ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) are of major importance in vascular repair under healthy circumstances. Vascular injury in need of repair occurs frequently in ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV). A specialized T cell subset enhancing EPC function and differentiation has recently been described. These angiogenic T cells (Tang) may have an important impact on the vascular repair process. Therefore, the aim of our study was to investigate EPC and Tang in AAV. METHODS: Fifty-three patients suffering from AAV and 29 healthy controls (HC) were enrolled in our study. Forty-four patients were in remission, nine patients were in active state of disease. Patients were either untreated or were under monotherapy with low-dose steroids (max. 5 mg/day) at the time of sampling. Circulating EPC and Tang were determined by flow cytometry (FACS). The functional capacity of EPC was assessed by established cell culture methods. RESULTS: Circulating EPC were significantly decreased in AAV as compared to HC. The capacity of EPC to differentiate and proliferate was differentially impaired in patients as compared to HC. The outgrowth of endothelial colony-forming cells (ECFC) was severely decreased in patients whereas colony-forming units-endothelial cell (CFU-EC) outgrowth was unaffected. ECFC and CFU-EC differentiation was strictly T cell-dependent. Patients with a relapsing disease course had an impaired ECFC outgrowth and expansion of Tang as compared to patients with a stable, nonrelapsing disease. CONCLUSIONS: The differentiation process of EPC is impaired in AAV. This may favor insufficient vascular repair promoting a relapsing disease course. Finally, these factors may explain a higher cardiovascular morbidity as has been previously documented in AAV.
Subject(s)
Anti-Neutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibody-Associated Vasculitis/pathology , Endothelial Progenitor Cells/pathology , Adult , Aged , Cell Differentiation/physiology , Cell Proliferation/physiology , Female , Flow Cytometry , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , T-Lymphocyte Subsets/cytologyABSTRACT
Acute tubulo-interstitial nephritis and uveitis syndrome (TINU) is a rare disease, generally presenting in young women. We describe a 16-year-old Turkish girl with aspecific symptoms and elevated serum creatinine. Further, she complained about a burning pain in her left eye. Renal biopsy revealed acute TIN. Other conditions were excluded and TINU was diagnosed.
Subject(s)
Creatinine/blood , Nephritis, Interstitial/diagnosis , Uveitis/diagnosis , Adolescent , Adrenal Cortex Hormones/therapeutic use , Biopsy , C-Reactive Protein/analysis , Diagnosis, Differential , Eye Pain/complications , Female , Humans , Kidney/ultrastructure , Kidney Function Tests , Nephritis, Interstitial/drug therapy , Nephritis, Interstitial/pathology , Syndrome , Treatment Outcome , Turkey , Uveitis/drug therapy , Uveitis/pathologyABSTRACT
Three experiments showed that reading about a character's actions can reactivate a goal of the character stated earlier in the passage and backgrounded by intervening material. Subjects were slower to read a line describing an action that was inconsistent with a goal of the protagonist than they were to read about an action that was consistent with the goal, even though both lines were locally coherent. Goals were reactivated even when the intervening material did not describe attempts to achieve the goal (Experiment 2) and when the intervening material described another goal of the protagonist (Experiment 3). The results suggest that reading a sentence can reactivate relevant information from earlier in the text, even when the sentence is coherent with its immediate context and the reactivated information has been backgrounded by several lines of unrelated text.
