Estimations of primary nitrogen dioxide exhaust emissions from chemiluminescence NOx measurements in a UK road tunnel.

NO and NO(2) measurements have been made using the chemiluminescence method from 115 weekdays during the period 4th Jan-10th Sep 2010 in a well characterised, unventilated tunnel on the Leeds Inner Ring Road. Measurements are made at two points in the tunnel and the difference in NO and NO(2) was attributed to emissions from vehicles in the tunnel. These data have been used to determine the fraction of NOx (NO+NO(2)) as primary NO(2) (f-NO(2)) from vehicles using the tunnel. The average value of f-NO(2) from 7 am to 7 pm was 0.17 (-0.03)(+0.01) in agreement with estimations from the UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI). However, during the day there was a reproducible increase in f-NO(2) from approximately 0.10 at 7 am to 0.21 at 7 pm which is not reproduced with the current UK vehicle fleet emissions inventories. The increase in f-NO(2) can be qualitatively linked to a decrease in the fraction of NOx arising from heavy goods vehicles and buses.

The specificity of peptides bound to human histocompatibility leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B27 influences the prevalence of arthritis in HLA-B27 transgenic rats.

Human histocompatibility leukocyte antigen B27 is highly associated with the rheumatic diseases termed spondyloarthropathies, but the mechanism is not known. B27 transgenic rats develop a spontaneous disease resembling the human spondyloarthropathies that includes arthritis and colitis. To investigate whether this disease requires the binding of specific peptides to B27, we made a minigene construct in which a peptide from influenza nucleoprotein, NP383-391 (SRYWAIRTR), which binds B27 with high affinity, is targeted directly to the ER by the signal peptide of the adenovirus E3/gp19 protein. Rats transgenic for this minigene, NP1, were made and bred with B27 rats. The production of the NP383-391 peptide in B27(+)NP1(+) rats was confirmed immunologically and by mass spectrometry. The NP1 product displaced approximately 90% of the 3H-Arg-labeled endogenous peptide fraction in B27(+)NP1(+) spleen cells. Male B27(+)NP1(+) rats had a significantly reduced prevalence of arthritis, compared with B27(+)NP- males or B27(+) males with a control construct, NP2, whereas colitis was not significantly affected by the NP1 transgene. These findings support the hypothesis that B27-related arthritis requires binding of a specific peptide or set of peptides to B27, and they demonstrate a method for efficient transgenic targeting of peptides to the ER.

A new MHC locus that influences class I peptide presentation.

We have investigated the HLA-B27-restricted CTL response to HY minor histocompatibility antigens in rats and mice transgenic for HLA-B27 and human beta2-microglobulin. A polymorphism was found at a locus within the H2 complex, producing two distinct but overlapping sets of B27-presented HY peptides. The locus, named Cim2, mapped between the K and Pb loci, and its product is therefore distinct from TAP, LMP, and tapasin. Identical findings in rats and mice, including identical HY peptide sequences and the failure of a rat Tap2A transgene to alter CTL recognition, suggest that a homologous locus with similar polymorphism exists in the rat. Cim2, or a closely linked locus, was found to exert a broad effect on peptide loading of both HLA-B27 and mouse class I alleles. The data thus establish a strong, previously unrecognized MHC-encoded influence on the class I antigen pathway.

Novel HY peptide antigens presented by HLA-B27.

We have identified two peptides corresponding to the male-specific HY minor histocompatibility Ags presented by HLA-B27 in transgenic rodents, isolated from whole cell extracts and from immunoprecipitated B27 molecules of male B27 rat spleen cells. HPLC peptide fractions that sensitized female B27 targets for lysis by B27-restricted anti-HY CTL were analyzed by electrospray tandem mass spectrometry using a new highly sensitive quadrupole/time-of-flight instrument. Two peptide sequences were obtained, KQYQKSTER and AVLNKSNREVR. Synthetic peptides corresponding to these sequences bound B27 in vitro and were recognized by distinct B27-restricted anti-HY CTL populations. Neither peptide sequence entirely matches known protein sequences or shows a resemblance to known Y chromosome genes, but both show homology to known autosomally encoded proteins. Both peptides were shown to be controlled by the Sxr(b) segment of the short arm of the mouse Y chromosome, a segment known to contain all previously identified HY Ags. Taken together, these findings suggest that the two peptides arise as a result of Y chromosome-regulated control of one or more autosomal gene products. Although arginine at position 2 is a dominant anchor residue for peptides bound to B27, neither B27-presented HY sequence contains this residue. These studies, employing sensitive new methodology for identification of MHC-bound peptides, significantly extend the complexity of the genetic basis of HY Ags and expand the repertoire of antigenically active peptides bound to B27.

