Biomedical subjects

A R Gilbert

Publications and source records attributed to A R Gilbert.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2001

Thalamic volumes in patients with first-episode schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: The thalamus, a highly evolved sensory and motor gateway to the cortex, has been implicated in the pathophysiology of several illnesses, including schizophrenia. Several studies have suggested thalamic volume differences in patients with schizophrenia, although only a few studies have examined thalamic structure in new-onset patients. METHOD: The authors used magnetic resonance imaging to measure thalamic volumes in previously untreated patients with first-episode schizophrenia (N=16) relative to those of healthy comparison subjects (N=25). The age range of the patients and comparison subjects was 15 to 45 years of age. Thalamic volumes in the right and left hemispheres were segmented and analyzed, both separately and as total thalamic volume, by a rater blind to clinical data. The thalamus was further segmented into regions that roughly reflected individual thalamic nuclei. Analysis of covariance was used to control for intracranial volume. RESULTS: Right, left, and total thalamic volumes of the patients with schizophrenia were significantly smaller than those of the comparison subjects. Significantly smaller volumes were found in the left central medial subdivision of the patients as well as a smaller volume in the right central medial subdivision that approached significance. These regions primarily comprised the dorsomedial nucleus, a thalamic nucleus thought to be an important component of aberrant circuitry in schizophrenia. Significant volume differences were also seen in the left anterior, right anterior, and right posterior medial subdivisions. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest significant thalamic volumetric differences between patients with newly diagnosed schizophrenia and healthy comparison subjects. Future analysis of individual thalamic nuclei may reveal important, specific relationships between thalamic abnormalities and schizophrenia.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Decrease in thalamic volumes of pediatric patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder who are taking paroxetine.

BACKGROUND: Thalamic dysfunction has been implicated in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). While OCD frequently has its onset during childhood, to our knowledge, no prior study has measured neuroanatomical changes in the thalamus of patients with OCD near the onset of illness, and before and after treatment. METHODS: Volumetric magnetic resonance imaging studies were conducted in 21 psychotropic drug-naive children, aged 8 to 17 years, with OCD and 21 case-matched healthy comparison subjects. Magnetic resonance imaging studies were also conducted in 10 of the 21 patients with OCD after 12 weeks of monotherapy with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, paroxetine hydrochloride. RESULTS: Thalamic volumes were significantly greater in treatment-naive patients with OCD than in controls but declined significantly after paroxetine monotherapy to levels comparable with those of controls. Decrease in thalamic volume in patients with OCD was associated with reduction in OCD symptom severity. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide new evidence of thalamic abnormalities in pediatric OCD and further suggest that paroxetine treatment may be paralleled by a reduction in thalamic volume. These reductions may, however, not be specific to paroxetine treatment and could be due to a more general treatment response, and/or spontaneous improvement in symptoms. Our findings are preliminary given the small sample size and our inability to measure discrete thalamic nuclei.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1993

Macrophage inflammatory protein-1 alpha expression in interstitial lung disease.

