Wednesday, 2 November 2005
432i

Effect of Aggregate Morphology of a Non-Disease Associated Protein on the Cellular Metabolic Response and Viability of Human Epithelial Cells in Vitro

Adam L. Meadows1, Troy Cellmer2, Rutger Douma3, John M. Prausnitz2, and Harvey W. Blanch4. (1) University of California - Berkeley, 439 49th St Apt 9, Oakland, CA 94609, (2) University of California, Berkeley, 491 Tan Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, (3) Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1462, (4) Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-1462

Protein aggregation has been associated with the pathologies of more than twenty human diseases in a range of tissues. Recent studies have shown that non-disease related proteins can form aggregates with morphologies similar to those associated with disease. Further, such aggregates have been shown in certain instances to be cytotoxic to in vitro cell culture. These results suggest that there are common mechanisms for aggregate formation, as well as their toxic effects on cells. The elucidation of such mechanisms is crucial to the development of strategies to prevent disease. Here we present results pertaining to the toxicity of aggregates of the 63 amino acid protein L. Protein L forms a stable tertiary structure in aqueous solution, and thus a variety of alcohol denaturants were explored to induce self-association. The resulting aggregates bind both Congo Red and Thioflavin T dyes in a manner consistent with the presence of amyloid fibrils. We observed with TEM a number of distinct solvent dependent fibril morphologies. The impact of different fibril morphologies on the in vitro cellular metabolic response and cytotoxicity in both cancerous and non-cancerous epithelial human cell lines will be discussed. In addition, we will present similar data on the effect of fibrillar maturity to determine if mature fibrils of protein L exhibit a lowered toxicity, as has been observed for many disease related aggregates. In conclusion, we will use these results to suggest possible methods of preventing the formation of toxic protein aggregates in vivo.

See more of #432 - Poster Session: Engineering Treatment and Analysis of Diseases (15012)
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