L ipopolysaccharide elicits a vigorous inflammatory response and has been linked to the progression of asthma and other forms of airway disease. An improved understanding of the innate immune response to lipopolysaccharide should lead to novel therapies to treat these diseases. Towards this end, we challenged 32 recombinant inbred (RI) strains of (C57BL/6J X DBA/2J) [BXD] mice with aerosolized ...

BACKGROUND Nonselective nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibition has detrimental effects in sepsis because of inhibition of the physiologically important endothelial NOS (eNOS). The authors hypothesized that selective inducible NOS (iNOS) inhibition would maintain eNOS vasodilation but prevent acetylcholine- and bradykinin-mediated vasoconstriction caused by lipopolysaccharide-induced endothelial...

Alkali-treated lipopolysaccharide from Brucella abortus S1119.3 coupled to agarose beads by cyanogen bromide activation resulted in an immunoadsorbent with which a large amount of B. abortus-specific antibodies could be purified. The method described gave alkali-treated lipopolysaccharide binding efficiencies of up to 98%. There was little loss of alkali-treated lipopolysaccharide from the colu...

In Escherichia coli, phosphoryl substituents in the lipopolysaccharide core region are essential for outer membrane stability. Mutation of the core glucosyltransferase encoded by waaG (formerly rfaG) resulted in lipopolysaccharide truncated immediately after the inner core heptose residues, which serve as the sites for phosphorylation. Surprisingly, mutation of waaG also destabilized the outer ...

Middle ear infection (or inflammation) is the most common pathological condition that causes fluid to accumulate in the middle ear, disrupting cochlear homeostasis. Lipopolysaccharide, a product of bacteriolysis, activates macrophages and causes release of inflammatory cytokines. Many studies have shown that lipopolysaccharides cause functional and structural changes in the inner ear similar to...

BACKGROUND Cerebral palsy is a nonprogressive motor impairment syndrome that has no effective cure. The etiology of most cases of cerebral palsy remains unknown; however, recent epidemiologic data have demonstrated an association between fetal neurologic injury and infection/inflammation. Maternal infection/inflammation may be associated with the induction of placental cytokines that could resu...

Increasing evidence supports a role of cytokines, tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha), interleukin-1 (IL-1), and IL-6 in the development of endotoxin-induced acute renal failure. Several activities of these cytokines require a local rather than a systemic production and function. Thus, this study investigates the chronology of cytokine expression in glomeruli isolated from normal rats or ra...

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is a condition in which the ER protein-folding machinery impaired, leading to accumulation of improperly folded proteins and triggering an unfolded-protein response. Excessive causes cell death contributes development chronic diseases. Interestingly, there bidirectional relationship between nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) pathway. Curcumin, natural polyphenolic ...

BACKGROUND The acylethanolamides oleoylethanolamide and palmitoylethanolamide are endogenous lipid mediators with proposed neuroprotectant properties in central nervous system (CNS) pathologies. The precise mechanisms remain partly unknown, but growing evidence suggests an antiinflammatory/antioxidant profile. METHODS We tested whether oleoylethanolamide/palmitoylethanolamide (10 mg/kg, i.p.)...

N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor activation in rat kidney reduces renal perfusion and ultrafiltration. Hypoperfusion-induced ischemia is the most frequent cause of functional insufficiency in the endotoxemic kidney. Here, we used non-hypotensive rat model of lipopolysaccharide-induced endotoxemia to examine whether NMDA receptor hyperfunction contributes to acute kidney injury. Lipopolysacc...