Study of the association between the human leukocyte antigen class I molecules and remitting relapsing multiple sclerosis MS

The aim of this work is to study the frequencies of different HL4 class I subtypes in Egyptian patients with remitting relapsing MS in order to find out genetic determinants to disease susceptibility among this genetic group. The study was carried out on twenty patients having Ms according to McDonald's criteria, excluding those with clinical courses other than the remitting-relapsing one. All patients subjected to complete history taking, full physical and neurological examination, routine lab investigations, MRI of the brain and/or spinal cord, also HLA class I typing using the complement dependent microlymphocytotoxicity test. The result of HLA typing were compared to twenty healthy controls matched for age. The study revealed the following results. o The most frequent HLA class I subtypes in our study group were: HLA-A1 [40%], A2 [30%], B7 [25%], A28 [15%], and Cw6 [15%]. o Among those subtypes only HLA-B7 showed a statistically significant association with the MS patients suggesting a role of this HLA class I subtype in modulating susceptibility to the disease. o The HIA-Cw4 subtype showed a tendency toward an association with the control group approaching but not reaching a statistical significance suggesting a role of this subtype as a protective factor against MS. However further confirmation is required to support this finding. o The HLA-B7 subtype was significantly associated with the presence of emotional disturbance in the MS patients suggesting a role of this subtype in modulating the clinical picture of the disease. o The HLA-A2 subtype was significantly associated with the absence of sphincteric disturbance in the MS patients suggesting a protective role of this subtype against this particular clinical defect. This subtype may also have a similar protective role against developing emotional disturbance although this finding was only near significant. The above mentioned results agreed with a few reports from some parts of the world and disagreed with many others suggesting a considerable difference in genetic determinants of MS between different populations

Serum concentrations of the chemokine interferon-inducible protein-10 'IP-10/CXCL 10' in type 1 diabetes mellitus patients: its relation to the state of autoimmunity and duration of the disease

Introduction: Chemokines glycoproteins with potent leukocyte activation and/or chemotactic activity. Chemokines mediate their effects via interaction with specific chemokine receptors expressed on a wide range of cell types. The CXC subfamily of chemokines shares a common structure of a single amino acid separating the two amino terminal cysteine residues [C1, C2]. Chemokines have been implicated as inflammatory mediators in a wide range of pathologies on the basis of studies using clinical material and animal disease models. Most patients with type 1 diabetes are considered to have T-cell-mediated autoimmune disease. A clinically applicable method of measuring pancreatic beta-cell-specific T-cell function in cases of type 1 diabetes has yet to be established: Interferon-inducible protein-10 [IP-10] is a chemokine that promotes the migration of activated T cells [T helper 1 [Th1] lymphocytes], and a correlation has been reported between the level of this chemokine and disease activity in cases of chronic active hepatitis in humans

Aim of the work: To evaluate whether measurement of serum IP-10 concentration is useful in disease prediction and estimation of the immune mediated beta-cel/ destruction in cases of type 1 diabetes

Material and methods: 34 TYPE 1 DM patients 12 newly diagnosed and 22 with established disease as well as 15 controls were studied. Fasting blood glucose, serum c-peptide, autoantibodies IA-2, IP-10, and beta-interferon [IFN-beta] were measured after overnight fasting

Results: The serum concentration of IP-10 is significantly elevated in cases of autoimmune diabetes [Ab+ type 1]. A significantpositive linear correlation between serum IP-10 and IFN-beta levels was observed only in autoimmune diabetes subjects [Ab+ type 1] and not in Ab-ve patients or the controls. There was a significant negative correlation between serum IP-10 and both the duration of diabetes and age of the patients in Ab+ve TYPE 1 DM patients

Conclusion: Measurement of serum IP-10 concentration in patients with autoimmune-related type 1 diabetes is a useful marker in predicting the onset of insulitis

Interleukin-5 production by peripheral blood monocytes from asthmatic patients: effect of alveolar macrophages

This study aimed to assess the role of ALM in the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma by studying the effect of ALM derived from bronchoalveolar lavage [BAL] on IL-5 production by peripheral blood monocytes PBMC [including T lymphocytes] in cocultures in patients with bronchial asthma as compared to that in non asthmatic individuals. Nineteen patients with bronchial asthma were enrolled in this study. Ten normal non-smoker subjects were considered as controls. Patients were subjected to broncoalveolar lavage [BAL]. The lavage fluid was cultured in 3 wells; one with peripheral blood monocytes [PBMC], another with PBMC with mitogen stimulation and the third with PBMC with BAL cells and stimulation. Cultures were incubated and the supernatants were assayed for IL-5 by EL1SA. The mean [SD] age for the asthmatic patients was 37.67[9.66] years with a mean [SD] body mass index of 28.3[6.12]. Male constituted 53% [11/19] of the studied asthmatic patients. The levels of 1L-5 in the supernatant of resting PBMN cultures were significantly higher in patients with asthma in all three states [basal state, after PHA stimulation, in cocultures with ALM [mean [SD] = 219.45[68.34] ng/ml, range [100-320 ng/ml], 484.85[115048.01], range [170-670 ng/ml], 1118 [336.59], range [530-1800 ng/ml], respectively. The respective levels in the nonatopic normal subjects was [mean [SD]: 21.20[8.97], 26.8[10.10], 29.30[7.87]]. The differences between the three states in the asthmatic patients were highly significant. The changes between the three states in the non-asthmatic patients were insignificant. IL5 production by PBMN is markedly increased in asthmatic patients versus non-asthmatic subjects, furthermore, IL-5 production was markedly amplified by co-culturing PBMN with autologous ALM derived from BAL in the asthmatics patients. This is in contrast to the finidings in non-asthmatic subjects where IL5 production was not augmented by autologous ALM. The fact that ALM from non-asthmatic subjects functioned poorly as APC may represent a local inhibitory protective mechanism in the airways