Acute alcohol intoxication and gadolinium chloride attenuate endotoxin-induced release of CC chemokines in the rat.

This work tests the hypotheses that Kupffer cells are a major source of CC-chemokines (MIP-1alpha, MCP-1, RANTES) during acute endotoxemia and that acute ethanol intoxication modulates Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 1 mg/Kg, i.v.)-induced chemokine release in the rat. LPS stimulated the release of CC-chemokines into the circulation, hepatic sequestration of leukocytes and liver injury. LPS-induced serum chemokines peaked at 1-3 h and could not be detected at 24-h posttreatment. Splenectomy significantly suppressed LPS-induced RANTES release, but not MIP-1alpha and MCP-1. Kupffer cell depletion by gadolinium chloride or acute ethanol intoxication significantly attenuated LPS-induced CC-chemokine release and hepatic injury. Hepatic sequestration of leukocytes during endotoxemia was also suppressed by acute ethanol. LPS downregulated the expression of MIP-1alpha and MCP-1 mRNAs and upregulated RANTES mRNA in Kupffer cells at 3-h post endotoxin. The expression of mRNAs was further suppressed in ethanol plus the LPS-treated group. Ethanol also suppressed the LPS-mediated priming of Kupffer cells for enhanced CC-chemokine release in vitro. Ethanol alone significantly upregulated the expression of CC-chemokine mRNA, and primed the Kupffer cells for enhanced RANTES release. CC-chemokine release and mRNA expression in hepatic sinusoidal endothelial cells were not significantly altered by ethanol, except for MCP-1 release. These data show that acute ethanol may be beneficial in tissue injury during acute endotoxemia.

Orthotopic human lung carcinoma xenografts in BALB/c mice immunosuppressed with anti-CD4 monoclonal antibodies and chronic alcohol consumption.

BACKGROUND: The role of the immune system in the surveillance of the body for cancer cells is well established. Human tumor cells do not survive in mice with intact immune systems, but they propagate in athymic nude mice. Presumably, the lack of a thymus gland and consequent loss of T lymphocytes results in a seriously compromised immune system without adequate cell-mediated immunity and tumor surveillance. In patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a progressive loss of cell-mediated immunity is associated with the development of malignancies and opportunistic infections. This effect may be exacerbated in patients who chronically consume alcohol. METHODS: Normal and alcoholic BALB/c mice were treated with a monoclonal antibody to deplete CD4(+) lymphocytes before orthotopic implantation of human lung adenocarcinoma xenografts. Tumor volume and weight were measured and compared between groups. RESULTS: The authors' data show that a single treatment of anti-CD4 antibody causes almost complete depletion of CD4(+) lymphocytes and permits the formation of large intrapulmonary human nonsmall lung carcinoma xenografts in 100% of treated mice. All control animals injected with heat-denatured antibody failed to produce tumors. Chronic alcohol consumption by CD4-depleted mice resulted in larger tumors, compared with mice that did not receive ethanol in their diet (P = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Depletion of CD4(+) lymphocytes allows for the orthotopic growth of human lung adenocarcinoma xenografts in BALB/c mice. Furthermore, the consumption of alcohol reduces the ability of the impaired immune system to reject tumors.

[Anticardiolipin antibodies--detection and diagnostic value]. / Antikardiolipinska antitijela--dokazivanje i dijagnosticka vaznost.

Anticardiolipin antibodies belong to a family of antibodies to phospholid and are important in pathogenesis of some diseases. Statistically significant high titer of circulating anticardiolipin antibodies were found in SLE patients, thromboembolic events, thrombocytopenia and recurrent fetal loss. We tested 53 sera of SLE patients to anticardiolipin antibodies by own modification of ELISA. Only two sera were positive, one of them was associated with recurrent fetal loss and disease. The incidence of anticardiolipin antibodies in we have found no correlation with the activity of to those reported in other studies. Our tested sera (4%) was much lower in comparison.

[Rehabilitation approaches in patients after percutaneous lumbar discectomy]. / Rehabilitacioni postupak kod pacijenata nakon perkutane lumbalne discektomije.

The lumbar ache syndrome is more and more getting sign of a social disease because of its rate. Beside the conservative treatment very often the operative treatment is used too. Except the classical discectomy, a percutaneous lumbar discectomy had been used since the last year. In the work we gave the basic anatomical characteristics of the spiral column, stages of intervertebral disk dislocations and general characteristics of the acute ache syndrome. According to Aesculaps prospect we described the operating technique of percutaneous lumbar discectomy as well as the rehabilitation treatment of classical and percutaneous lumbar discectomy.

How polymorphic are class II loci of the mouse H-2 complex?

DNA was isolated from 75 mouse strains carrying classical H-2 haplotypes as well as haplotypes derived from wild mice. The DNA was digested with three restriction endonucleases, Bst EII, Eco RI, and Bam HI, the digests hybridized, using the Southern blotting technique, with probes for the class II genes A alpha, A beta, E alpha, and E beta, and the restriction fragment length polymorphism at these loci determined. The analysis revealed that the most polymorphic of the four loci is A beta, followed by E beta, and, at a different level, by E alpha and A alpha. There is a large difference in the degree of polymorphism between the A beta and E beta genes, on the one hand, and the A alpha and E alpha genes, on the other hand. There is no difference in the degree of polymorphism between the A alpha and E alpha genes. These findings do not substantiate previous postulates of a high A alpha polymorphism and they do not agree with the hypothesis that the class II region is divided into highly polymorphic centromeric and less polymorphic telomeric subregions. Rather, it appears that the differences in the degree of polymorphism of the different segments of the class II region are determined by the class II loci themselves. The polymorphism of the less polymorphic class II genes is, however, still greater than the polymorphism of certain other genes on chromosome 17, notably the alpha 4-globin pseudogene. The distribution of polymorphisms at the A beta and E beta loci suggests that even populations occupying relatively small geographical regions differ in alleles at these loci. Sharing of A beta alleles between unrelated populations is yet to be detected. A certain degree of linkage disequilibrium exists among the A alpha, A beta, and E beta loci; by contrast, the E alpha locus appears to vary largely independently of the other class II loci.