Smithy

Under the spreading chestnut tree The village smithy stands ... 

Schmiede, /. forge, smithy, -arbelt, /. forging, smithing. 

Smithies, Gibbons, and Bayley reported a relatively high nitrogen content in the walls of several halophilic bacteria which indicated that the cell material was predominantly protein. They contained only small amounts of lipides. The cell walls were lipoprotein. 

Tian B, Meng QC, Chen Y-F, Krege JH, Smithies O, Oparil S. Blood pressures and cardiovascular homeostasis in mice having reduced or absent angiotensin-converting enzyme gene function. Hypertension 1997 30[part I] 128—133. 

L. Jordan, C. Lewis, K. Smithies, E. Wissler, Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 2004, 14,... 

Lubahn DB, Moyer JS, Golding TS, Couse JF, Korach KS, Smithies O (1993) Alteration of reproductive function but not prenatal sexual development after insertional disruption of the mouse estrogen receptor gene. Proc Nad Acad Sci USA 90 11162-11166... 

Hodgin JB, Krege JH, Reddick RL, Korach KS, Smithies O, Maeda N (2001) Estrogen receptor alpha is a major mediator of 17beta-estradiol s atheroprotective effects on lesion size in Apoe-/- mice. J Clin Invest 107 333-340... 

It was soon realized (J10, R5) that Hp did not consist of a single protein, but of a group of proteins with very similar properties. Conclusive evidence of the molecular heterogeneity of Hp was produced by Smithies (S5), who used electrophoresis with a defined starch gel in which the mobility of protein molecules varies with their charge and size (Fig. 1). Smithies and Walkers discovery (S9) of different types of... 

After treatment of purified Hp of type 2-1 and 2-2 with a combination of urea and thioglycolate, Smithies and Connell (S8) found that these haptoglobins had been depolymerized. That the different Hp lines represent different degrees of polymerization is also supported by the findings of Kluthe and Isliker (Kl). 

Connell and Smithies (C2) have proposed a photometric peroxidase method with guaiacol as substrate and H202 instead of ethyl hydroperoxide. According to Nyman (N7), the method is less specific than Jayle s method. In the clinically interesting low range of HbBC (0-30 mg/100 ml) the method is unreliable. A simplification has been presented by Owen et al. (02). No report exists on its specificity, accuracy, or precision. 

Several modifications of Smithies original Hp-typing technique (S5) have been proposed. It has generally been accepted as simplest and safest to identify the Hp by its saturated Hb complexes (HpHb), since these are more easily recognized and developed than Hp itself in starch gel and in immunoelectrophoresis. To convert all Hp to HpHb before the analysis, more Hb is added to serum than can be bound by the Hp. 

Smithies vertical starch gel electrophoresis (S7) separates the plasma proteins more distinctly than any other method. If the Hp concentration is normal, the Hp type can generally be recognized directly after the staining for proteins, but sensitive and more specific staining for heme groups, e.g., benzidine, o-dianisidine (04), and malachite green (N5) are preferable. This technique consumes more hydrolyzed starch than the simpler original horizontal electrophoresis technique (S5). 

The starch is boiled with 0.007 M phosphate buffer, pH 7.5, the electrode vessels are filled with 0.03 M phosphate buffer of pH 7.0, which is also used for the bridges. Smithies simple plastic trays (S5) for horizontal starch gel electrophoresis will give results clear enough for routine work. 

Smithies, O., Zone electrophoresis in starch gels group variations in the serum proteins of normal human adults. Biochem. J. 61, 629 (1955). 

Smithies, O., and Connell, G. E., Biochemical aspects of the inherited variations in human serum haptoglobins and transferrins. In Ciba Foundation Symposium on Biochemistry of Human Genetics, p. 178. Churchill, London, 1959. 

Smithies, O., and Walker, N. F., Notation for serumprotein groups and the genes controlling their inheritance. Nature 178, 694 (1956). 

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