PubMed HealthSearch

Biomedical subjects

S C Jacobs

Publications and source records attributed to S C Jacobs.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Tocopherol analogs suppress arachidonic acid metabolism via phospholipase inhibition.

alpha-Tocopherol and three derivatives in which the phytol chain is modified or deleted were examined for their effect on cultured keratinocyte arachidonic acid metabolism. 2,2,5,7,8-Pentamethyl-6-hydroxychromane (PMC), in which the phytol chain is replaced by a methyl group, inhibited basal, bradykinin (BK)- and A23187-stimulated prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) synthesis with an apparent Ki of 1.3 microM. The Ki of the analogue with six carbon atoms in the side chain (C6) was 5 microM while that of the C11 analogue was 10 microM. No effect of alpha-tocopherol was observed. The mechanism of inhibition was studied using PMC. The effect of PMC on phospholipase and cyclooxygenase activity was assayed using stable isotope mass measurements of PGE2 formation, which assesses arachidonate release and cyclooxygenase metabolism simultaneously. BK-stimulated formation of PGE2, derived from endogenous phospholipid, was decreased 60% by 5 microM PMC and eliminated by 50 microM PMC, compared with controls. No difference in PGE2 formed from exogenous arachidonic acid was observed, indicating no effect of PMC on cyclooxygenase activity. In contrast, no effect of 5 microM PMC was observed on BK-stimulated [3H]arachidonic acid release from prelabeled cultures. The capacity of PMC to inhibit phospholipase activity in vitro was also assessed. PMC inhibited hydrolysis of phospholipid substrate by up to 60%. These results suggest that alpha-tocopherol analogues with alterations in the phytol chain inhibit eicosanoid synthesis by preferential inhibition of phospholipase.

Arachidonic Acids

Enhanced neurovirulence of tick-borne orbiviruses resulting from genetic modulation.

The genome of orbiviruses (Reoviridae family) comprises 10 segments of double-stranded RNA. The fourth largest segment of the tick-borne Kemerovo (KEM) group orbiviruses is the genetic determinant of neurovirulence in experimentally infected mice, and segment 6 determines serotype. Reassortant viruses derived from a cross between two KEM-related viruses, Great Island (GI) and Wexford (WEX), that had the heterotypic gene combination W4G6 (segment 4 of WEX virus and segment 6 from GI virus) were nonpathogenic in mice. This apparent genetic modulation of neurovirulence may have resulted from steric interaction between the two outer capsid proteins of nonpathogenic reassortants. Further data are consistent with this hypothesis. Reassortants generated from additional KEM group viruses showed various degrees of enhanced neurovirulence in terms of their PFU/LD50 (ratio of infectivity in cell culture and in mice) and ASTmax (the average survival time at the highest virus dilution resulting in 100% mortality). Some reassortants were more pathogenic than either of their parental viruses. The results indicate that the gene determining neurovirulence dictates ASTmax, and the PFU/LD50 is a measure of the interaction between the products of the gene determining neurovirulence and that determining serotype. The nonpathogenic phenotype of a low passage isolate (St. Abb's 84-34 virus), derived from a single tick, generated neurovirulent reassortants. This result indicates that genetic modulation of KEM group viruses may occur in nature.

Animals

Ureteral injury due to blunt and penetrating trauma.

In a period of twenty-seven months, 15 patients with ureteral trauma were encountered, leading us to believe that there is an increasing incidence of these injuries. The injuries were caused by blunt trauma in 3 patients and gunshot wounds in 12. All patients sustained injuries to other organs as well as the ureter. The diagnosis of ureteral injury was frequently delayed beyond the day of presentation (33%) primarily due to the number and severity of associated injuries. The most accurate methods of diagnosis were surgical exploration and retrograde pyelography. Intravenous pyelography and abdominal computerized tomography scanning were diagnostic in only 33 percent of cases. Hematuria was present in only 63 percent of patients who had no other genitourinary injuries, emphasizing the lack of reliability of this sign in ureteral trauma.

Adolescent

Late development of renal carcinoma in allograft kidney.