Mononuclear phagocyte (M phi) recruitment and activation is a hallmark of a number of chronic inflammatory diseases of the lung, including sarcoidosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). We hypothesized that macrophage inflammatory protein-1 (MIP-1 alpha), a peptide with leukocyte activating and chemotactic properties, may play an important role in mediating many of the cellular changes that occur in sarcoidosis and IPF. In initial experiments, we demonstrated that human rMIP-1 alpha exerted chemotactic activities toward both polymorphonuclear leukocytes and monocytes, and these activities were inhibited by treatment with rabbit anti-human MIP-1 alpha antiserum. In support of the potential role of MIP-1 alpha in interstitial lung disease, we detected MIP-1 alpha in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of 22/23 patients with sarcoidosis (mean 443 +/- 76 pg/ml) and 9/9 patients with IPF (mean 427 +/- 81 pg/ml), whereas detectable MIP-1 alpha was found in only 1/7 healthy subjects (mean 64 +/- 64 pg/ml). In addition, we found a 2.5- and 1.8-fold increase in monocyte chemotactic activity in BALF obtained from patients with sarcoidosis and IPF respectively, as compared to healthy subjects, and this monocyte chemotactic activity, but not neutrophil chemotactic activity, was reduced by approximately 22% when bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from sarcoidosis and IPF patients were preincubated with rabbit antihuman MIP-1 alpha antibodies. To determine the cellular source(s) of MIP-1 alpha within the lung, we performed immunohistochemical analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage cell pellets, transbronchial biopsies, and open lung biopsies obtained from patients with IPF and sarcoidosis. Substantial expression of cell-associated MIP-1 alpha was detected in M phi, including both alveolar AM phi and interstitial M phi. In addition, interstitial fibroblasts within biopsies obtained from sarcoid and IPF patients also expressed immunoreactive MIP-1 alpha. Minimal to no detectable MIP-1 alpha was expressed in alveolar M phi from healthy subjects or interstitial cells in lung biopsy specimens obtained from patients undergoing thoracotomy for malignancy. Furthermore, pulmonary fibroblasts isolated from patients with IPF produced greater amounts of MIP-1 alpha after challenge with IL-1 beta than did similarly treated pulmonary fibroblasts recovered from patients without fibrotic lung disease. Our findings suggest that MIP-1 alpha is expressed in increased amounts within the airspace and interstitium of patients with sarcoidosis and IPF, and that this cytokine may be an important mediator of both M phi activation and recruitment that characterize these disease states.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Regulation of neutrophil-derived IL-8: the role of prostaglandin E2, dexamethasone, and IL-4.

Historically, the neutrophil has been perceived as a terminally differentiated leukocyte with limited ability to produce de novo proteins. Furthermore, in the context of acute inflammation the activated neutrophil has been appreciated only for its ability to release various proteases, reactive oxygen, and arachidonic acid metabolites. Recently, the neutrophil has been shown to have the capacity to produce a number of cytokines that may be instrumental in orchestrating the progression of acute inflammation to a more chronic and specific immune response. These cytokines include IFN-alpha, M-CSF, G-CSF, TNF, IL-1, and IL-6. Our laboratory and others have shown that neutrophils produce IL-8 in response to LPS or a phagocytic challenge. Although these studies have shown the induction of IL-8 from polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN), relatively little is known regarding the regulation of PMN-derived IL-8. Because PMN and monocytes share the same stem cell, and monocyte-derived IL-8 is regulated by prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), glucocorticoids (dexamethasone; DEX) and the T-Lymphocyte-derived IL-4, we postulated that PMN-derived IL-8 production may be regulated in a similar manner. To test this hypothesis, PMN were isolated (> 99% pure) from peripheral blood and cultured in media with 5% FCS in the presence or absence of LPS (10 ng/ml; a concentration of LPS that induced the half-maximal production of PMN-derived IL-8) and in the presence or absence of DEX (10(-6) M to 10(-10) M), PGE2 (10(-6) M to 10(-10) M), or IL-4 (100 ng/ml to 100 pg/ml). PMN-derived IL-8 was measured using a specific sandwich ELISA. DEX and IL-4 in the presence of LPS were found to inhibit PMN-derived IL-8 in both a dose- and time-dependent fashion. DEX and IL-4 in concentrations of 10(-6) M and 10 ng/ml resulted in maximal inhibition of LPS-induced PMN-derived IL-8, respectively. Moreover, both DEX and IL-4 administration could be delayed 4 hr post-stimulation with LPS and result in significant suppression of PMN-derived IL-8. Interestingly, in contrast to the regulation of monocyte-derived IL-8 by PGE2, PGE2 treatment of PMN failed to inhibit the generation of LPS-induced IL-8. Northern blot analysis of steady-state IL-8 mRNA demonstrated that both DEX and IL-4 treatment of PMN resulted in a 40 and 52% reduction in LPS-stimulated PMN-derived IL-8 mRNA, respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Base Sequence↗

PubMed1993

Interleukin-1 receptor antagonist expression in sarcoidosis.

