Journal of Experimental Pathology最新文献

Whether infection with influenza B virus alters hepatic function was examined in the ferret. Also, the possibility that viral-specific antibodies (Ab) could be produced well before their detection in serum was explored. During the febrile period of influenza, reductions in the serum potassium, anion gap, ammonia, albumin and CPK and elevations of the BUN, creatinine and the GGTP levels occurred. With convalescence, the electrolytes, BUN and creatinine normalized, FFA, SGPT and CPK levels rose and the serum GGTP rose even further. Hepatic fatty acid (FA) oxidation, ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC) and carnitine palmitoyltransferase (CPT) activities were minimally altered and liver ATP and total lipid content remained normal. Following experimental secondary viremia, serum FFA continued to rise, TG decreased and CPK remained elevated while SGPT and GGTP levels normalized. In the liver, FA oxidation and OTC rates remained unchanged but CPT activity was inhibited and the liver content of ATP was significantly reduced. Immune complex (IC) protein recovered from postmicrosomal supernatant fractions by polyethylene glycol precipitation was progressively increased in livers from convalescent and viremic animals. While the amount of IC protein recovered in the spleen also increases during convalescence, this is not the case after viremia when the IC formed seem to be processed largely by the liver. By SDS/PAGE, the major proteins identified in the IC were IgM and other viral proteins. However, the viral proteins could not be validated by immunoblot with Ab produced against purified influenza B hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) most probably due to phagocytic alterations of glycoprotein immunodeterminants. These findings indicate that during influenza, convalescence and post viremia changes in the concentrations of several serum and liver components occur that reflect hepatic involvement. Also, antiviral Ab, largely IgM, appears to be produced early, complexes with Ag and can be found sequestered in both the liver and spleen at a time when Ab is not detectable in the serum.

N-acetyl D-galactosamine specific lectins were isolated from the seeds of Jack Fruit (Artocarpus integrifolia) and Winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) and D-galactose specific lectin was isolated from peanut (Arachis hypogaea). These lectins were conjugated to Horse Radish Peroxidase (HRP) and were used to study the lectin binding properties of benign and malignant lesions of the thyroid. For comparison of the results 10 normal fresh autopsy specimens were included in the study. The Peanut lectin (PNL) and Jack fruit lectin (JFL) conjugates showed positive binding with the cells in different lesions, while Winged Bean Lectin (WBL), despite its having a common inhibitory sugar, showed no binding even after neuraminidase treatment. These lectins revealed difference in the composition of glycoconjugates of benign and malignant thyroid cells. The HRP conjugated JFL and PNL may be of use in distinguishing carcinomatous tissues from benign tissues which makes them potential tools in the differential diagnosis of thyroid lesions.

Lectin binding to tumor cells in tissue sections of nonmetastatic and metastatic murine Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) was assessed by light and electron microscopy using a lectin-gold technique. Ulex europaeus agglutinin-I (UEA-I) and peanut agglutinin (PNA) showed no binding, whereas concanavalin A (Con A), soybean agglutinin (SBA), Dolichos biflorus agglutinin (DBA), Maclura pomifera agglutinin (MPA), and Ricinus communis agglutinin-I (RCA-I) bound equally to the transplanted sites and metastases. However, wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) bound to metastases more highly than to the transplanted sites and there was a statistically significant difference (P less than 0.01) between the transplanted sites and metastases with regard to pre-embedding method. The tumor cells binding to WGA clearly decreased in number after sialic acid pretreatment and were rich in more well-differentiated organelle. In the bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) labeling in vivo, cell proliferation was greater in the metastatic sites than in the transplanted sites. The above findings suggest that glycoconjugates on the tumor cell surface are altered in the process of metastasis and correlate with metastatic potential and cell proliferation.

In our previous study, we reported that monocyte-activation inhibitory factor was produced by stimulated fibroblasts. We also previously found that glycyrrhizin (GL) had an ability to affect fibroblasts because the proliferation of human fibroblasts was increased by GL. In this study, we demonstrated that culture supernatants from the GL-stimulated fibroblasts inhibited the activation of normal human peripheral monocytes in vitro. Then, studies were performed to know whether GL affects fibroblasts to suppress the granuloma formation. Pulmonary granulomas were induced in guinea pigs by Sephadex beads. The formation of granulomas was significantly suppressed by intraperitoneal injections of GL. Thus, GL was shown to have antigranulomatous effects in vivo.

