The adult proteins and nucleic acids

The total protein content of cestodes is lower than that of most invertebrates being generally between 20% and 40% of the dry weight (796), although values of over 60% have been reported for Echinococcus spp. (488, 498) (Table 4.1). 

Amino acid Residues/1000 total amino acid residues  

The alkaloid colchicine binds tightly to tubulin and this characteristic has been used (Fig. 6.1) to isolate a tubulin-like fraction from H. diminuta, with properties similar to tubulin from other organisms. Furthermore, colchicine affects the qualitative distribution of [3H]proline-incorporated protein in this worm, with label accumulating in the parenchyma (195). This suggests that colchicine inhibits translocation in the tegument and provides evidence that microtubules within the internuncial processes facilitate movement of cell products from tegumentary cytons (Chapter 2) to the body surface for subsequent release. 

Fractionation of soluble proteins from cestodes has revealed, in addition to other components, a variety of lipoprotein and glycoprotein conjugates. Many of these complexes are antigenic, and much effort, particularly in taeniid cestodes, has focussed on trying to isolate and characterise these antigens with a view to using them in specific immunodiagnosis and possibly as vaccines (690, 962 Chapter 11). 

Proteins of host origin, including immunoglobulins and bovine serum albumin, have been identified in cyst fluids of several taeniid cestodes including E. granulosus (Fig. 6.2) and E. multilocularis (492, 754), T. taeniaeformis and T. crassiceps (624) and T. saginata (470). How these proteins enter the cysts is not known but it may be 

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Fig. 18.3. Raman spectral analysis of foetal osteoblast (FOB) differentiation. Unsupervised PCA of FOB cells cultured for 3 days in bioactive glass (BG) conditioned media (triangle) or control media (circle) (a). BG-treated cells formed a distinct cluster separate from control cells after 3 days culture. Least square (LS) analysis (which decomposes the cell spectra into the linear combination of Raman spectra obtained from the pure chemical constituents of the cell, e.g. nucleic acid, proteins, lipids, phospholipids and carbohydrates) of the relative RNA concentration of FOBs cultured for 1, 3 and 14 days in culture media (black) or BG condition media (grey), revealed a significantly reduced relative RNA concentration in FOBs culture in BG-conditioned media (b). FOBs cultured in BG-conditioned media appeared to accelerate FOB differentiation into mature adult osteoblast phenotypes (parallel gene and protein expression experiments confirmed this). Significant difference to control (p <0.05) [38]...

Copper is an essential trace element. It is required in the diet because it is the metal cofactor for a variety of enzymes (see Table 50—5). Copper accepts and donates electrons and is involved in reactions involving dismu-tation, hydroxylation, and oxygenation. However, excess copper can cause problems because it can oxidize proteins and hpids, bind to nucleic acids, and enhance the production of free radicals. It is thus important to have mechanisms that will maintain the amount of copper in the body within normal hmits. The body of the normal adult contains about 100 mg of copper, located mostly in bone, liver, kidney, and muscle. The daily intake of copper is about 2—A mg, with about 50% being absorbed in the stomach and upper small intestine and the remainder excreted in the feces. Copper is carried to the liver bound to albumin, taken up by liver cells, and part of it is excreted in the bile. Copper also leaves the liver attached to ceruloplasmin, which is synthesized in that organ. 

Cook, R.M., Carvalho-Queiroz, C., Wilding, G. and LoVerde, P.T. (2004) Nucleic acid vaccination with Schistosoma mansoni antioxidant enzyme cytosolic superoxide dismutase and the structural protein filamin confer protection against the adult worm stage. Infection and Immunity 72, 61 12-6124. 

Settlement. The fixation of the larvae of benthic animals does not take place randomly, but is sometimes guided by the presence of immerged substrata of organic substances deposited by adults previously fixed there. Thus, in the case of Balanus balanoides, the cyprid larvae attach themselves to surfaces where earlier barnacles have deposited a complex mixture of mucopolysaccharides and proteins associated to nucleic acids (Crisp, 1974). This mediator is not specific it is produced by several crustaceans smd has therefore received the name arthropodin. A similar phenomenon was described by Nott (1973) for the annelid Spirorbis spirorbis. 

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