The Cincinnati Transplant Tumor Registry recorded 169 cases of renal carcinoma developing in transplant recipients. The great majority of these cases were of primary renal cell carcinoma developing in the recipient native kidneys. Renal carcinoma developing de novo in the renal allograft occurred 17 times, with a maximal interval to clinical development of 85 months after transplantation. The development of multicentric renal cell carcinoma in an allograft 156 months after transplantation is described. The 24-year-old white male recipient with Alport's syndrome received a cadaver renal allograft from a healthy 27-year-old black man who had died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1977. At 13 years after transplantation the recipient had upper abdominal pain. Ultrasound revealed 2 incidental renal masses and a renal cyst in the allograft. Partial nephrectomy confirmed the presence of multicentric renal carcinoma. The graft was left in situ and immunosuppression was maintained. The recipient continued to do well with no evidence of disease 1 year postoperatively. Deoxyribonucleic acid banding demonstrated that the tumor and recipient blood were of different patterns.

Adult

Toxic shock syndrome: a complication of continent urinary diversion.

Toxic shock syndrome, a potentially lethal multisystem illness that usually affects menstruating women, is characterized by the acute onset of fever, hypotension, skin and mucous membrane changes, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, myalgias, capillary leak, vascular collapse and multiorgan dysfunction. The disease is mediated by toxin produced by distinct strains of Staphylococcus aureus. We describe a case in which a toxin producing strain growing in a continent urinary diversion produced toxic shock syndrome.

Adolescent

High-level expression of the tick-borne encephalitis virus NS1 protein by using an adenovirus-based vector: protection elicited in a murine model.

Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) encodes an abundant, highly immunogenic nonstructural glycoprotein, NS1. The function of this protein has yet to be determined. We have cloned the NS1 gene from the Neudorfl strain of TBEV under the control of the powerful constitutive cytomegalovirus major immediate-early promoter into an adenovirus E1 deletion mutant. The novel combination of the cytomegalovirus immediate-early promoter and the adenovirus vector produced extremely high levels of NS1 expression in cells which do not support replication of the adenovirus deletion mutant. The recombinant protein was shown to be indistinguishable from authentic TBEV NS1 in its (i) apparent molecular weight by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, (ii) glycosylation pattern, (iii) ability to form high-molecular-weight complexes, and (iv) ability to be secreted from cells. Appropriate processing of NS1 expressed by the adenovirus recombinant occurred independently of any additional TBEV-encoded gene function. When directly inoculated into mice, the recombinant adenovirus RAd51 was shown to elicit an antibody response to the TBEV NS1 protein. Immunization with RAd51 conferred protection against challenge with TBEV.

Adenoviridae

Bradykinin-induced prostaglandin synthesis is enhanced in keratinocytes and fibroblasts by UV injury.

Ultraviolet (UV) light exposure substantially modifies the host immune response, in part through the synthesis of prostaglandins. Work examining the mechanisms by which UV irradiation stimulates prostaglandin synthesis has focused on mediators that increase in quantity after irradiation. The present work demonstrates that UV irradiation injury increases the sensitivity and maximum response of keratinocytes to bradykinin, suggesting that agonist quantities need not increase in injured tissue to contribute to inflammation. The ability of UV injury to increase bradykinin-stimulated prostaglandin synthesis is not limited to keratinocytes, as irradiation produced a similar response in fibroblasts. Receptor binding studies demonstrate that the enhanced response of irradiated cells is not due to increased bradykinin binding. These data suggest that UV irradiation may cause cells to increase their response to an array of inflammatory mediators present in injured tissue, whether or not the quantity of the mediator increases.

Bradykinin

Laparoscopic pelvic lymphadenectomy.

Eleven male patients with pelvic malignancy underwent laparoscopic lymphadenectomy for staging of their tumors. The technique allowed removal of pelvic lymph nodes in all 11 patients and metastatic disease was found in five cases, resulting in a change of recommended therapy. The technique was via a three-port exposure, although a fourth suprapubic port was occasionally used for additional retraction. A bladder laceration, which was repaired laparoscopically, was the only intraoperative complication. A pelvic hematoma was the only significant postoperative complication. Laparoscopic pelvic lymphadenectomy appears to offer a less morbid staging for those patients with a high likelihood of nodal metastasis. Laparoscopic detection of positive pelvic lymph nodes may alter the management of genitourinary malignancy and improve overall patient care.

Acid Phosphatase

Genetic determinants modulating the pathogenic phenotype of tick-borne orbiviruses.

