[Assessment of the amount of hepatohistopatological and enzymatic changes after chronic lead intoxication in utero and throughout life in rat]

In order to evaluate the functional changes of liver after lead intoxication, activity of enzymes, including alanine aminotransferase [ALT], aspartate aminotransferase [AST], and alkaline phosphatase [ALP], as well as pathological changes of the liver were assessed in the present study. Male and female Albino Rats [40 in total] in five 8-rat groups were exposed to 0, 5, 10, 15, and 40mg lead acetate dissolved in 1 liter drinking water, from the onset of embryonic life to 16[th] week of life. At the end of 16[th] week, the animals were anesthetized with chloroform, and blood sampling from heart was performed. After serum separation for biochemical analysis, liver was taken out and fixed in 15% formalin for histopathological studies. Activity of ALT, AST, and ALP, as well as lead concentration of the serum samples were measured using spectrophotometrical method and graphite furnace atomic absorption, respectively. The tissue sections were histologically studied under light microscopy after staining by hematoxylin/eosin. The results were analyzed using analysis of variance and Tukey's test, and p<0.05 was considered significant. In this study, liver enzymes activities had direct relation with the serum lead concentration, and showed a significant increase compared to the control groups. Histological changes were observed as inflammation, lymphocyte infiltration to liver tissue, and liver cells necrosis. According to the results of this study, long-time exposure to lead results in dose- and time-dependent liver injury

Generation of mature monocyte-derived dendritic cells in the presence of heparin and monocyte conditioned medium: phenotypic and functional comparison

Dendritic cells [DC] induce tumor or pathogen-specific T cell responses in humans. Several laboratories have developed culture systems, including maturation factors for human DC from peripheral blood monocytes. We comprehensively compared standard maturation stimulus, an autologous monocyte-conditioned medium [MCM], with heparin for their ability to promote uniformly mature DC that elicit T cell responses. A short [4-day] priming of plastic adherent monocytes with granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor [GM-CSF] and IL-4 with or without heparin was followed by 48-hour incubation in MCM to generate fully mature and stable DC. Phenotypic and functional analyses were carried out using anti-CD14 and anti-CD83 monoclonal antibodies, and mixed lymphocyte reaction, respectively. We found that fully matured DC with a large amount of cytoplasm and copious dendritic projections were visible at the end of culturing period in the presence of MCM, heparin and MCM plus heparin. Thus, DC generated with these maturation factors are non-adherent and have typical satellite morphology. Flow cytometric analysis using anti-CD14 [monocyte marker] and anti-CD83 [mature DC marker] revealed that expression of CD14 decreased in MCM plus heparin-treated DC, and the expression of CD83 was increased when heparin and MCM used as a maturation factor. Functionally, MCM and MCM plus heparin-treated DC showed stronger mixed leukocyte reaction than heparin alone. These results support the use of the MCM with heparin as maturation factor that could result in functionally mature monocyte-derived DC in comparison to either MCM or heparin alone