Sarcoidosis is a systemic granulomatous disease with a marked propensity for involvement of the pulmonary parenchyma and thoracic lymphatic system. This granulomatous process is characterized by aggregations of mononuclear cells, multinucleated giant cells, and variable degrees of fibrosis. The agent(s) responsible for the initiation of the inflammatory granulomatous process remain unknown. Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1) is a cytokine that has been shown to possess potent proinflammatory properties and is likely to play a role in mediating many of the immunopathologic events observed in sarcoidosis. Despite the degree of granulomatous inflammation, both the pulmonary and systemic pathogenic changes associated with sarcoidosis have a remarkable propensity for spontaneous resolution. The interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IRAP), an endogenous inhibitor of IL-1 bioactivity, may have a critical role as an in vivo immunomodulator of IL-1-dependent granulomatous inflammation of sarcoidosis. In this study we demonstrate constitutive expression of IRAP mRNA and antigen from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cells and cell-free fluid, respectively, obtained from both normal subjects and patients with sarcoidosis. However, immunolocalization of IRAP was found to be significantly localized to the sarcoid granuloma as compared with the uninvolved lung interstitium. Our findings indicate that IRAP expression is compartmentalized (granuloma) within the interstitium of patients with sarcoidosis. Thus, IRAP may function as an important in vivo immunomodulator of granulomatous inflammation.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Gene expression of macrophage inflammatory protein-1 alpha from human blood monocytes and alveolar macrophages is inhibited by interleukin-4.

Mononuclear phagocytes are essential cellular mediators of both acute and chronic inflammatory responses. In addition to producing substances that mediate tissue injury directly, such as proteolytic enzymes and oxygen radical species, mononuclear phagocytes can secrete proteins involved in the activation and recruitment of inflammatory cells. One of the major inducible polypeptides secreted by mononuclear phagocytes is macrophage inflammatory protein 1 (MIP-1). Native MIP-1 is a protein with leukocyte chemotactic and stimulatory activity. MIP-1 consists of two highly homologous peptides, MIP-1 alpha and MIP-1 beta. We now characterize the expression of MIP-1 alpha from human peripheral blood monocytes (PBM) and identify the T-lymphocyte product interleukin-4 (IL-4) as an important regulator of MIP-1 alpha expression from PBM. In initial experiments, we demonstrated the production of MIP-1 alpha from lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-, interleukin-1 (IL-1)-, and phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-stimulated PBM. IL-4 inhibited the production of MIP-1 alpha from LPS-, IL-1-, and PHA-challenged PBM by 63, 81, and 88%, respectively. The suppressive effects of IL-4 were operative at the level of MIP-1 alpha mRNA, which was reduced in a dose-dependent fashion by IL-4. The suppression of MIP-1 alpha mRNA by IL-4 was observed within a narrow temporal window and was dependent upon the de novo synthesis of a protein intermediate. As determined by mRNA stability studies, IL-4 decreased steady-state levels of MIP-1 alpha mRNA, in part, by accelerating MIP-1 alpha mRNA decay.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Cells, Cultured↗

PubMed1993

The production of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist by human bronchogenic carcinoma.

Bronchogenic carcinoma displays an aggressive clinical course that may reflect a capacity to evade host defenses. We postulated that tumors may elaborate interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein (IRAP) to escape host interleukin-1-dependent responses. Homogenates of human bronchogenic lung tumors demonstrated significant increases of IRAP compared with normal lung tissue controls (n = 48). There was no significant difference in interleukin-1 beta levels between tumor and normal lung tissue. Immunohistochemical staining localized IRAP to tumor cells. Semiquantitative pathological analysis demonstrated a modest inflammatory cell infiltrate with qualitative differences between tumors of different histology. Western blot analysis of tumor homogenates demonstrated several molecular weight forms of IRAP. Finally, antigenic IRAP was detected in supernatants of the human bronchogenic carcinoma cell line (A549) maintained in vitro. These findings illustrate the capacity of bronchogenic tumors to produce and secrete IRAP that may be important in tumor evasion of host defenses.

Adenocarcinoma↗

PubMed1974