In the mussel, Mytilus galloprovincialis, there were three kinds of tropomyosin isoforms, which were designated as TM1, TM2 and TM3, respectively. It had been reported that TM1 was contained as only tropomyosin isoform and major component in the muscle tissues such as adductor and cardiac muscles, it was confirmed as the major isoform in adductor, cardiac and anterior pedal retractor muscles, and in the mantle and gills. In this present study, meanwhile, TM2 and TM3 were detected as two new isoforms in the mantle and gills. TM2 and TM3 existed only in the mantle and in both the mantle and gills, respectively. Both TM2 and TM3 were minor isoforms compared to TM1. TM2 had almost the same molecular weight as TM1 whereas TM3 had lower molecular weight than TM1. Moreover, TM3 had more basic isoelectric point than TM1 and TM2.

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We examined the PCR differential display analysis of cDNA clones from human leukemia K562 cell line and those of cytosine arabinoside (ara-C) resistant K562 cells. We compared mRNA samples obtained from the two cell lines by amplified restriction fragment length polymorphism (AFLP)-based mRNA fingerprinting; 40 bands were observed in each lane of a gel, and the screened results were five independent, isolated clones. In this study, we isolated the proline synthetase co-transcribed (PROSC) gene from an ara-C sensitive K562 cell line as one of the clones. RNase protection assay and RT-PCR analysis revealed increased expression of PROSC gene in K562 sensitive cells compared with that of ara-C resistant K562 cells. The PROSC gene product is likely a soluble cytoplasmic protein, but its function remains unclear. Thus, the PROSC gene might be related to the sensitivity to ara-C in human leukemia and downregulated in resistant cells.

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We analyzed 55 spot urine samples from patients with cardiovascular diseases. Urinary albumin concentrations were measured with size exclusion high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), turbidimetric immunoassay (TIA) using anti human serum albumin polyclonal antibody, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using anti human serum albumin monoclonal antibody. Fractionated urine samples from the HPLC were also analyzed with the immunoprecipitation reactions using as same monoclonal antibody as ELISA. As a result, the urinary albumin concentration analyzed by the HPLC was systematically higher than that of immunoassays, however, ‘albumin peak’ from the HPLC contained other urinary proteins. Result of immunoprecipitation reaction showed the presence of monomer albumin that could not react with the monoclonal antibody. These results suggest that not only contamination of other proteins, the albumin fraction from the HPLC included albumin with reduced its reactivity to the specific monoclonal antibody.

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