Propagation of femtosecond light pulses in a dye solution: nonadherence to the conventional group velocity.

Propagation of femtosecond light pulses in a resonant absorption medium is studied. The propagation time of the light pulses was measured in a dye solution by the optical-Kerr-gate method. Nonadherence to the conventional group velocity domega/dk , which is defined in weak absorption region, was found. The observed wavelength dependences of the group delay and the spectral change in the anomalous dispersion region are qualitatively in good agreement with the theoretical prediction obtained from the new definitions of group velocity, which can be clearly defined even in strong absorption region.

Therapeutic time-window of a group IIA phospholipase A2 inhibitor in rabbit acute lung injury: correlation with lung surfactant protection.

OBJECTIVE: We attempted to determine whether group IIA secretory phospholipase A2 (sPLA2-IIA) blockade after the onset of lung injury exerted therapeutic efficacy in the treatment of oleic acid (OA)-induced acute lung injury by using S-5920/LY315920Na, a novel specific inhibitor of sPLA2-IIA, with special interest in the changes of lung surfactant. DESIGN: Prospective animal study. SETTING: University laboratory. SUBJECTS: Forty Japanese white rabbits. INTERVENTIONS: The rabbits, under anesthesia, were endotracheally intubated and mechanically ventilated and then were divided into the following groups: OA + vehicle groups, intravenous infusion of OA for the first 2 hrs (0.1 mL x kg(-1) x hr(-1)) with the addition of vehicle (1 or 2 hrs after OA administration, each n = 9, total 18 rabbits); OA + S-5920/LY315920Na groups, treated identically to the OA control with the addition of S-5920/LY315920Na (1 mg/kg bolus followed by infusion at 0.5 mg x kg(-1) x hr(-1)) after OA (1 or 2 hrs after OA administration, each n = 9, total 18 rabbits); saline control groups, treated with saline instead of OA with the addition of vehicle (1 hr after OA administration, 4 rabbits). Arterial blood gas, lung mechanics, lung inflammation, lung surfactant phospholipids, and production of inflammatory mediators in the lung were measured. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Treatment with S-5920/LY315920Na 1 hr after OA infusion, but not 2 hrs after infusion, significantly attenuated the lung injury, as estimated by hypoxemia, decreased lung compliance, pulmonary edema, and vascular permeability. The therapeutic efficacy was similar to that found in our previous pretreatment study. The treatment after 1 hr dramatically inhibited OA-induced surfactant degradation in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), without affecting the concentrations of thromboxane A2, leukotriene B4, and interleukin-8 in BALF. The degree of surfactant degradation in BALF paralleled well with the severity of the lung injury. Furthermore, recombinant human sPLA2-IIA reproduced the similar hydrolysis pattern of isolated surfactant in vitro, which was inhibited by S-5920/LY315920Na. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that therapeutic blockade of sPLA2-IIA ameliorated lung dysfunction via protection of surfactant degradation in an animal model of acute lung injury, and they suggest a new strategy in treating clinical acute lung injury.

Effect of methylprednisolone on phospholipase A(2) activity and lung surfactant degradation in acute lung injury in rabbits.

Glucocorticoids are the most potent and widely used anti-inflammatory agents, but they are not particularly effective against early phase of acute respiratory distress syndrome. We investigated whether methylprednisolone, a synthetic glucocorticoid, could inhibit increase of phospholipase A(2) activity in the lung and lead to protection against a model of acute respiratory distress syndrome in rabbits. Infusion of oleic acid (0.1 ml/kg/h, i.v. for 2 h) provoked pulmonary hemorrhage and edema, protein leakage and massive neutrophil infiltration, resulted in severe hypoxemia and impaired lung compliance, accompanying the increase of phospholipase A(2) activity and interleukin-8, and degradation of surfactant in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Infusion of methylprednisolone (60 mg/kg/h, i.v. for 30 min before the oleic acid and then 0.5 mg/kg/h, i.v. for 6 h) did not improve the above described lung injury induced by oleic acid, nor did it suppress phospholipase A(2) activity and degradation of surfactant in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, while it strongly reduced interleukin-8 levels in both plasma and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. We conclude that methylprednisolone did not attenuate oleic acid-induced acute lung injury and this can be explained partly by its failure to reduce the increase of phospholipase A(2) activity and the surfactant degradation in the lung, which might also account for its clinical ineffectiveness against early acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Crucial role of group IIA phospholipase A(2) in oleic acid-induced acute lung injury in rabbits.

Group IIA secretory phospholipase A(2) (sPLA(2)) has been implicated in a variety of inflammatory diseases including acute lung injury (ALI); however, the role of sPLA(2) in this disorder remains unclear. The aim of the present investigation was to examine the role of this enzyme in a model of ALI induced by oleic acid (OA) in rabbits by testing human group IIA phospholipase A(2) (PLA(2)) inhibitor, S-5920/LY315920Na. Experimental groups consisted of a saline control group (n = 8), an OA control group (n = 10) infused intravenously with OA (0.1 ml/kg/h for 2 h), and three groups given OA + S-5920/LY315920Na (three different doses, n = 8, respectively). Infusion of OA provoked pulmonary hemorrhage and edema formation, protein leakage, and massive neutrophil infiltration, resulting in severe hypoxemia and impaired lung compliance. PLA(2) activity was detected in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), but not plasma, which correlated well with severity of lung injury in this model. Pretreatment with S-5920/LY315920Na diminished the OA-induced PLA(2) activity in the BALF and dose-dependently attenuated the previously described lung injury induced by OA, accompanied by protection against lung surfactant degradation and production of thromboxane A(2) (TXA(2)) and leukotriene B(4) (LTB(4)). S-5920/LY315920Na also inhibited the OA-induced production of interleukin-8 (IL-8), both in plasma and BALF. Thus, sPLA(2) appears to play a key role in OA-induced lung injury, suggesting that the group IIA PLA(2) inhibitor may be a promising agent for patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Increased activity of group II phospholipase A2 in plasma in rat sodium deoxycholate induced acute pancreatitis.

