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Biomedical subjects

W Farrar

Publications and source records attributed to W Farrar.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2003

The effect of an iron chelating agent on protoporphyrin IX levels and phototoxicity in topical 5-aminolaevulinic acid photodynamic therapy.

BACKGROUND: In 5-aminolaevulinic acid (ALA)-photodynamic therapy (PDT), the prodrug ALA is endogenously converted to the active sensitizer protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), while further conversion of PpIX to haem requires iron. OBJECTIVES: To explore the potential of the iron chelator desferrioxamine (DFO) to enhance PpIX levels and phototoxicity in ALA-PDT. METHODS: A series of six doses of 2% ALA solution was iontophoresed into the healthy skin of each ventral forearm of 10 volunteers. One arm was pretreated with 20% DFO in aqueous cream, while the control arm received aqueous cream alone, for 16 h. At 5 h following iontophoresis, skin-surface PpIX fluorescence was measured, following which the forearms were simultaneously irradiated with 100 J cm-2 broadband red light. The phototoxic reaction was assessed at 24 h postirradiation as the minimal phototoxic dose (MPD) and with quantification of erythema. Next, eight patients with two superficial basal cell carcinomas or two plaques of Bowen's disease of similar appearance received 20% ALA topically to one lesion and 20% ALA with 20% DFO to the other, for 3 h. Skin-surface PpIX fluorescence was measured at 5 h, following which lesions were irradiated with 100 J cm-2 broadband red light. RESULTS: In healthy skin, PpIX fluorescence increased with increasing ALA dose at DFO-treated and untreated sites (P < 0.0005); PpIX fluorescence peak values were consistently higher in DFO-treated compared with control sites (P < 0.02). Erythema also correlated with ALA dose (P < 0.0005), but a significant difference between active and control sites occurred only at low ALA dose (P < 0.05). The median MPD appeared lower at the DFO-treated sites, at 6 mC vs. 12 mC (P = 0.06). In contrast, in lesional skin there was no consistent difference in PpIX fluorescence levels between those treated with and without DFO. CONCLUSIONS: While iron chelation augmented ALA-PDT phototoxicity in normal skin, this occurred only at low ALA dose. Addition of DFO does not appear to confer additional benefit in ALA-PDT of nonmelanoma skin cancers.

Administration, Cutaneous↗
PubMed2001

CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein beta mediates interferon-gamma-induced p48 (ISGF3-gamma ) gene transcription in human monocytic cells.

Previous studies have identified a novel interferon-stimulated response element-like element, termed gamma-interferon-activating transcription element, within the interferon-stimulating gene factor-3gamma (p48) promoter region that is bound by novel transcription factors in response to stimulation with interferons (IFNs) (Weihua, X., Kolla, V., and Kalvakolanu, D. V. (1997) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 94, 103-108). In the present study, we have identified CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein beta (C/EBP-beta) as one of the gamma-interferon-activating transcription element cognate transcription factors by screening a human monophage-derived cDNA library in a yeast one-hybrid system. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay studies suggest that C/EBP-beta dynamically regulates p48 gene expression upon IFN-gamma stimulation by undergoing changes in its heterodimerization partners. Transient transfection studies demonstrate that overexpression of C/EBP-beta strongly enhanced IFN-gamma-induced transcription from the p48 promoter. However, deletion mutants of C/EBP-beta that lack the N-terminal transactivation domain were unable to stimulate the p48 promoter. Western blotting revealed that C/EBP-beta is induced by IFN-gamma stimulation in THP-1-derived macrophages. Collectively, these results suggest that C/EBP-beta plays an important role in the human IFN-gamma signaling pathway by transcriptional regulation of p48 gene expression, an essential component in the IFN signaling pathway.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed2000

Breast cancer surgery: comparing surgical groups and determining individual differences in postoperative sexuality and body change stress.

Women diagnosed and surgically treated for regional breast cancer (N = 190) were studied to determine the sexual and body change sequelae for women receiving modified radical mastectomy (MRM) with breast reconstruction in comparison with the sequelae for women receiving breast-conserving therapy (BCT) or MRM without breast reconstruction. The sexuality pattern for women receiving reconstructive surgery was one that was significantly different--with lower rates of activity and fewer signs of sexual responsiveness--than that for women in either of the other groups. Significantly higher levels of traumatic stress and situational distress regarding the breast changes were reported by the women receiving an MRM in contrast to the women treated with BCT. Using a model to predict sexual morbidity, regression analyses revealed that individual differences in sexual self-schema were related to both sexual and body change stress outcomes.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Five versus more than five years of tamoxifen therapy for breast cancer patients with negative lymph nodes and estrogen receptor-positive tumors.

