many details of the processes involved totally eluded the scientific knowledge of these days. But already then, a functional correlation between histone acetylation and the RNA-synthetic capacity of the chromatin was suggested. 

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