BACKGROUND: Two different types of secretory phospholipase A2 (PLA2), pancreatic group I (PLA2-I) and non-pancreatic group II (PLA2-II), have been identified and postulated to be associated with the pathogenesis of various diseases, such as acute pancreatitis, septic shock, and multiple organ failure. AIMS: To investigate the type of secretory PLA2 responsible for its catalytic activity found in plasma and ascites of experimental acute pancreatitis. METHODS: Acute pancreatitis of differing severity was induced by the injection of different concentrations (1% or 10%) of sodium deoxycholate (DCA) into the common biliopancreatic duct in rats, and catalytic PLA2 activity in plasma and ascites were differentiated by anti-PLA2-I antibody and specific inhibitor of PLA2-II. Survival rate and plasma amylase, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were also measured. RESULTS: In 1% and 10% DCA induced acute pancreatitis, plasma amylase values as well as PLA2 activity in ascites were greatly increased. PLA2 activity in plasma was also notably increased in 10% DCA induced acute pancreatitis, but not in 1% DCA induced acute pancreatitis. PLA2-I specific polyclonal antibody significantly inhibited PLA2 activity in ascites but not that in plasma. In contrast, plasma PLA2 activity was completely suppressed by PLA2-II specific inhibitor. In addition, a high mortality (93% at five hours) and a significant increase in plasma AST and ALT were noted in 10% DCA induced pancreatitis. CONCLUSION: Ascites PLA2 activity is mainly derived from PLA2-I, whereas plasma PLA2 activity is mostly derived from PLA2-II in severe acute pancreatitis, suggesting that increased plasma PLA2-II activity might be implicated in hepatic failure arising after severe acute pancreatitis.

Establishment and characterization of nurse cell-like clones from human skin. Nurse cell-like clones can stimulate autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction.

We have established nurse cell-like clones from long-term cultures of the human skin. These human skin nurse cell (HSNC)-like clones were type I collagen+, type IV collagen-, vimentin+, cytokeratin-, CD44+, CD54+, and weakly positive for VCAM-1, and easily identified by the pseudoemperipolesis that allowed T lymphocytes to migrate beneath the HSNCs. HSNCs and various T cell lines formed a typical complex in the hanging drop culture system. The majority of human and murine T cells, and some of the tumor cell lines other than T cells, including B lymphoma and myeloblastoma cells, migrated beneath the HSNC clones. HSNC clones produced various cytokines, including IL-6, IL-7, IL-8, IL-9, granulocyte CSF (G-CSF), granulocyte-macrophage CSF (GM-CSF), macrophage CSF (CSF-1), TGF-beta 1, and c-kit ligand, but could not produce IL-1 alpha, IL-1 beta, IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, TNF-alpha, or TNF-beta. These characteristics were similar to those of nurse cells established from the murine thymus. Furthermore, IFN-gamma-pretreated HSNC clones that expressed MHC class II Ags induced autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction (AMLR) in autologous PBMCs to proliferate and exhibit the cytotoxicity against altered autologous cells and various tumor cells. These results suggest that HSNCs play an important role in the immunoregulation at skin tissues.

Detection of human T cell receptor cDNAs (alpha, beta, gamma and delta) by ligation of a universal adaptor to variable region.

The study of T cell receptor (TCR) genes has been hampered by their large repertoires and elusive methods for gene amplification. We have developed a new method for amplification of all human TCR genes (alpha, beta, gamma, and delta) with the ligation of a universal adaptor to the leader sequence of variable (V) regions, which permitted effective and reproducible amplification of all four types of TCR genes. cDNA sequencing of TCR-gamma, -delta, -alpha, -beta was carried out in respectively 15, 13, 28, and 26 T cell clones from human peripheral blood T cells using a newly developed universal adaptor and these methods. TCR-gamma V-II (V gamma 9) was a major population, and V-I (V gamma 2 and 3) and V-III (V gamma 10) were next major populations among TCR-gamma subfamilies, and confirmed the previous observations determined using mAbs specific to TCR-gamma. All five clones of TCR-gamma V-II and three of five clones of TCR-gamma V-I subfamilies had in-frame V-N-J junctions. In contrast, sequences from both TCR-gamma V-III (4/4 clones) and V-IV (1/1 clones) subfamilies had intron-like regions that caused out-of-frame cDNA, suggesting that most of TCR-gamma V-III and V-IV in PBL are not functional. V delta 2 was a major population and V delta 1 was a next predominant population among TCR-delta subfamilies, also confirming the previous observations determined using mAbs to TCR-delta. With regards to TCR-alpha and -beta, this new method randomly amplified TCR cDNAs. In addition, the sequences of 5' portions of three TCR-V-alpha and one TCR-V beta were extended. Two new TCR-alpha subfamilies and one new TCR-beta family were also identified. In summary, this new method will provide a scientific tool for understanding structures of the human TCR genes involved in specific immune responses.