BACKGROUND: In 1982, the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project initiated a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial (B-14) to determine the effectiveness of adjuvant tamoxifen therapy in patients with primary operable breast cancer who had estrogen receptor-positive tumors and no axillary lymph node involvement. The findings indicated that tamoxifen therapy provided substantial benefit to patients with early stage disease. However, questions arose about how long the observed benefit would persist, about the duration of therapy necessary to maintain maximum benefit, and about the nature and severity of adverse effects from prolonged treatment. PURPOSE: We evaluated the outcome of patients in the B-14 trial through 10 years of follow-up. In addition, the effects of 5 years versus more than 5 years of tamoxifen therapy were compared. METHODS: In the trial, patients were initially assigned to receive either tamoxifen at 20 mg/day (n = 1404) or placebo (n = 1414). Tamoxifen-treated patients who remained disease free after 5 years of therapy were then reassigned to receive either another 5 years of tamoxifen (n = 322) or 5 years of placebo (n = 321). After the study began, another group of patients who met the same protocol eligibility requirements as the randomly assigned patients were registered to receive tamoxifen (n = 1211). Registered patients who were disease free after 5 years of treatment were also randomly assigned to another 5 years of tamoxifen (n = 261) or to 5 years of placebo (n = 249). To compare 5 years with more than 5 years of tamoxifen therapy, data relating to all patients reassigned to an additional 5 years of the drug were combined. Patients who were not reassigned to either tamoxifen or placebo continued to be followed in the study. Survival, disease-free survival, and distant disease-free survival (relating to failure at distant sites) were estimated by use of the Kaplan-Meier method; differences between the treatment groups were assessed by use of the logrank test. The relative risks of failure (with 95% confidence intervals [CIs]) were determined by use of the Cox proportional hazards model. Reported P values are two-sided. RESULTS: Through 10 years of follow-up, a significant advantage in disease-free survival (69% versus 57%, P < .0001; relative risk = 0.66; 95% CI = 0.58-0.74), distant disease-free survival (76% versus 67%, P < .0001; relative risk = 0.70; 95% CI = 0.61-0.81), and survival (80% versus 76%, P = .02; relative risk = 0.84; 95% CI = 0.71-0.99) was found for patients in the group first assigned to receive tamoxifen. The survival benefit extended to those 49 years of age or younger and to those 50 years of age or older. Tamoxifen therapy was associated with a 37% reduction in the incidence of contralateral (opposite) breast cancer (P = .007). Through 4 years after the reassignment of tamoxifen-treated patients to either continued-therapy or placebo groups, advantages in disease-free survival (92% versus 86%, P = .003) and distant disease-free survival (96% versus 90%, P = .01) were found for those who discontinued tamoxifen treatment. Survival was 96% for those who discontinued tamoxifen compared with 94% for those who continued tamoxifen treatment (P = .08). A higher incidence of thromboembolic events was seen in tamoxifen-treated patients (through 5 years, 1.7% versus 0.4%). Except for endometrial cancer, the incidence of second cancers was not increased with tamoxifen therapy. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The benefit from 5 years of tamoxifen therapy persists through 10 years of follow-up. No additional advantage is obtained from continuing tamoxifen therapy for more than 5 years.

Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal↗
PubMed1994

Hck expression correlates with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor-induced proliferation in HL-60 cells.