Rat MHC-linked peptide transporter alleles strongly influence peptide binding by HLA-B27 but not B27-associated inflammatory disease.

Rats transgenic for the human MHC molecule HLA-B27 were used to study the effect of two alleles, cima and cimb, which are associated with peptide transport by the MHC-encoded Tap2 transporter, on the function of HLA-B27 as a restriction element for CTL recognition of the male H-Y minor H Ag and on the multisystem inflammatory disease characteristic of B27 transgenic rats. Anti-H-Y CTL generated in cima B27 transgenic rats lysed male B27 cimb/b targets significantly less well than cima/a or cima/b targets. Addition of exogenous H-Y peptides to male B27 cimb/b targets increased susceptibility to lysis to the level of cima/a targets. Male B27 cimb/b cells were less efficient than cima/a cells in competitively inhibiting CTL lysis of female B27 cima/a targets sensitized with exogenous H-Y peptides. 3H-Labeled peptides eluted from B27 molecules of lymphoblasts from rats of two cimb and three cima RT1 haplotypes showed that the cimb peptide pool favors comparatively longer and/or more hydrophobic peptides. These results indicate that RT1-linked Tap2 polymorphism in the rat strongly influences peptide loading of HLA-B27. Nonetheless, the prevalence and severity of multisystem inflammatory lesions were comparable in backcross rats bearing either cima/b or cimb/b. It thus appears either that binding of specific peptides to B27 is unimportant in the pathogenesis of B27-associated disease or that the critical peptides, unlike H-Y and many others, are not influenced by Tap transporter polymorphism.

High prevalence of colorectal cancer in HLA-B27 transgenic F344 rats with chronic inflammatory bowel disease.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Transgenic rats expressing the human major histocompatibility class I molecule HLA-B27 develop a spontaneous multisystem disease that includes a chronic colitis resembling ulcerative colitis. The availability of this phenotype in B27 transgenic rats of 2 different inbred strains provided the opportunity to inquire whether colorectal neoplasia, which occurs with increased frequency in humans with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), would develop in either or both rat genetic backgrounds. METHODS: Clinical and histologic evaluation of B27 transgenic rats with chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) on the F344 and LEW inbred backgrounds. RESULTS: In B27 transgenic rats on an inbred F344 background, hyperplastic lesions evolved in the setting of chronic colitis, with a high frequency of colorectal polyp formation and frequent histologic progression from adenoma to adenocarcinoma. In contrast, no neoplasia occurred in B27 transgenic rats on an inbred LEW background, despite similar colitis. CONCLUSION: A high incidence of spontaneous colorectal neoplasia occurs in a line of B27 F344 rats that shares some features of both sporadic and inflammatory bowel disease-associated human colorectal cancer. This represents a novel example of spontaneous colorectal neoplasia in rodents that is not based on germline modification of one or more already-identified cancer-related genes.

The germfree state prevents development of gut and joint inflammatory disease in HLA-B27 transgenic rats.

A number of inflammatory disease states occur with greatly increased frequency in individuals inheriting the human major histocompatibility complex class I allele HLA-B27. In a minority of cases, namely those with B27-associated reactive arthritis, there is good evidence that the disease state is triggered by infection with an enteric or genitourinary bacterial pathogen. For the majority of B27-associated disease, no definite pathogenetic role for bacteria has been established. However, in these latter cases intestinal inflammation can often be demonstrated, and it sometimes occupies a major part of the clinical picture. Rats transgenic for B27 are known to develop a disorder resembling B27-associated human disease, with prominent intestinal, joint, skin, and male genital inflammatory lesions. We report here that B27 transgenic rats raised in a germfree environment do not develop inflammatory intestinal or peripheral joint disease, whereas the skin and genital inflammatory lesions are unaffected by the germfree state. These findings support the concept that gut and joint inflammation are pathogenetically closely related, and they provide direct evidence that the commensal gut flora play an important role in the pathogenesis of B27-associated gut and joint inflammation.

Susceptibility to inflammatory disease in HLA-B27 transgenic rat lines correlates with the level of B27 expression.

