The Influence of a Previous Sire.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A L Bell.
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Luminol and lucigenin chemiluminescence (CL) responses produced by separated human blood polymorphonuclear leukocytes (pmn) and monocytes (mono) have been studied following stimulation with the surface-receptor agonist fMLP (a synthetic chemotactic peptide) and the protein kinase C activator phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). Pmn produced two- to threefold the luminol CL and superoxide anion (O2-) levels of mono; lucigenin CL was similar for both cell-types. The myeloperoxidase (MPO) inhibitor salicylhydroxamic acid (SHA) abrogated luminol but not lucigenin CL in both cell types, but did not further inhibit the already grossly subnormal luminol CL responses seen with MPO-deficient cells which produced normal lucigenin CL. SHA also profoundly inhibited the luminol CL response in a cell-free MPO-H2O2 system. Mono lucigenin CL does not appear to specifically measure O2- production. These data show that luminol CL provides a useful measure of pmn and also mono MPO activity. However, analysis of the effects of various reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavengers, assessed on phagocyte and cell-free CL systems (both MPO-H2O2 and superoxide generating) suggest that the luminol CL signal is not entirely dependent on MPO activity.
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OBJECTIVE: (i) To determine the levels of nuclear DNA damage in freshly isolated and cultured neutrophils from SLE patients (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis patients (RA) and healthy individuals and relate these to the percentage of apoptotic neutrophils. (ii) To assess rates of repair of neutrophil oxidative DNA damage. METHODS: The comet assay was used to quantify nuclear DNA damage in neutrophils from SLE patients (n = 20), control subjects (n = 15) and RA patients (n = 15). Levels of DNA damage were related to apoptosis as assessed by annexin V binding and morphology. Rates of repair of neutrophil oxidative DNA damage was measured by incorporating formamidopyrimidine-DNA glycosylase (FPG) into the comet assay. RESULTS: Nuclear DNA damage in freshly isolated and cultured (20 h) neutrophils was significantly greater in SLE patients (median = 12.5%, 27.3%; respectively) compared with RA patients (median = 9.4%, p = 0.002; 19.3%, p = 0.002; respectively) and control subjects (median = 8.2%, p = 0.003; 18.7%, p = 0.01, respectively). Significantly higher levels of circulating apoptotic neutrophils were demonstrated in SLE patients compared to RA and control subjects. Similar findings were observed following 20 h cultured neutrophil preparations. However, no significant direct correlation between neutrophil apoptosis and DNA damage was observed. Neutrophils from 3 of 5 SLE patients demonstrated an impaired ability to repair oxidatively modified DNA. CONCLUSION: Neutrophils from SLE patients display increased DNA damage and, additionally, may demonstrate defective repair of oxidative DNA damage. These features, in addition to increased rates of neutrophil apoptosis, may act as contributing factors to autoantigen excess and immune activation.
OBJECTIVE: We aimed to determine the expression of the interleukin-10 receptor (IL10R) on circulating leukocytes in SLE and rheumatoid arthritis, and correlate this with plasma IL-10 levels and disease activity. METHODS: Peripheral blood was sampled from 20 SLE patients, 14 rheumatoid arthritis patients, and 14 healthy controls. IL-10R expression was determined by immunofluorescence labelling and flow cytometric analysis. Plasma IL-10 levels were measured by ELISA. RESULTS: IL-10R was highly expressed on monocytes, and to a lesser degree on neutrophils in all 3 patient groups. Only a small percentage of lymphocytes expressed IL-10R in all three groups. There was no significant difference in IL-10R expression on the surface of monocytes, neutrophils or lymphocytes in any of the 3 groups. IL-10R expression did not correlate with plasma IL-10 levels or disease activity. CONCLUSION: This study has shown no difference in surface IL-10R expression between SLE, rheumatoid arthritis and normal subjects. Deficient or excessive circulating leukocyte surface IL-10R expression therefore does not seem to play a role in the pathogenesis of SLE or rheumatoid arthritis. Functional IL-10R studies would be of interest.
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OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of culture with G-CSF GM-CSF and TNFalpha on neutrophil apoptosis, comparing neutrophils from SLE patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and healthy control subjects. METHODS: Neutrophils were isolated from SLE (n= 10), RA (n= 10) and healthy control subjects (n= 10), and cultured with two different concentrations of G-CSF, GM-CSF and TNFalpha. Proportion of apoptotic neutrophils at T=0, T=2hrs and T=24hrs was measured using FITC-labelled annexinV and flow cytometry. RESULTS: Significantly more neutrophils were apoptotic at T=0 in the SLE subjects than in the other groups (median, range--Control 3.5% (0.3-7.9) SLE 9.5% (2.9-29.1) RA 3.0% (0.4-23.0) p<0.05). Following culture for 24 hours with 1ng/ml G-CSF the proportion of apoptotic neutrophils from SLE subjects was significantly increased (median, range = 51.6% (27.0-84.0) without G-CSF v 66.8% (31.8-89.2) with G-CSF p<0.05). This was not observed with RA or control subjects, in whom the trend was towards inhibition of apoptosis. Similar trends were seen with GM-CSF There was significant induction of apoptosis in SLE neutrophils after 2 hr culture with 1ng/ml TNFalpha (median, range = 2.3% (0.1-8.0) without TNFalpha v 5.2% (1.0-22.4) with TNFalpha). No significant change was seen in the other groups. There was an inverse correlation between total neutrophil count and the degree of induction of apoptosis by G-CSF and GM-CSF, determined at a range of time-points and cytokine concentrations CONCLUSIONS: Neutrophils from SLE patients display resistance to the apoptosis-inhibiting effects of G-CSF and possibly GM-CSF, and appear more susceptible to the apoptosis-inducing action of TNFalpha, the greatest resistance being observed in the more neutropenic patients.