Biomedical subjects

Haiming Wei

Publications and source records attributed to Haiming Wei.

41 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

PubMed2002

Impaired natural killer (NK) cell activity in leptin receptor deficient mice: leptin as a critical regulator in NK cell development and activation.

Leptin is an adipocyte-secreted hormone that centrally regulates weight control via targeting the leptin receptor in the central nervous system. Recently, the leptin receptor has also been detected in peripheral systems including immune tissues, suggesting that leptin may play an important role in the regulation of immune function. It has been shown that leptin modulates functions of T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, and monocytes/macrophage. However, the effect of leptin on NK cells remains unknown. In the present paper, we observed that percentage of NK cells and total amount of NK cells in the liver, spleen, lung, and peripheral blood were declined in leptin receptor deficient mice (db/db B6 mice), indicating that NK cell development was vigorously influenced by leptin receptor deficiency. Both basal and poly I:C-stimulated NK cell activation (CD69 surface marker expression) were retarded in db/db mice. In addition, leptin treatment increased the basal or synergistically enhanced IL-15- and poly I:C-induced specific lysis of splenocytes in normal littermates but not in db/db mice. Taken together, these findings suggest that leptin plays an important role in NK cell development and activation.

Animals↗

PubMed2002

[Expression of transcription factor T-bet/GATA3 in lung cancer patients and its interference by the traditional Chinese herbal medicine].

OBJECTIVE: To study the relation between the expression of transcription factor T-bet/GATA3 and Th1/Th2 type cytokines in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from lung cancer patients and their interference by the traditional Chinese herbal medicine. METHODS: The gene expression of Th1/Th2 type cytokine IFN gamma, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, transcription factor T-bet/GATA3 and tumor tissue specific mRNA CEA, CK19 in PBMC from lung cancer patients were detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction RT-PCR. Meanwhile, the change of IFN gamma, IL-4, T-bet and GATA3 in PBMC before and after being cultured with the traditional Chinese herbal medicine-Astragulus and Tetramethylpyrazine was also observed. RESULTS: Predominant expression of Th2 type cytokines was detected in 42 lung cancer patients. The positive rates of IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IFN gamma and IL-2 were 27/42, 24/42, 31/42, 4/42 and 5/42, respectively. But, the positive rates of transcription factor T-bet and GATA3 were 16/42 and 34/42. Moreover, the expression intensity of T-bet was lower in the CEA and CK19 positive patients than the negative ones. On the contrary, the expression intensity of GATA3 was significantly higher in the same patients. CONCLUSION: Predominant expression of Th2 type cytokines may be related to lower expression of T-bet or higher expression of GATA3. This condition can be interfered by the traditional Chinese herbal medicine-Astragulus and Tetramethylpyrazine.

Cytokines↗

PubMed2002

[Expression of transforming growth factor-betal (TGF-beta1) and its role in human laryngeal and hypopharyngeal carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To detect the mRNA expression of transforming growth factor-betal (TGF-beta1) in laryngeal and hypopharyngeal carcinoma, and to explore the pathogenesis of the two types neoplasms. METHOD: We examined the expression of TGF-beta1 mRNA in the tissue of human laryngeal and hypopharyngeal carcinoma from patients. The TGF-beta1 mRNA expression was determined by semi-quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). RESULT: The TGF-beta1 mRNA expression was significantly stronger in 17 cases of 20 laryngeal and hypopharyngeal carcinoma. CONCLUSION: The result suggested that the expression level of TGF-beta1 in laryngeal and hypopharyngeal carcinoma may inhibit the human immunity and enhance the growth and metastasis of the laryngeal and hypopharyngeal carcinoma.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Recombinant human prolactin improves antitumor effects of murine natural killer cells in vitro and in vivo.

OBJECTIVE: To verify the effect of prolactin on natural killer (NK) cells in vivo and its implications for NK cell immunotherapy. METHODS: Recombinant human prolactin (rhPRL; 30 microg, i.p.) was administered to BALB/c mice and severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice 1 day before harvesting splenocytes for (51)Cr release assay to examine the effects of rhPRL on NK cells of normal mice. rhPRL (10 microg, i.p., every other day for a total of 5 injections) was administered to BALB/c mice after syngeneic bone marrow transplantation (SBMT) to determine its effects on NK cell reconstitution. CT26 tumor cells were injected into BALB/c mice intravenously on day 0, and interleukin (IL)-15-cocultured activated syngeneic NK cells (IL-15-NK) from SCID mice were intravenously injected into tumor-bearing BALB/c mice on day 1. The improvement of antimetastasis effects and survival of tumor-bearing mice by rhPRL were checked. RESULTS: BALB/c and SCID mice receiving one rhPRL injection exhibited a significant increase in cellular cytotoxicity against YAC-1 target tumor cells; the specific lysis was enhanced from 12.5 to 17.3% in BALB/c mice and from 27.8 to 51.2% in SCID mice. BALB/c mice continuously receiving rhPRL injections exhibited significant increases in NK cell (DX5-positive) contents and cellularity in both the bone marrow and spleen in the SBMT model. The bone marrow NK cell contents were improved from 1.53 to 3.13% after rhPRL injection. NK cells from SCID mice were then cultured with recombinant human IL-15 (rhIL-15; 6000 IU/ml), rhPRL (10 ng/ml) or rhIL-15 plus rhPRL for 25 days. The cytotoxicity and cellularity were enhanced by rhPRL when tested on day 10, when comparing the rhIL-15 plus rhPRL group with the rhIL-15 group or rhPRL group, respectively. In the adoptive cellular immunotherapy study, the IL-15-NK plus IL-15 plus rhPRL group showed significantly lower numbers of lung metastases and longer survival than the IL-15-NK plus IL-15 group; the mean survival interval was prolonged from 31.5 to 53.7 days. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that rhPRL is possibly an important regulator of NK cells and a potential biologic product for immunotherapy.

Animals↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Traditional Chinese medicine Astragalus reverses predominance of Th2 cytokines and their up-stream transcript factors in lung cancer patients.

Th2 cytokine is predominant in tumor patients and was found to be associated with tumor progression. Reversing of Th2 dominant status is thought to be a promising strategy. In the present study, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNC) of 37 lung cancer patients and 19 healthy subjects were prepared and used for examination of cytokine secretion and gene expression. The positive percentage of mRNA transcripts of Th1 cytokines (8.1% for IFNgamma and 13.5% for IL-2) in patients' PBMNC were lower than those of Th2 cytokines (70.3% for IL-4, 64.9% for IL-6 and 83.8% for IL-10). The gene expression capacity (measured as relative intensity to ratio of beta-actin) of patients for Th1 cytokines was low, but constitutively relatively high for Th2 cytokines. Both positive percentage and relative intensity were lower in transcript factor for Th1 cytokine, T-bet (40.5% and 0.139, respectively) than those for Th2 cytokine, GATA3 (89.2% and 0.364, respectively). Traditional Chinese medicine, Astragalus (AG) was observed to reverse Th2 status of lung cancer. AG enhanced culture supernatant and gene expression levels of Th1 cytokine (IFNgamma and IL-2) and its transcript factor (T-bet), and reduced those of Th2 cytokines in cultured PBMNC of lung cancer patients. These results demonstrated that traditional Chinese medicine AG might reverse the Th2 predominant status in lung cancer patients, which is a probable alternative therapeutic regime in future.

Adult↗