title: Glutamate is the chemotaxis-inducing factor in placental extracts.
abstract: Human placental extracts are known to help wound healing. Rapid migration of neutrophils to the wound site is a prerequisite to the wound healing process. Gel filtration analysis of heat-treated placental extract gave the initial cue to the small nature of the migration promoting factor of the extract. HPLC analysis of the extract revealed glutamate to be the predominant free amino acid. Our studies show that glutamate at an optimum concentration of 8 muM induced phenotypic neutrophil chemotaxis, as seen in the time lapse- and transwell assays. Glutamate was also found to induce chemokinesis of the neutrophil, though the stimulation of chemotaxis was more pronounced. The glutamate induced chemotaxis was accompanied by polarization of the actin cytoskeleton, and by polymerization of F-actin. These data indicate that glutamate has a strong chemotactic functionality in the neutrophil, which could be of interest both therapeutically and in further investigation of the molecular basis of chemotaxis.
authors.affiliation: Dr. B. C. Guha Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Department of Biochemistry, University of Calcutta, 35 B. C. Road, Kolkata 700019, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Rahul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Dhrubajyoti
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chattopadhyay
mesh_terms: D002630:Chemotactic Factors / Q000378:metabolism*; D002634:Chemotaxis, Leukocyte / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D010920:Placenta / Q000737:chemistry*; D011247:Pregnancy; D014020:Tissue Extracts / Q000737:chemistry*; D014945:Wound Healing
chemical_list: D002630:Chemotactic Factors; D014020:Tissue Extracts; D018698:Glutamic Acid