Polyclonal and allergen-induced cytokine responses in children with elevated immunoglobulin E but no atopic disease

BACKGROUND: Reduced Th1 and elevated Th2 cytokine responses are considered to be a principal mechanism in the generation of the inflammation leading to the manifestations of atopic disease in the skin of atopic dermatitis and in the airways of asthma. If reduced Th1 and elevated Th2 responses are principal determinants of the manifestation of atopic disease it might be expected that subjects with established disease would exhibit differences in their cytokine profiles as compared with atopic patients without clinical disease. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether asymptomatic atopic children exhibit a cytokine imbalance similar to that seen in patients with established atopic disease or if they behave like non-atopic controls. Cytokine responses in a group of children with elevated IgE but no clinical manifestations of disease, atopic children with established disease and non-atopic controls were compared. METHODS: We examined allergen-induced (house dust mite, HDM, rye grass pollen and RYE) cytokine responses in parallel with polyclonal (staphylococcal enterotoxin B, SEB) cytokine responses in a group of children with elevated serum IgE levels without current or past evidence of atopic disease (median age 6.6 years) and compared these with a non-atopic control group (median age 6.5 years) and a group of children with atopic disease (median age 6.7 years). RESULTS: Symptomatic atopic children had reduced SEB-induced IFN-gamma and increased SEB-induced IL-4 and IL-5 as compared with non-atopic controls. In contrast, SEB-induced IFN-gamma, IL-4 and IL-5 production in asymptomatic atopics was not significantly different from the non-atopic control subjects. Allergen-induced Th1 (IFN-gamma) and Th2 (IL-5 and IL-13) cytokine production was increased in both symptomatic atopics and asymptomatic atopics when compared with non-atopic controls. CONCLUSION: The defect in polyclonally induced IFN-gamma production was associated with the clinical manifestation of atopic disease but not the atopic stateper se. This suggests that the global reduction in IFN-gamma is the key determinant of the development of overt atopic disease. In contrast, elevated allergen-induced Th2 cytokine responses in children related to the atopic state per se irrespective of the presence of clinical atopic disease.     

Gender differences in cardiovascular risk factors in a carotid endarterectomy population.

AIM: Present knowledge about the epidemiology and the distribution of the cardiovascular risk factors of carotid artery atherosclerosis is limited. The aim of the study was to detect possible gender differences in cardiovascular risk factors in carotid endarterectomy patients. METHODS: Between 1998 and 2003 the cardiovascular risk factors of 804 consecutive isolated carotid endarterectomies were prospectively recorded. The data of 567 men and 237 women were compared and subgroup analysis of young and old male and female subjects was performed. RESULTS: The number of cardiovascular risk factors per patient is higher in men, hypertension is more predominant in women, tobacco use is twice as often present in men. The most frequent risk factors are, in men, tobacco use and hypertension, and, in women, hypertension and hyperlipidemia. The most frequent combination in the male group is tobacco/hypertension/hyperlipidemia and in the female group hypertension/hyperlipidemia. The gender differences were more striking in patients younger than 75 years, after this age the number of cardiovascular risk factor per patient declined in both sexes, the number of smokers decreased but remains higher in men, diabetes is more frequent in women and hypertension and hyperlipidemia become the important risk factors in men as well in women. CONCLUSIONS: There are gender differences in the distribution and in the combinations of cardiovascular risk factors in our selected patients. These findings suggest that screening for carotid artery atherosclerosis should particularly be aimed at people with the combinations of risk factors described above.     

Residual bone-mineral density and muscle strength after fractures of the tibia or femur in children.

This study compared the bone-mineral density in the proximal part of the femur and the flexion and extension strength of the knee in the fractured and the non-fractured limbs after an uncomplicated fracture of the tibia or femur in children. Thirty-eight children, whose ages ranged from two to fifteen years at the time of the injury, were evaluated at an average of 2.3 years after the injury. The mean difference in bone-mineral density between the fractured and non-fractured limbs was 3.3 per cent (p = 0.004). There was no significant difference between the bone-mineral density of the limbs that had been immobilized for less than four weeks and that of the contralateral, non-fractured limbs. However, the mean difference between the bone-mineral density of the limbs that had been immobilized for more than eight weeks and that of the contralateral limbs was 4.3 per cent (p = 0.006). There was little or no relationship between the time since the injury and the difference in bone-mineral density between the two limbs of the patient at the intervals of follow-up that were studied. No residual weakness in flexion and extension of the knee was detected, and no relationship was established between the limb-to-limb differences in strength and the limb-to-limb differences in bone-mineral density. The residual bone-mineral deficit was found to be minimum after an uncomplicated fracture. This difference, while statistically significant, is unlikely to be clinically important in the long term. However, the fact that there was a deficit raises a potential concern for children who have more severe or repeated injuries.     

