Search

We measured KL-6 concentrations in serum samples from measles patients with various forms of pneumonia and abnormally elevated levels of KL-6 were found exclusively in four fatal cases of pulmonary insufficiency.

NONOYAMA, S., NAKAYAMA, M., ABE, J., KOHSAKA, T., KOBAYASHI, N. and YATA, J. Characterization of Human Thymic Lymphocytes Forming Rosettes with Stromal Cells. Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 1992, 168 (3), 467-474 - The interaction of thymic lymphocytes and stromal cells is believed to be important for T cell development in thymus. In this study, thymic rosettes (TR), which are cell-cell complexes of thymic lymphocytes and stromal cells, were isolated from human thymic tissue, and were characterized. Treating human thymus with collagenase in mild condition, human TR were successfully isolated. Subsequently, TR were purified by the 1G sedimentation method. Human TR consisted of a stromal cell in center surrounded by lymphocytes. The stromal cells were positive for CD14, CD11b, and HLA-DR but negative for thymic epithelial cell specific mAb, UH-1, suggesting that they are macrophage/dendritic cells. The lymphocytes which formed TR (TRL) were mainly double positive (CD4+CD8+) and CD1+ cells, and few of them expressed bright CD3, indicating that TRL are in the intermediate maturation stage. TRL expressed activation markers (Ta1 and HLA-DR) in a significantly higher percentage of cells than did unselected thymocytes. Blocking test revealed that CD11a and CD2 are involved in the binding of TRL and the stromal cells as adhesion molecules. - adhesion molecule; T cell differentiation; human thymic rosettes

The minimum essential factors which are necessary for random mobility and chemokinesis of human granulocytes in agarose plate induced by E. coli-derived chemotactic factor were studied in order to compare the essential nature of mobility between them. There were no differences in random mobility and chemokinesis among the media of TC-199 containing or not containing heat inactivated fetal calf serum and Hanks solution. On the other hand, granulocytes in PBS showed no random mobility and a reduced chemokinesis was seen. Further precise analysis revealed that the minimum essential factors for random mobility and chemokinesis are phosphate buffered saline, Ca++, Mg++ and glucose. The necessity for exogenous glucose suggested that intracellular glycolysis is the source of energy for chemokinesis as well as for random mobility. On the other hand, actinomycin D, a nucleic acid synthesis inhibitor, failed to show any suppressive effect on both types of mobility. It was also shown that ehemokinesis as well as random mobility was highly sensitive to culture temperature. From these results, we concluded that the nature of mobility in chemokinesis is the same as that in random mobility.

Chemotactic responses of patients with a variety of diseases to two different types of chemotactic factors were analyzed. Granulocytes were obtained from the patients with childhood malignant diseases during chemotherapy, the patients with measles, the adult patients with recurrent aphthous stomatitis, and newborn infants. 22 out of all the 38 patients (58%) showed decreased chemotactic response to zymosan activated human serum (ZAS), whereas only 9 patients (24%) showed decreased response to Escherichia coli-derived chemotactic factor (bacterial chemotactic factor: BCF). Furthermore, only 6 out of 22 patients who showed decreased chemotaxis to ZAS showed decreased chemotaxis to BCF. Analogous results were also obtained with cord blood granulocytes. These facts suggest that various kinds of chemotactic factors activate granulocytes in different ways, and that the evaluation of chemotactic response in a patient should be made simultaneously using more than two different types of chemotactic factor.

TONO-OKA, T., NAKAYAMA, M., OHKAWA, M., NAKAJIMA, T., TAKEDA, T. and MATSUMOTO, S. Prophylaxis of Bacterial Infection by Sulfamethoxazole- Trimethoprim (SMX-TMP) during Chemotherapy in Patients with Childhood Acute Leukemia. Tohoku J. exp. Med., 1981, 134 (3), 273-279-A combination of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim was given orally to 13 children with acute leukemia on 16 occasions of hospitalization during remission induction chemotherapy for the prophylaxis of bacterial infection. Frequency of episodes of persistent fever in this group of patients was markedly low, namely 0.38 per one hospitalization, whereas that in control group which was given no drug was 0.98. Furthermore, frequency of episodes of definite bacterial infection in the patients given SMX-TMP was 0.25 per one hospitalization. This was significantly low as compared with control patients whose frequency was 0.84. Although, there occurred slight rash and liver dysfunction as the side effects, they were reversible. These results suggest that the prophylactic use of SMX-TMP in children with acute leukemia during chemotherapy is effective and valuable for the protection from bacterial infection.

Agents known to increase intracellular levels of cyclic 3', 5'-adenosine monophosphate (cyclic AMP) were examined for their effect on tissue factor generation by mononuclear cells cultured with E. coli endotoxin. Aminophylline, an inhibitor of phosphodiesterase, and epinephrine, a beta-adrenergic agent, showed an inhibitory effect, and these effects were reversible. Moreover, dibutyryl cyclic AMP also exhibited the effect. Dibutyryl cyclic GMP, however, did not enhance the tissue factor generation by mononuclear cells. On the basis of these observations, it was concluded that the phenomenon of tissue factor generation by mononuclear cells is a biological event, and that intracellular cyclic AMP has a possible role in modulating this phenomenon.

