Effects of lipid A and liposomes containing lipid A on platelet and fibrinogen production in rabbits

The effect of the lipid A moiety of endotoxin on platelet and fibrinogen production was studied in rabbits. Lipid A was infused intravenously in doses ranging from 1 to 100 micrograms/kg body mass; 18 hr later, selenomethionine-75Se was injected intravenously and its incorporation into fibrinogen and platelets determined. Lipid A in saline stimulated fibrinogen and platelet production, but the dose required was 50--100 times that required for an intact endotoxin. Although lipid A solubilized in triethylamine (TEA) was at least 60 times more active in the Limulus amebocyte lysate assay than was lipid A suspended in saline, the sensitivity of platelet and fibrinogen production to solubilized lipid A was increased only twofold. Incorporation of lipid A into liposomes had no effect on its Limulus activity. Lipid A in liposomes continued to stimulate platelet, but not fibrinogen, production. Leukopenia that was induced by lipid A in TEA did not occur when rabbits received the same dose of lipid A in liposomes. Lipid A, like intact endotoxin, can stimulate platelet and fibrinogen production and induce leukopenia but the doses required are high. The low solubility of lipid A in aqueous solutions may be only one factor that determines its biologic activity.     

Two-dimensional iodopeptide mapping demonstrates that erythrocyte Rh D, c, and E polypeptides are structurally homologous but nonidentical

The 32,000 molecular weight (mol wt) erythrocyte Rh D, c, and E polypeptides were separately purified from cDE/cDE erythrocytes by monoclonal immunoprecipitations and compared by two-dimensional iodopeptide mapping. Digestions of the isolated Rh polypeptides with alpha-chymotrypsin revealed a high degree of structural homology between c and E (13/14 iodopeptides were identical) and less striking homology between D and c or E (8/19 identical). The iodopeptide maps of Rh proteins purified by a nonimmunologic protocol from cDE/cDE erythrocytes were virtually identical to the composite pattern (D + c + E) deduced from the individual maps of Rh D, c, and E iodopeptides. Digestions of the isolated Rh polypeptides with trypsin revealed an overall homology of approximately 50% between iodopeptides derived from D, c, and E. These data indicate that the erythrocyte Rh D, c, and E antigens are carried by homologous but distinct molecular species; c and E appear more closely related to each other than to D.     

Role of primary afferents in the developmental regulation of motor axon synapse numbers on Renshaw cells

Motor function in mammalian species depends on the maturation of spinal circuits formed by a large variety of interneurons that regulate motoneuron firing and motor output. Interneuron activity is in turn modulated by the organization of their synaptic inputs, but the principles governing the development of specific synaptic architectures unique to each premotor interneuron are unknown. For example, Renshaw cells receive, at least in the neonate, convergent inputs from sensory afferents (likely Ia) and motor axons, raising the question of whether they interact during Renshaw cell development. In other well‐studied neurons, such as Purkinje cells, heterosynaptic competition between inputs from different sources shapes synaptic organization. To examine the possibility that sensory afferents modulate synaptic maturation on developing Renshaw cells, we used three animal models in which afferent inputs in the ventral horn are dramatically reduced (ER81^−/− knockout), weakened (Egr3^−/− knockout), or strengthened (mlcNT3^+/− transgenic). We demonstrate that increasing the strength of sensory inputs on Renshaw cells prevents their deselection and reduces motor axon synaptic density, and, in contrast, absent or diminished sensory afferent inputs correlate with increased densities of motor axons synapses. No effects were observed on other glutamatergic inputs. We conclude that the early strength of Ia synapses influences their maintenance or weakening during later development and that heterosynaptic influences from sensory synapses during early development regulates the density and organization of motor inputs on mature Renshaw cells. J. Comp. Neurol. 524:1892–1919, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.