A pilot study of in vivo immediate tissue contraction with CO2 skin laser resurfacing in a live farm pig.

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that tissue ablation, collagen shrinkage, and new collagen deposition contribute to the clinical outcome of laser skin resurfacing. OBJECTIVE: To study the effects of fluence and pass number on thermal damage and tissue shrinkage, we performed experiments in an in vivo farm pig model. METHODS: A CO2 laser was used to treat the flank skin of a farm pig. There were nine treatment sites based on number of passes and fluence per pass. Wound surface areas were measured pretreatment and immediately posttreatment. Biopsies were performed immediately after irradiation. RESULTS: Surface area measurements showed that immediate contraction tended to increase with increasing fluence and pass number up to a maximum of approximately 38% shrinkage, after which the percent contraction remained constant. Thermal damage increased with pass number for low and moderate fluence groups; however, in high fluence groups the thermal damage remained constant with an increasing number of passes. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that CO2 laser resurfacing produces immediate tissue contraction and residual thermal damage that is saturable for multiple passes and high fluences. For small fluences, however, there is an almost linear increase in thermal damage and shrinkage with an increasing number of passes.

Human immunodeficiency virus 1 envelope proteins induce interleukin 1, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and nitric oxide in glial cultures derived from fetal, neonatal, and adult human brain.

Although microglia are the only cells found to be productively infected in the central nervous system of acquired immunodeficiency disease syndrome (AIDS) patients, there is extensive white and gray matter disease nonetheless. This neuropathogenesis is believed to be due to indirect mechanisms other than infection with human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1). Cytokines and toxic small molecules have been implicated in the clinical and histopathological findings in CNS AIDS. Previously, we have demonstrated in rodent glial cultures the presence of biologically active epitopes of gp120 and gp41 that are capable of inducing interleukin 1 and tumor necrosis factor alpha. In this study, we map the HIV-1 envelope epitopes that induce nitric oxide, inducible nitric oxide synthase, interleukin 1, and tumor necrosis factor alpha in human glial cultures. Epitopes in the carboxy terminus of gp120 and the amino terminus of gp41 induce these proinflammatory entities. In addition, we compare HIV-1 infection and pathology in glial cells derived from human brain taken at different states of maturation (fetal, neonatal, and adult brain) in an effort to address some of the clinical and histological differences seen in vivo. This study demonstrates that, in the absence of virus infection and even in the absence of distinct viral tropism, human glia respond like rodent glia to non-CD4-binding epitopes of gp120/gp41 with cytokine and nitric oxide production. Differences among fetal, neonatal, and adult glial cells' infectivity and cytokine production indicate that, in addition to functional differences of glia at different stages of development, cofactors in vitro and in vivo may also be critical in facilitating the biological responses of these cells to HIV-1.

The mapping of HIV-1 gp160 epitopes required for interleukin-1 and tumor necrosis factor alpha production in glial cells.

The pathology in central nervous system (CNS) AIDS suggests that direct infection with HIV-1 is not required for changes in glia and neurons. Induction of a variety of pathological responses in vitro in rodent brain cultures also suggests that CD4 is not the receptor for HIV-1 in the brain, given that human and rodent CD4 are not homologous. This implies that the epitopes on HIV-1 which bind glia and activate them are novel, non-CD4-binding domains. We have therefore mapped the envelope (env) regions required for production in rat glial cultures of interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) which we hypothesize are important in CNS AIDS. Serially truncated deletion mutants from the gp120/gp41 carboxy terminus representing folded, glycosylated recombinant env proteins were expressed in HeLa cells via a vaccinia virus vector. These proteins, linear gp120/gp41 peptides, as well as polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies reactive to defined regions of gp120/gp41 were used to map the epitopes involved in production of IL-1 and TNF alpha. Compared to HeLa cell and wild-type vaccinia virus controls, the vaccinia recombinant env protein gp160 containing cleaved gp120 and gp41 induced both IL-1 and TNF alpha. If gp160 was not cleaved into gp120 and gp41, IL-1 but not TNF alpha induction was reduced. Peak production of TNF alpha by gp120/gp41 was at 4 h while IL-1 production was still significantly elevated at 44 h at the highest concentrations of env protein. Using the truncation deletions, the V3 loop of gp120 appeared to be critical for IL-1. Glycosylation and folding of V3 is probably important in IL-1 induction since a V3 peptide was not as active. While removal of glycosylated, folded V4 and C4 regions had no effect on IL-1, linear peptides in the region from the V4 loop to the C4 domain were strong inducers of IL-1. Non-glycosylated, linear V4 loop peptide induced more IL-1 than the V4 in protein generated in HeLa cells, suggesting that glycosylation and/or conformational structures sequester V4 inducer epitopes. Using the truncation deletions, the carboxy terminus region (V4-C5) of gp120 as well as gp41 were shown to be critical for TNF alpha production. Peptides representing linear epitopes in the V3 loop, C5 domain of gp120, and the ectodomain of gp41 were all strong inducers of TNF alpha; a protein representing almost the entire gp41 was the strongest inducer of TNF alpha.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)