Mobilities of cord blood granulocytes were studied using the agarose plate method and Boyden's chamber method. In the agarose plate, granulocytes of cord blood were shown to have moderately decreased responses in chemotaxis and chemokinesis induced by Escherichia coli-derived chemotactic factor and/or zymosan-activated serum, whereas they were shown to have a normal capacity of random mobility. Although their distance and index of chemotaxis or chemokinesis in the agarose plate were significantly less than those of adult granulocytes, response rate in both types of mobility were evidently higher compared with those in patients with chemotactic defect. Furthermore, there is a difference between chemotactic responses of cord blood granulocytes to E. coli-derived chemotactic factor and to zymosan-activated serum in the agarose plate method. Using the latter, a more distinguishable difference between chemotactic responses of cord blood granulocytes and adult granulocytes was shown. The Boyden's chamber method tended to show a more significant difference between chemotactic responses of granulocytes of cord blood and adults than in the agarose plate method.

The growth of a transplantable tumor (KMT-17) in syngeneic Wistar King Aptekman/Mk (WKA) rats was inhibited by preimmunization with allogeneic normal cells from Donryu strain rats. The phenomenon is referred to as allogeneic cell immunity. A slight inhibition was observed in rats immunized with normal liver, spleen, kidney, embryonal cells, whole blood and white blood cells from allogeneic Donryu rats. A strong inhibition was observed in animals which had rejected allogeneic skin grafts, particularly from the Donryu and Kyoto rats. The inhibition was comparatively weak after immunization with skin grafts from the Long Evans, ACI, Buffalo, Fischer, Sprague Dawley or Tokyo allogeneic rat strains. This immunizing effect was dependent on the viability of the grafts and was easily abrogated by low-dose irradiation. The mechanism of allogeneic cell immunity is considered to be a non-specific stimulation of the immunity against antigenic tumors in the syngeneic host. Inhibition De La Croissance D'une Tumeur Syngenique Chez Des Rats Immunises Avec Des Greffes Cutanees Allogeniques La croissance d'une tumeur transplantee (KMT-17) chez des rats Wistar King Aptekman/Mk (WKA) syngeniques a ete inhibee par une pre-immunisation avec des cellules allogeniques normales de la souche de rats Donryu. On a observe une legere inhibition chez les rats immunises avec des cellules normales de foie, de rate, de rein ou d'embryon, du sang complet ou des globules blancs de rats Donryu allogeniques. L'inhibition est forte chez les rats qui ont rejete les greffes cutanees allogeniques, en particulier celles qui proviennent des souches Donryu et Kyoto. Elle est comparativement faible apres immunisation avec des greffes cutanees provenant d'autres souches allogeniques: Long Evans, ACI, Buffalo, Fischer, Sprague Dawley ou Tokyo. L'effet immunisant depend de la viabilite des greffes et est facilement supprime par une irradiation a faible dose. Ce mecanisme immunitaire est considere comme une stimulation non specifique de l'immunite contre les tumeurs antigeniques chez l'hǒte syngenique.

Random mobility and chemotactic responses of granulocytes and monocytes, and production of monocyte-derived chemotactic factor for granulocytes (CFG) in the 17 patients with childhood malignant disease were estimated using an agarose plate method. Mononuclear cells (MNC) of the majority of the patients contained a significantly decreased number of monocytes with normal migratory capacity, whereas random mobility of granulocytes of all the patients was within normal range. Chemotactic responses of granulocytes and monocytes to zymosan activated serum (ZAS) were decreased in 11 to 17 occasions. All these impairments seemed to be induced by chemotherapeutic agents, because there were no differences in the degree of the impairment between group in remission with maintenance chemotherapy and that during induction chemotherapy.

Antigenic expression of 3-methylcholanthrene-induced transplantable fibrosarcoma KMT-17 cells was investigated in relation to days after ip transplantation. Cytotoxicity tests with antiserum against tumor-associated surface antigen of KMT-17 cells revealed that cytotoxic sensitivity and absorbing capacity decreased after transplantation, but they increased when other normal rats were given transplants of tumor cells. A decrease in the sensitivity was observed when immunosuppressively irradiated rats were given tumor transplants. Tumor cell density in the abdominal cavities of rats directly and absorbing capacity of KMT-17 cells to antiserum against the histocompatibility antigen did not change after transplantation. The possible mechanisms of antigenic change of KMT-17 cells were discussed.

UENO, N., MATSUMOTO, T., OHKAWA, M., NAKAYAMA, M. and TONO-OKA, T. Urinary Arylsulfatase in Normal Children and in Patients with Pediatric Malignant Disease. Tohoku J. exp. Med., 1983, 139 (2), 165-169 - Urinary arylsulfatase (AS) activities were measured in 20 normal children and 10 patients with malignant disease, consisting of leukemia (6), Hodgkin's disease (1), neuroblastoma (2), and malignant teratoma (1). Seven of the patients showed a significantly high activity, and a serial measurement carried out in 4 patients showed a well correlated relationship between AS activity and the activity of disease. Thus the measurement of urinary AS activity could be a laboratory test for monitoring the activity of malignant diseases because of its simple and rapid procedure.