[Impact of gender on hepatic pathology and antibody - mediated immunity caused by Schistosoma japonicum infection in C57BL/6 mice].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of gender on hepatic pathology and antibody-mediated immunity in Schistosoma japonicum-infected C57BL/6 mice. METHODS: Female and male C57BL/6 mice were infected with S. japonicum, and the hepatic pathological changes were observed using HE and picrosirius red staining in mice 8 weeks post-infection. The serum specific IgG antibody levels against the soluble adult worm antigen (SWA) and soluble egg antigen (SEA) were measured in mice using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and the percentages of follicular helper T (Tfh) cells and regulatory T (Treg) cells were detected in mouse spleen and lymph nodes using flow cytometry. RESULTS: HE staining showed no significant difference in the mean area of a single hepatic egg granuloma between female and male mice 8 weeks post-infection with S. japonicum [(28.050 ± 3.576) × 104 µm2 vs. (26.740 ± 4.093) × 104 µm2; t = 0.241, P = 0.821], and picrosirius red staining revealed no statistical differences between female and male mice in terms of the mean proportion of picrosirius red stained hepatic tissues [(7.667 ± 1.856)% vs. (7.667 ± 1.764)%; t = 0, P = 1] or the mean optical density [(0.023 ± 0.003) vs. (0.027 ± 0.007); t = 0.447, P = 0.678]. ELISA detected no significant differences in the serum IgG antibody levels against SWA [(2.098 ± 0.037) vs. (1.970 ± 0.071); t = 1.595, P = 0.162] or SEA [(3.738 ± 0.039) vs. (3.708 ± 0.043); t = 0.512, P = 0.623] between female and male mice 8 weeks post-infection with S. japonicum. Flow cytometry detected significantly greater percentages of Tfh cells in the spleen [female mice, (8.645 ± 1.356)% vs. (1.730 ± 0.181)%, t = 5.055, P = 0.002; male mice, (8.470 ± 1.161)% vs. (1.583 ± 0.218)%, t = 5.829, P = 0.001] and lymph nodes [female mice, (3.218 ± 0.153)% vs. (1.095 ± 0.116)%, t = 11.040, P < 0.001; male mice, (3.673 ± 0.347)% vs. (0.935 ± 0.075)%, t = 8.994, P = 0.001) of both female and male mice 8 weeks post-infection with S. japonicum than in uninfected mice; however, no significant differences were seen between female and male mice 8 weeks post-infection with S. japonicum in terms of the percentages of Tfh cells in the spleen [(8.645 ± 1.356)% vs. (8.470 ± 1.161)%; t = 0.098, P = 0.925] or lymph nodes [(3.218 ± 0.153)% vs. (3.673 ± 0.347)%; t = 1.332, P = 0.241]. There was no significant difference in the proportion of Treg cells in the spleen of male mice between infected and uninfected mice [(10.060 ± 0.361)% vs. (10.130 ± 0.142)%; t = 0.174, P = 0.867], while a higher proportion of Treg cells was seen in the spleen of female mice 8 weeks post-infection with S. japonicum than in uninfected mice [(10.530 ± 0.242)% vs. (9.450 ± 0.263)%; t = 3.021, P = 0.023]. There was no significant difference in the proportion of Treg cells in the spleen between female and male mice infected with S. japonicum [(10.530 ± 0.242)% vs. (10.060 ± 0.361)%; t =1.077, P = 0.323]. In addition, the proportions of Treg cells were significantly greater in the lymph node of S. japonicum -infected female [(17.150 ± 0.805)% vs. (13.100 ± 0.265)%; t = 4.781, P = 0.003] and male mice [(18.550 ± 0.732)% vs. (12.630 ± 0.566)%; t = 6.402, P = 0.001] than in uninfected mice; however, no significant difference was seen between female and male mice 8 weeks post-infection [(17.150 ± 0.805)% vs. (18.550 ± 0.732)%; t = 1.287, P = 0.246]. CONCLUSIONS: There are no gender-specific hepatic pathological changes or antibody-mediated immunity in C57BL/6 mice post-infection with S. japonicum.

Increased plasma neopterin levels are associated with reduced endothelial function and arterial elasticity in hypertension.

