The site of formation of C-reactive protein (CxRP, CRP) has been studied with tissues from rabbits, monkeys, and human beings. Rabbits and monkeys were stimulated to produce the acute phase protein by injection of turpentine, croton oil, endotoxin, paratyphoid-typhoid vaccine, or pneumococci. C(14)-amino acid incorporation in vitro was demonstrated by means of autoradiography of immunoelectrophoretic patterns made with culture fluids. It was found that among many different tissues tested liver was the only tissue which incorporated C(14)-lysine and isoleucine into CxRP or CRP. Only livers taken 16 to 24 hr after various stimuli were active; livers from normal animals or from animals killed 3 to 9 hr after stimulation did not produce detectable amounts of CxRP. Inflamed muscle from the injection site did not show C(14)-amino acid incorporation into CxRP. Several human tissues were also cultured, and a few liver cultures found to contain labeled CRP. The formation of CxRP or CRP by the liver was always accompanied by enhanced C(14)-amino acid incorporation into other serum proteins, but the reverse was not always found.

Amino Acids↗

PubMedDate not supplied

When engineered to produce latent TGF-beta1, antigen specific T cells down regulate Th1 cell-mediated autoimmune and Th2 cell-mediated allergic inflammatory processes.

To determine whether T cells which produce large amounts of latent TGF-beta1 are capable of down-regulating autoimmune and allergic disease, myelin basic protein (MBP)-specific and ovalbumin (OVA)-specific BALB/c cloned Th1 cells were transduced with cDNA for murine TGF-beta1 by coculture with fibroblasts producing a genetically engineered retrovirus. The transduced MBP-specific Th1 cells were found to lose the capacity to provoke EAE in BALB/c mice, and to gain instead the ability to protect against EAE in (SJLxBALB/c) F1 mice immunized with proteolipid protein (PLP). This protective effect was not obtained with OVA-specific TGF-beta1 transduced Th1 cells. The transduced OVA-specific Th1 cells did protect against airway hyperreactivity induced by Th2-cell mediated responses to inhaled OVA. This effect was again antigen specific and it also could not be obtained with untransduced OVA-specific Th1 cells. In both cases these effects of antigen specific TGF-beta1 transduced T cells were nullified by administration of neutralizing anti-TGF-beta mAb. Thus, the antigen specificity of the cloned T cells allows the site-specific local delivery of therapeutic active TGF-beta1 to both Th1 and Th2 cell-mediated inflammatory infiltrates.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Positive contrast ventriculography in cats with experimental obstructive hydrocephalus.

Cerebrospinal fluid pathways were studied in both normal and experimental obstructed hydrocephalic cats by positive contrast ventriculography. Either water soluble or insoluble contrast material was injected into the lateral cerebral ventricles, and radiographs were taken of the head and spinal cord. In the normal cat, the contrast material freely flowed throughout the spinal fluid spaces. The contrast material accumulated in the cisterna magna, and from there extended into the cranial and spinal subarachnoid spaces. In the kaolin-induced hydrocephalic cat, the outlets from the fourth ventricle were obstructed, and direct communication between the ventricular system and the subarachnoid spaces no longer existed. In these cats, the contrast material passed directly down the central canal of spinal cord and its movement was followed throughout the entire length of the canal. At the lower lumbar-sacral regions, the material perforated the cord and flowed into the subarachnoid space. At all levels, the central canal was enlarged and local dilatations were seen extending dorsally.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Preparation and analysis of 4-lodoantipyrine-(I-131).

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Antipyrine↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Primary and secondary wattle swelling response to phytohemagglutinin as a measure of immunocompetence in chickens.

Wattle responses of 2-to-8-week-old chickens to phytohemagglutinins PHA-P and PHA-M were studied. Dilutions of PHA-M that did not induce wattle swelling after one injection did cause readily detectable swelling when injected a second time 1 week later. These responses were absent in birds subjected to thymectomy and gamma-irradiation at hatching and in birds treated with cyclosporin A during the week of sensitization, indicating that these responses are T-cell-dependent. Chickens bearing transplantable fibrosarcomas failed to show responses. It is suggested that reactivity to a second injection of PHA-M may be used as a measure of immunocompetence at the T-cell level in very young chickens.

Animals↗