Identification of a parathyroid hormone in the fish Fugu rubripes.

A PTH gene has been isolated from the fish Fugu rubripes. The encoded protein of 80 amino acid has the lowest homology with any of the PTH family members. Fugu PTH(1-34) had 5-fold lower potency than human PTH(1-34) in a mammalian cell system. INTRODUCTION: Parathyroid hormone (PTH) is the major hypercalcemic hormone in higher vertebrates. Fish lack parathyroid glands, but there have numerous attempts to identify and isolate PTH from fish. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed with primers based on preliminary data from the Joint Genome Institute database. PCR amplification was performed on genomic DNA isolated from Fugu rubripes. PCR products were purified and DNA was sequenced. All sequence was confirmed from more than one independently amplified PCR product. Multiple sequence alignments were carried out, and the percentage of identities and similarities were calculated. An unrooted phylogenetic tree, using all the known PTH and PTH-related protein (PTHrP) amino acid sequences, was determined. Synthetic peptides were tested in a biological assay that measured cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate formation in UMR106.1 cells. Rabbit polyclonal antisera specific for N-terminal human PTHrP and one rabbit polyclonal antiserum specific for N terminus hPTH were used to test the cross-reactivity with fPTH(1-34) in immunoblots.     

Anxiolytic activity of adenosine receptor activation in mice.

1. Purine analogues have been examined for anxiolytic- and anxiogenic-like activity in mice, by use of the elevated plus-maze. 2. The selective A1 receptor agonist, N6-cyclopentyladenosine (CPA) had marked anxiolytic-like activity at 10 and 50 microg kg(-1), with no effect on locomotor performance at these doses. 3. The A1 selective adenosine receptor antagonist, 1,3-dipropyl-8-cyclopentylxanthine (CPX) had no significant effect on anxiety-related measures or locomotor behaviour, but blocked the anxiolytic-like activity of CPA. The hydrophilic xanthine, 8-(p-sulphophenyl) theophylline did not prevent anxiolysis by CPA. 4. Caffeine had anxiogenic-like activity at 30 mg kg(-1) which was prevented by CPA at 50 micro kg(-1). 5. The A2 receptor agonist, N6-[2-(3,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-2(2-methylphenyl)-ethyl]adenosine (DPMA) had no effect on anxiety behaviour but depressed locomotor activity at the highest dose tested of 1 mg kg(-1). The A2 receptor antagonist, 1,3-dimethyl-l-propargylxanthine (DMPX) had no effect on anxiety-related measures or locomotion and did not modify the anxiolytic-like activity of CPA. 6. Administration of DPMA in combination with anxiolytic doses of CPA prevented the anxiolytic-like activity of the latter. 7. The results suggest that the selective activation of central A1 adenosine receptors induces anxiolytic-like behaviour, while the activation of A2 sites causes locomotor depression and reduces the effects of A1 receptor activation. The absence of any effect of CPX alone suggests that the receptors involved in modulating behaviour in the elevated plus-maze in mice are not activated tonically by endogenous adenosine.     

pH control in rat skeletal muscle during exercise,recovery from exercise,and acute respiratory acidosis

We used ³¹P magnetic resonance spectroscopy to compare the response of rat skeletal muscle to three kinds of proton load. During exercise (tetanic sciatic nerve stimulation), protons from lactic acid were buffered passively and consumed by net hydrolysis of phosphocreatine (PCr). During recovery from exercise, the pH-dependent efflux of protons produced by PCr resynthesis could be partially inhibited by amiloride or 4,4′-diisothiocyanostilbene-2,2′-disulphonate (DIDS), implicating both sodiudproton and bicarbonatelchloride exchange, but was not inhibited by simultaneous respiratory acidosis. In early recovery, up to 30% of proton efflux was mediated by lactatelproton cotransport. During acute respiratory acidosis at rest, the eventual change in muscle pH was consistent with passive buffering and was unaffected by amiloride or DIDS, implying no significant contribution of proton fluxes.