Activities of mitochondrial enzymes in blood cells from 69 patients with primary sideroblastic anemia were determined to elucidate the pathogenesis of the disease. In erythroblasts of patients with primary acquired type the activities of both delta-aminolevulinic acid synthetase and mitochondrial serine protease were inevitably decreased. The susceptibility to the protease of apo-delta-aminolev...

Helminth parasites are known to be efficient modulators of their host's immune system. To guarantee their own survival, they induce alongside the classical Th2 a strong regulatory response with high levels of anti-inflammatory cytokines and elevated plasma levels of IgG4. This particular antibody was shown in different models to exhibit immunosuppressive properties. How IgG4 affects the etiopat...

Asthma is an inflammatory condition characterized by the involvement of several mediators, including reactive oxygen species. The aim of the present study was to investigate the superoxide release and cellular glutathione peroxidase (cGPx) activity in peripheral blood granulocytes and monocytes from children and adolescents with atopic asthma. Forty-four patients were selected and classified as...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Impaired rheological properties of as well as cytotoxic substances produced by granulocytes may contribute to tissue damage in acute ischemic stroke. To assess changes in the properties of circulating granulocytes, we measured their adhesion, deformability, and superoxide generation in the first 3 days after ischemic stroke. METHODS Granulocytes from 18 male patients an...

3F8 is a murine monoclonal IgG3 antibody specific for the tumor-associated antigen ganglioside GD2. Previous in vitro studies suggest that tumor regressions observed in a phase I clinical trial of 3F8 may be attributable to complement activation by 3F8 and to 3F8-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) with lymphocytes. We now describe 3F8-mediated ADCC of GD2-positive tumor targets (melanoma an...

In the present study the signal transduction of the formyl-Met-Leu-Phe receptor was studied in granulocytes obtained from control subjects and patients with elevated low density lipoprotein levels. According to our results, 10 nm formyl-Met-Leu-Phe in control cells activates phospholipase C inducing a pronounced inositol phosphate production followed by a Ca(2+) signal from intracellular pools....

While granulocyte transfusions have been shown to be effective in the treatment of patients with infections, the effects of the leukapheresis collection procedure on certam granulocyte functions remain in question. We studied the bactericidal function of granulocytes collected by continuousflow centrifugation (CFC) and filtration Ieukapheresis (FL) with S. aureus, E. coil, and S. typhimurium. K...

In renal bacterial infections granulocytes are of major importance in the primary immune defense against invading pathogens. However, the mechanisms of granulocytic activation in renal interstitial invasion have not been clarified. Renal tubular epithelial cell mechanisms inducing granulocytic activation and bacterial killing may include tubular cell expression of Tamm-Horsfall protein (THP), a...

BACKGROUND Patients with asthma show altered surface expression of the adhesion molecules CD11b and L-selectin on airway granulocytes compared with blood granulocytes. OBJECTIVE To investigate whether this modulation is related to disease activity or due to transendothelial migration, we compared the CD11b and L-selectin expression on blood and induced sputum eosinophils and neutrophils betwe...

We studied the effects of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSFrh) on the internal pH of granulocytes using the fluorescent probe BCECF. GM-CSFrh did not directly alter the resting pH of granulocytes isolated from the peripheral blood; however, when the cells were preincubated for 90 minutes with the growth factor and then activated with the chemotactic pept...