To investigate the role of the class I MHC molecule HLA-B27 in the spondyloarthropathies, we produced rats transgenic for HLA-B27 and human beta 2-microglobulin. Of five lines bearing > 1 copy of each transgene and showing hemizygous expression of both transgenes, two (lines 21-4H and 33-3) developed spontaneous inflammatory disease that closely resembled B27-associated human disease. Two lines, 21-4L and 25-6, remained healthy even when homozygous for the transgene locus, whereas the 21-3 line, bearing the third highest transgene copy number, developed disease similar to that of the 21-4H and 33-3 lines only when homozygous for the transgene locus. The disease-prone lines showed higher expression of B27--thymic mRNA in utero, splenic mRNA by 5 days of age, and splenic cell surface protein by the time of disease onset--than the disease-resistant lines. Disease susceptibility thus appeared to correlate with gene copy number and the quantity of B27 in lymphoid cells. The increase in the amount of B27 protein did not appear to be simply a consequence of the inflammatory disease because 1) there was no similar change in endogenous RT1 class I expression; 2) no alteration of B27 expression occurred in 21-4H rats with adjuvant-induced arthritis; 3) in rats with inflammatory disease transgenic for HLA-A2 and the 21-4H transgene locus, A2 expression was the same as in healthy rats transgenic for A2 but not B27; and 4) the transgenes in disease-prone and disease-resistant lines were equally susceptible to induction by IFN-gamma. Immunocytochemistry of the distal colon, an early site of inflammation, showed that the B27 Ag is expressed at high levels in cells of the lamina propria, but not at all in colonic epithelial cells. Taken together, the data suggest that the B27 transgene is expressed in a copy number dependent, position-independent manner in lymphoid tissue and that disease results from the expression of B27 above a critical threshold level.

Sharing of an HLA-B27-restricted H-Y antigen between rat and mouse.

The purpose of this work was twofold: 1) to learn whether rats transgenic for HLA-B27 and the human beta 2-microglobulin gene HB2M can mount B27-restricted cytolytic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses to the male H-Y antigen, and 2) to learn whether such CTLs would recognize both rat and mouse H-Y in the context of HLA-B27. Female rats of the B27/HB2M transgenic line 21-4L were primed in vivo with cells from males of the same line. CTL effectors were generated from lymph node cells of these females following culture with irradiated antigen-presenting cells from either male 21-4L rats or male mice of the B27/HB2M transgenic 56-3 line. The CTLs showed male-specific, B27-specific lysis of both rat and mouse targets. Lysis of B27 targets was inhibitable by monoclonal antibodies specific for B27 or rat CD8. Specific lysis of male B27 rat and mouse targets was inhibitable equally by either rat or mouse male B27 cold targets, but not significantly by female or nontransgenic cold targets. The B27-restricted CTLs neither recognized nor were inhibited by B27+ or B27- male or female human targets. These results demonstrate that CD8+, B27-restricted, anti-H-Y CTLs recognize an evolutionarily conserved H-Y peptide antigen in both rats and mice. In addition, they establish the transgenic rat as a model system for examining the T-cell response to antigen presented by class I HLA molecules.

DNA-mediated transfer of complex I genes into three different respiration-deficient Chinese hamster mutant cell lines with defects in complex I of electron transport chain.

We have used genomic DNA from human or mouse cells as a calcium phosphate precipitate to transfect three different respiration-deficient Chinese hamster mutant cell lines with defects in complex I of the electron transport chain. Transformants were selected in DMEM containing galactose, a medium in which respiration-deficient cells do not grow. Evidence for the DNA-mediated transformation of these respiration-deficient cells with a putative complex I gene includes: the clones are respiration-positive and respire at rates comparable to those of wild-type human, hamster, or mouse cells; the clones have rotenone-sensitive NADH oxidase activities, indicating a functional complex I of the electron transport chain; and the clones appear to be true transformants, as demonstrated by hybridization and Southern blot analyses. These experiments provide the basis for the isolation and subsequent characterization of several of the genes involved with complex I of the mammalian electron transport chain.

Biochemical genetics of the mammalian oxidative phosphorylation system: analysis of the difference in the sensitivity of various Chinese hamster cell lines to inhibitors of the mitochondrial ATP synthase complex.

Seven different Chinese hamster cell lines were found to vary greatly in their sensitivity to inhibitors of the mitochondrial ATPase. In plating-efficiency experiments, Chinese hamster lung V79 and bone marrow M3-1 cells were approximately 10,000-fold more resistant to oligomycin, 100-fold more resistant to efrapeptin, and 10-fold more resistant to ossamycin and leucinostatin than were ovary CHO or peritoneal B14 cells. In vitro experiments indicated that the increased resistance of V79 versus CHO cells to these inhibitors was due to an increased resistance of the mitochondrial ATPase. Heat-inactivation experiments indicated that there was a difference in the structure of the mitochondrial ATPase of V79 and CHO cells. Genetic experiments indicated that the difference in the sensitivity of V79 and CHO cells to inhibitors of the ATPase and the difference in the structure of the mitochondrial ATPase of V79 and CHO cells was due to a difference in both a nuclear and a cytoplasmic gene.