The effects of the vagus and its action on the mucosal mast cells (MMC) of the secretory portion of the rat stomach are analyzed by observing the consequences caused by subdiaphragmatic truncal vagotomy on the MMC in terms of cell count and degranulation over a period of four months. Observations showed a gradual decrease in the number of mast cells/mm2, an increase in the percentage of MMC in a state of degranulation, but the same number of degranulated cells/mm2. This suggests that the vagus controls both numerically and functionally the MMC population in the secretory portion of the rat stomach.

Our data showed that the regenerative capacity of skeletal muscle in newborn guinea pigs was less than in adults. In newborn guinea pigs the active regeneration of muscle tissue was only observed during the 1st week after mincing of gastrocnemius muscle. The 14-day grafts were characterized by having smaller muscle fibers and greater amounts of interstitial connective tissue. Furthermore, the active growth of connective tissue was more pronounced. The grafts did not recover contractility. In 60 day grafts the ectopic formation of 2-3 bone-cartilage nodules was observed. In adult guinea pig grafts the quantity of muscle tissue was twice as great as in newborns. Muscle tissue was formed throughout the graft, but no bone-cartilage nodules were present. All 60 day grafts contracted when the tibial nerve was stimulated, but this contractility was very weak. However, the reestablishment of neuromuscular junctions had occurred. The age characteristics of skeletal muscle regeneration were the same both in the term guinea pig and in the rat.

The neurotoxic cancer chemotherapeutic agent cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (II) (cis-platin) was tested in a model system of cultured embryonic chick dorsal root ganglion cells, in order to investigate cellular mechanisms of toxicity. At 7.5 ug/ml, the drug caused mild toxicity. At doses of 75 ug/ml, cis-platin was toxic to cultures in 6 hours, in both neuronal and non-neuronal cell populations. After 24 hours of incubation with 75 ug/ml cis-platin, there was extensive cell death. The trans isomer of the drug, trans-platin, was less toxic than cis-platin at similar doses, causing less severe damage to the cells as well as less cell death. With both drugs, abnormalities in patterns of nuclear staining were prominent, whereas neuronal cell membrane staining patterns were less affected. Both drugs seemed to affect non-neuronal cells to a greater extent than neurons. Ultrastructural findings with both drugs included nucleolar segregation; mitochondrial changes were nonspecific. In this in vitro system, both cis- and trans-platin are toxic. The toxicity appears to predominantly affect the nucleus, and to preferentially involve non-neuronal cells.

Paraffin sections of biopsies from histopathologically confirmed cases of uterine cervical carcinoma, cervical scrapings from dysplasia, chronic cervicitis, tumour cells from carcinoma of the oral cavity and normal tissues from healthy normal cervix and oral cavity scrapings were examined for the presence of Human papilloma virus antigens. The techniques adopted were the Indirect Immunofluorescence Stainig and the Peroxide-Anti-Peroxidase techniques. The HPV-antigen was present in 38 percent and 41 percent of invasive carcinoma cervix, by PAP and IIF methods respectively. In cervical dysplasia 8-13% revealed HPV antigen while oral carcinoma cells and normal tissue samples were totally negative.

Human serum injected intravenously into rats caused multiple foci of acute enteritis. The enteritis had a predilection for the antimesenteric side of the intestine and for the zones between circumferential vessels. Despite their antimesenteric location, Peyer's patches tended to be spared. The details of distribution suggest that a gradient related to intestinal blood flow plays a role in development of the enteritis.

Biopsy samples from one hundred and two patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the uterine cervix and tissues from twelve healthy normal cervical tissues (post hysterectomy) were examined for HSV-type 2 and HPV-11 DNA sequences by molecular hybridization technique. In the carcinoma tissue extracts 53% contained HSV-2 DNA, 27% -HSV-1-DNA and 36% showed HPV-11 gene sequences while 5.7% were found to contain both HPV and HSV-2 DNA. Biopsies from healthy cervix were completely negative for HSV-2 and HPV-11 DNA sequences.