The human myeloid cell line HL-60 expresses approximately 300 high-affinity granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptors (GM-CSFRs), yet treatment of these cells with GM-CSF does not result in enhanced cellular proliferation or increases in protein tyrosine phosphorylation. In contrast, GM-CSF induces rapid increases in protein tyrosine phosphorylation and proliferative responses in HL-60 cells pretreated for 3 days in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Similarly, HL-60 cells pretreated with retinoic acid or 1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 were also capable of responding to GM-CSF. Interestingly, each of these treatments resulted in increased expression of the src-like tyrosine kinase hck. Stimulation with GM-CSF increased hck autophosphorylation in DMSO-treated HL-60 cells, suggesting that hck is a component of the GM-CSF signal transduction pathway. To determine if hck has a role in the DMSO-induced recoupling of the GM-CSFR, we overexpressed hck in HL-60 cells. The resulting cell line (HL-60/hck) expresses hck mRNA and protein at levels comparable with DMSO-treated HL-60 cells. Stimulation of HL-60/hck cells with GM-CSF results in activation of hck, increases in protein tyrosine phosphorylation, and increased proliferation. These results show that cytokine receptors can exist in an uncoupled form and suggest that in HL-60 cells, appropriate levels of the src-like tyrosine kinase hck are critical for functional coupling of the GM-CSFR to biologic responses.

Cell Division↗
PubMed1989

Monokine regulation of human immunodeficiency virus-1 expression in a chronically infected human T cell clone.

A T cell clone (ACH-2) derived from T cells infected with HIV-1 was found to produce HIV-1 in response to stimulation with a monokine-enriched supernatant prepared by culturing human monocyte/macrophages with bacterial LPS (LPS-MO SN). Monokine induction of ACH-2 cells resulted in augmented virus production reflected by an increase in reverse transcriptase activity and in the synthesis of all major viral proteins. Examination of the cells by indirect immunofluorescence revealed that 10 to 15% of uninduced cells constitutively expressed HIV proteins, whereas 100% showed positive immunofluorescence in response to LPS-MO SN. This induction of virus by LPS-MO SN resulted in approximately a 100-fold increase of infectious virus production over uninduced ACH-2 cells. LPS alone could not induce HIV-1 expression, whereas LPS-MO SN resulted in the greatest virus expression. Cell separation studies confirmed the source of the inducing factor(s) to be cells bearing the mature monocyte/macrophage marker, Leu M3. Biochemical fractionation of the LPS-MO SN suggested that one or more factors, having apparent Mr of approximately 45 kDa, were involved in this induction. Absorption of the LPS-MO SN with immunoaffinity gels specific for human TNF-alpha was shown to completely remove the HIV inducing activity for the ACH-2 cell line.

Biological Factors↗
PubMed1988

Regulation of human natural cytotoxicity by IgG. II. Cyclic AMP as a mediator of monomeric IgG-induced inhibition of natural killer cell activity.

In this study we investigated the mechanism of inhibition of NK activity by monomeric IgG (mIgG) and the enhancement of inhibition induced by 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IBMX) or theophylline (TP) as inhibitors of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase, or by prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) as an activator of adenyl cyclase. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMN) and nonadherent lymphocytes (NAL) were treated with various concentrations of mIgG, IBMX, TP, PGE2, either alone, or in combination. The treatments were done before and/or during the cytotoxicity assay against 51chromium-labeled K562 target cells. Combined pretreatment with mIgG and treatment during the assay with IBMX or TP induced much more inhibition than that induced by either treatment alone. At some concentrations of each agent, additive inhibition was observed, whereas at other concentrations, synergistic effects were seen. With the combination of PGE2 and mIgG, an additive inhibitory effect could be seen only at very low concentrations of PGE2, due to its strong inhibitory potency. Although endogenous PGE2 released during preincubation at 37 degrees C by adherent PBMN led to some reduction of NK activity, experiments with indomethacin indicated that mIgG-induced inhibition of spontaneous cytotoxicity was not dependent on its presence. The intracellular levels of cyclic AMP in highly purified NK cells were increased after pretreatment with mIgG and even higher levels were measured when IBMX was also added to the effector cells. Taken together, our data provide evidence that mIgG-induced inhibition of NK cells is mediated at least partially by cyclic AMP.

1-Methyl-3-isobutylxanthine↗
PubMed1986

1,25-Dihydroxycholecalciferol-induced differentiation of myelomonocytic leukemic cells unresponsive to colony stimulating factors and phorbol esters.

