Water-Cytoskeletal Interactions in Dividing Cells.
Abstract
Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used to monitor the physical properties of water in living cultured cells as the macromolecular proteins of the cellular cytoplasm were manipulated by temperature and drugs. The effect of chromatin condensation on the structure of water in its vicinity was determiend in synchronized HeLa -human cervical carcinoma cells during the entire cell cycle. The treatment of isolated nuclei with spemine, a drug causing chromatin condensation, showed that a large part of the reproducible pattern of changes in NMR relaxation times for water in the cell cycle were due to chromatin conformational changes in the cell nucleus. The effect of the polymerization and deploymerization of the fibrous structural proteins called microtubules also has a profound effect on water behavior. In a purified system of dog brain microtubules and in WI 38 human cells, a temperature dependent shift in NMR relaxation times for water could be correlated with the temperature depolymerization of microtubules. In HeLa cells treated with cytochalasin B, a drug known to depolymerize actin filaments in the cell cytoplasm, an increase in freedom of motion of water molecules was seen upon a loss of organization in the structural proteins. A new theory on the mechanism of secretory diarrhea has come from these observations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 27, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA075450
Entities
People
- Paula T. Beall
Organizations
- Baylor College of Medicine