We have developed a new micromethod for testing phytohemagglutinin stimulation of human lymphocytes. 50 mul of peripheral blood is incubated at 37 degrees C directly, without cell separation, with 50 mul of tissue culture medium containing 50mug of phytohemagglutinin for 24 hr. Then, 0.5 muCi of tritiated thymidine in 50 mul of tissue culture medium is added and incubated for an additional 16 h...

Methods have been developed to isolate mitochondria from small amounts of normal and leukemic human lymphocytes obtained from small volumes of circulating blood. Mitochondrial respiratory functions were measured by polarographic techniques, and active calcium uptake was measured by a spectrophotometric procedure utilizing the calcium-sensitive dye murexide. The results indicate that the rates o...

The transport and accumulation of phytohemagglutinin in developing bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) cotyledons is accompanied by the transient presence of N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) residues on the oligosaccharide sidechains of this glycoprotein. These peripheral GlcNAc residues can be distinguished from those in the chitobiose portion of the oligosaccharide sidechains by their sensitivity to rem...

A number of proteins that accumulate in vacuoles and protein bodies undergo posttranslational processing at these accumulation sites. These processing steps include proteolytic cleavage (e.g. pea lectin, soybean glycinin, and rice lectin) and the removal of some sugar residues from oligosaccharide side-chains (e.g. bean phytohemagglutinin). Treatment of immature rice embryos with the sodium ion...

Antigenic stimulation of athymic mice on the BALB/c back ground by infection with the pinworms Aspiculuris tetraptera and Syphacia obvelata or by xenografts of human tumors induced a proliferation of Tand B-lymphocytes in spleen and lymph nodes and occasional germinal center formation. The proliferating T-lymphocytes showed greater fluorescence per cell than the Thy 1-positive cells from unstim...

BACKGROUND Drug-specific CD8+ TH1 lymphocytes have been found in the peripheral blood and involved skin of patients with drug-induced bullous exanthems. OBJECTIVES To determine whether the interferon-gamma release test can identify culprit drugs in pemphigus patients. METHODS Clinical and laboratory workup for pemphigus was performed in 14 pemphigus vulgaris patients who had been exposed to...

AIM Food and medicinal applications of barberry date back to 2500 years ago. This study investigates Berberis integerrima impact on lymphocytic immune responses. MATERIALS & METHODS Balb/c splenocytes were treated by 0.001-1000 μg/ml of B. integerrimaaqueous and alcoholic extracts in presence of phytohemagglutinin and lipopolysaccharide mitogens. Cell proliferation was assayed and cytokines w...