The murine myelomonocytic leukemia cell line WEHI-3B D+, which differentiates in response to granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), can also be induced to differentiate into monocyte-macrophages by phorbol myristate acetate (PMA) treatment, whereas the WEHI-3B D- subline, which is unresponsive to G-CSF and PMA, can be induced to differentiate to granulocytes as well as monocytes by 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol [1,25-(OH)2 D3], the biologically active metabolite of vitamin D3. A newly developed variant of the WEHI-3B D+ line, named WEHI-3B D+ G, which was responsive to G-CSF but not to PMA, was also differentiated to granulocytes by 1,25-(OH)2 D3. Although vitamin D3 has been reported to induce macrophage differentiation in responsive tumor cells, this is the first demonstration that 1,25-(OH)2 D3 can induce granulocyte differentiation. In both differentiation pathways, cessation of cellular proliferation accompanies changes in morphologic and cytochemical properties of the cells. This suggests that leukemic cell lines unresponsive to differentiation agents acting at the cell surface retain their ability to differentiate in response to agents that do not act via the plasma membrane such as 1,25-(OH)2 D3, which has cytosolic/nuclear receptors. Vitamin D3 could act through different cellular pathways inducing differentiation or by bypassing only the first step of a common differentiation cascade used by agents with cell surface receptors such as CSF. These results suggest that low doses of 1,25-(OH)2 D3 may be useful in combination with hemopoietic growth factors (CSFs) as therapeutic agent to induce leukemic cell differentiation in vivo.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

A simple method for identifying and testing the recurrent laryngeal nerve.

Simultaneous stimulation of the recurrent laryngeal nerve and palpation of an impulse in the homolateral cricothyroid area was performed upon 20 patients. Electrical stimulation of the recurrent laryngeal nerve with currents of 2 milliamperes caused no postoperative deficits in any of the patients studied. This is a simple and reproducible method to help identify the RLN and to confirm that the recurrent nerve is intact and viable at the completion of a surgical procedure. The technique is simpler than checking cord motion at the conclusion of surgical procedures upon the thyroid or parathyroid glands. Due to the variability of the response in some of the patients, we believe that the procedure should be tried on more patients before it is recommended as a conclusive test.

Electric Stimulation↗
PubMed1984

Effects of natural and recombinant IL 2 on regulation of IFN gamma production and natural killer activity: lack of involvement of the Tac antigen for these immunoregulatory effects.

Highly enriched populations of human large granular lymphocytes (LGL), natural killer (NK) cells, and T cells were obtained from low and high density fractions, respectively, of discontinuous Percoll gradients. The NK cells were composed of 75 to 90% LGL, with the majority of the contaminating cells being monocytes. The T cells were greater than 95% OKT3+. The proliferative and cytotoxic progenitors in both fractions were examined by using a limiting dilution assay with interleukin 2 (IL 2) from four sources: 1) crude supernatant of a gibbon lymphoma (MLA-144), 2) purified (150,000-fold) MLA-144 IL 2, 3) partially purified human IL 2, and 4) purified recombinant human IL 2. The proliferative capacity was measured at day 7 by [3H]thymidine incorporation, whereas the progenitors of cells with NK-like activity were evaluated by assessing cytotoxic activity against K562 cells at day 8 in a 4-hr 51Cr-release assay. The frequency of proliferative progenitors among T cells was approximately 1/5 and was approximately 1/60 with LGL. Titration of the highly purified IL 2 preparation demonstrated that LGL proliferated with as little as 2 U of IL 2. The frequency of detectable cytotoxic progenitors in the LGL population, however, fell sharply when less than 40 U of IL 2 were employed. The T cells failed to demonstrate cytotoxic activity against the NK-susceptible target cells at any concentration of IL 2 tested. The IL 2 preparations also were examined for their ability to directly and rapidly enhance the cytotoxic activity of highly purified NK cells. All four preparations of IL 2 enhanced the cytotoxic activity of LGL without any detectable accessory requirement after incubation for as little as 6 hr, even though the MLA-144 IL 2 preparations were devoid of detectable interferons (IFN). These data indicate that IL 2 has dual effects on NK cells, regulating their activity was well as promoting their proliferation. Collectively, these results demonstrate that highly purified IL 2, devoid of other detectable lymphokines, is capable of supporting the growth of human NK cells and augmenting their in vitro activity. In parallel experiments, these same IL 2 preparations were quite active in causing the proliferation of T lymphocytes, clearly demonstrating a role of IL 2 in promoting the proliferation of NK cells as well as T cells. The mechanism of IL 2 boosting appears to be a direct interaction with LGL, resulting in the production of IFN gamma.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Adult↗