Inflammation has been shown to play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis and development of hypertensive vascular injury. Neopterin is a novel marker of immune activation produced mainly by activated macrophages. Few data are available to show the association between neopterin and vascular function in hypertension. The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between neopterin levels related to arterial stiffness and endothelial function in patients with hypertension, and their changes after blood pressure-lowering treatment. Twenty-four hypertensive patients and 30 age- and gender-matched healthy volunteers were recruited. Plasma neopterin levels were higher in hypertensive patients compared with their counterparts (log-neopterin: 0.77±0.18 versus 0.61±0.16, P=0.003). Increased neopterin levels were correlated with increased brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV; control: r=0.659, P<0.001; hypertension: r=0.487, P=0.021), and inversely associated with impaired brachial flow-mediated dilation (FMD; control: r=-0.735, P<0.001; hypertension: r=-0.557, P=0.005). Fifteen hypertensives received 3 months of standard antihypertensive treatment. Three months later, their plasma neopterin levels decreased (log-neopterin: 0.63±0.17 versus 0.50±0.19, P=0.001), whereas arterial elasticity (baPWV: 1764±101 versus 1685±96 cm s(-1), P=0.272) and endothelial function (FMD: 5.92±1.43% versus 7.73±1.31%, P<0.05) were improved. The decline in neopterin levels was linearly correlated with baPWV decrease (r=0.800, P<0.001), FMD improvement (r=0.670, P=0.006) and blood pressure reduction (r=0.548, P=0.042). Our present study demonstrated for the first time that neopterin is closely correlated with vascular dysfunctions, and measurement of plasma neopterin levels might be used as a surrogate biomarker for the clinical evaluation of vascular damage and risk stratification of future atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in patients with hypertension.

Heterogeneous recognition of beta 2-glycoprotein I by antibodies from antiphospholipid syndrome patients.

Beta 2-glycoprotein I plays a pivotal role in the binding of antiphospholipid antibodies to phospholipid in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome. In this study the nature of the epitopes on beta 2-glycoprotein I (beta2-GPI) recognised by sera from antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) patients (n = 15) was investigated and compared to rabbit polyclonal and mouse monoclonal anti-beta2-GPI antibodies. beta2-GPI was only recognised when bound to a high affinity binding support. The antigenic epitope on beta2-GPI recognised by all APS patients was also dependent on disulphide bond integrity. Digestion of beta2-GPI with elastase rapidly destroyed the epitope(s) on beta2-GPI recognised by antibodies in 91% of APS patients. The main cleavage occurred at tryptophan316-lysine317 in the fifth domain. Digestion with staphylococcal V8 protease resulted in a 50% reduction in antibody binding in 81% of patients and the cleavage sites mainly involved the first domain of the molecule. There was considerable variability in the recognition of six different species of beta2-GPI by serum from APS patients. The epitopes on beta2-GPI bound by APS sera appear conformationally determined in all patients but are quite heterogeneous in the regions of beta2-GPI that are recognised.

Characterization of binding of human beta 2-glycoprotein I to cardiolipin.

beta 2-Glycoprotein I-cardiolipin complexes are reported to be a target antigen for the binding of a subset of anti-phospholipid antibodies. The characteristics of binding of beta 2-glycoprotein I to cardiolipin are reported in this paper. Binding at neutral pH is specific, saturable, dependent on ionic strength and independent of bivalent cation. Binding at low pH is qualitatively different from that at neutral pH, and is not dependent on ionic strength. Denaturation of beta 2-glycoprotein I by heat inactivation and reduction/alkylation indicates that beta 2-glycoprotein I-cardiolipin interaction does not require the native three-dimensional structure of beta 2-glycoprotein I, implying that a linear sequence motif may be responsible. Modification of amino acid residues by KCNO treatment completely destroys binding capacity, indicating crucial involvement of lysine residues in binding of beta 2-glycoprotein I to cardiolipin. Complement factor H, which has some similar highly charged linear sequence motifs to beta 2-glycoprotein I and is composed of the same type of protein module, was found to bind to cardiolipin and inhibit the binding of beta 2-glycoprotein I to cardiolipin. Three different lysine-rich segments of the fifth domain of beta 2-glycoprotein I may be involved in binding to cardiolipin.