Dual-label autoradiographic analysis of human skin fibroblast and myoblast proteins by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis using immobilised pH gradients in the first dimension

Horizontal two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with immobilised pH gradients in the first dimension has been applied to the analysis of human skin fibroblast and muscle myoblast total cell proteins. Excellent two-dimensional separations of skin fibroblast proteins were obtained using pH 4-10 immobilised pH gradient gels with a long interelectrode distance (16 cm), but resolution was degraded, particularly of the more acidic proteins, by the use of shorter (10 cm) gels. Improved resolution of acidic and basic proteins was obtained using separate pH 4-7 and pH 7-10 immobilised pH gradient gels respectively in the first dimension. Two-dimensional protein maps of skin fibroblast proteins were visualised both by silver staining and by autoradiography of samples labelled synthetically with [35S]methionine. Horizontal two-dimensional electrophoresis, using pH 4-7 and pH 7-10 immobilised pH gradient gels in the first dimension, was applied to the analysis of protein samples from skin fibroblasts and muscle myoblasts dual-labelled synthetically with [35S]methionine and [75Se]selenomethionine in an attempt to identify sets of proteins specific to each cell type. In addition, two-dimensional maps or protein samples derived from normal individuals and patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy were compared to search for protein changes associated with the disease state. Although sets of qualitative protein spot differences were observed by visual inspection of the two-dimensional gels, more rigorous qualitative and quantitative analysis of the patterns using a computerised analysis system will be required to obtain the maximum amount of information from these data.     

Single-crystal structures of polyphenylene dendrimers

A series of first-generation polyphenylene dendrimers based on three different cores were prepared by Diels-Alder cycloaddition and their single-crystal structures were determined. Consisting exclusively of interlocked, twisted phenyl rings, these polyphenylene nanostructures have exciting structural and dynamic properties. Single crystals of dendrimers, suitable for X-ray structure analysis, were grown from different solvent mixtures by slow evaporation at room temperature. It should be pointed out that one of the described polyphenylene dendrimers represents up to now the biggest oligophenylene nanostructure from which crystallographic data is available.     

Riemannsche Arealstrukturen und multiquadratische Formen

It is well known (and rather trivial to prove) that the square F² of a Finsler norm F:TM on a differentiable manifold M is differentiable at the zero section if and only if F is the norm function of a Riemannian metric. However, the corresponding question for a general p-areal on M is far less trivial to settle and leads to interesting algebraic and combinatorial problems concerning multiquadratic forms. For p=2, the results are closely related to known properties of the curvature tensor of a Riemannian metric.