Genetic studies have been carried out on orbiviruses in the Great Island (GI) antigenic subgroup of the Kemerovo serogroup (Orbivrus, Reoviridae) to elucidate the functions of the 10 genomic double-stranded RNA segments. Such studies have shown that segment 4 is the major genetic determinant of neurovirulence (P.A. Nuttall, S.R. Moss, L.D. Jones, and D. Carey, 1989, Virology 172, 428-434), whereas segment 5 of Wexford (WEX) virus and segment 6 of GI virus are the major determinants of serotype specificity (S.R. Moss, C.M. Ayres, and P.A. Nuttall, 1987, Virology 157, 137-144; S.R. Moss, C.M. Ayres, and P.A. Nuttall, 1988, J. Gen. Virol. 69, 2721-2727). In studies with reassortants isolated following dual infection of cell cultures with WEX and GI viruses, the gene combination W4G6 (i.e., viruses deriving segment 4 from WEX virus and segment 6 from GI virus) resulted in nonpathogenic reassortants. Unlike the parental viruses, the avirulent reassortants did not produce clinical evidence of infection in inoculated 2-day-old mice although, suprisingly, they replicated in the brains of the mice. The alternate heterotypic gene combination, G4W5, resulted in typical neurovirulent reassortants. The results indicate that segment 6 of GI virus is able to modulate the phenotypic expression of segment 4 of WEX virus, but not vice versa. Modulation probably results from interactions between the products of these two genomic segments, possibly at the level of virion structure.

Animals

Enhanced prostaglandin synthesis after ultraviolet injury is mediated by endogenous histamine stimulation. A mechanism for irradiation erythema.

Acute ultraviolet light B (UVB) injury is associated with dermal mast cell histamine release. The possibility that histamine-stimulated prostaglandin (PG) synthesis could be a mechanism for irradiation erythema was therefore examined using human skin explants. Explants responded to UV irradiation (120 mJ/cm2) with a fivefold increase in synthesis of prostaglandins E2, F2 alpha and 6-keto PGF1 alpha. Incubating explants with the H1 antihistamines brompheniramine (50 microM) or pyrilamine (30 microM) inhibited PG release from irradiated explants 63 +/- 4.9% (mean +/- SEM) 6 h after UV exposure. Antihistamines did not affect PG synthesis in control explants. Irradiation increased the histamine concentration in explant conditioned medium only 50% over basal values, suggesting that irradiation enhanced histamine responsiveness. Explants were therefore incubated with exogenous histamine. In irradiated explants, PG synthesis was stimulated threefold by 3 microM histamine. Unirradiated explants' PG synthesis was unaffected by histamine. Enhanced histamine sensitivity was also examined in epidermal cell cultures. In irradiated cultures, histamine sensitivity was again markedly potentiated: as little as 1 microM histamine stimulated significant PGE2 release and the response to 10-30 microM histamine was increased six to eight times compared with that of unirradiated cultures. These studies demonstrate that endogenous histamine stimulates PG synthesis in human skin after UV injury by potentiation of histamine-induced prostaglandin release. Potentiated agonist responses induced by UV exposure may contribute to the effects of UVB irradiation injury and in particular to irradiation erythema.

Animals

Amino-terminal sequence of a large form of basic fibroblast growth factor isolated from human benign prostatic hyperplastic tissue.

Homogenization of human benign prostatic hyperplastic tissue in high ionic strength alkaline buffer containing protease inhibitors resulted in the isolation of a 17,400 molecular weight growth factor. When tissue was homogenized in ammonium sulfate at pH 4.5 without protease inhibitors a smaller, 16,600 dalton, growth factor was isolated. Both growth factors reacted with antisera against synthetic peptides whose sequences corresponded to the amino-terminal (1-12), Internal (33-43) and carboxyl-terminal (135-145) portions of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). This suggested that the smaller growth factor was not a truncated form of (1-146) bFGF and that the larger growth factor may contain additional sequences. Amino-terminal sequencing showed the larger growth factor to have the sequence: Ala-Ala-Gly-Ser-Ile-Thr-Thr-Leu-Pro-Ala-Leu-Pro-Glu-Asp-Gly-Gly-Ser-Gly- Ala-Phe-Pro-. These results show that the larger growth factor is an 8 amino acid extended from of (1-146) bFGF and it is likely that the smaller growth factor is a proteolytic cleavage product of the larger growth factor produced during the extraction procedure.

Amino Acid Sequence

Examination of peripheral nerves with the scanning electron microscope.

The theoretical applications and advantages of the scanning microscope in peripheral nerve research are presented. The internal anatomy of the peripheral nerve can be distinctly examined, and long segments of axons can be examined without the necessity of tedious study of multiple sections. The SEM should make it possible to more readily study the migration of axon sprouts across a repair site. New concepts in teaching and research may develop from the use of this excellent tool.

Animals