We studied superoxide (O2-) production in neutrophils from 78 normal pregnant women at 7 to 39 weeks' gestation to determine whether there is a critical gestational age in O2- production activity of maternal neutrophils. The O2- production was measured by determining the rate of superoxide dismutase-inhibitable reduction of ferricytochrome c at 550 to 540 nm. A scattergram of neutrophil O2- pro...

Tamoxifen is a selective oestrogen receptor modulator widely used for the treatment of breast cancer. In addition to its activity as an oestrogen receptor agonist/antagonist, tamoxifen also modulates sphingolipid biosynthesis, which has been shown to play an important role in the regulation of neutrophil activity. Here, we find that tamoxifen stimulation enhances several pro-inflammatory pathwa...

The unicellular Tetrahymena pyriformis was studied for chemotaxis, chemotactic selection, phagocytosis, growth and body shape changes in the presence of water soluble (beta-cyclodextrin-coupled) steroid hormones (testosterone, estradiol, progesterone, hydrocortisone and dexamethasone). Testosterone was chemoattractant over a wide range of concentrations, while progesterone and dexamethasone wer...

The capacity of humoral factors to influence polymorphonuelear leukocyte function has been recognized by in vitro studies. Neutrophil phagocytosis is enhanced by the presence of a fragment of the third component of complement, C3b, on a target cell or complex (1). Neutrophils respond chemotacticallv in vitro to by-products of the complement reaction sequence such as the cleavage product of the ...

Behçet's disease (BD) is a multisystemic disease of unknown etiology characterized by chronic relapsing oral-genital ulcers and uveitis. Multiple systemic associations including articular, gastrointestinal, cardiopulmonary, neurologic, and vascular involvement are also observed in BD. Although the etiopathogenesis of the disease remains unknown, increased neutrophil functions such as chemotaxis...

Abstract Although neutrophils play important roles in immunity and inflammation, their analysis is strongly hindered by short-lived terminally differentiated nature. Prior studies reported conditional immortalization of myeloid progenitors using retroviral expression an estrogen-dependent fusion protein the HoxB8 transcription factor. This approach allowed long-term culture mouse (HoxB8 progeni...

background: herbal medicines have been used since ancient times for treatment of a range of diseases and have represented stimulatory effects on the function of innate immunity. objective: to evaluate the effects of zataria multiflora (z. multiflora) on the function of innate immunity including phagocytic activity and tnf-α secretion in animal model. methods: eight balb/c mice were divided into...

The capacity of humoral factors to influence polymorphonuelear leukocyte function has been recognized by in vitro studies. Neutrophil phagocytosis is enhanced by the presence of a fragment of the third component of complement, C3b, on a target cell or complex (1). Neutrophils respond chemotacticallv in vitro to by-products of the complement reaction sequence such as the cleavage product of the ...

With the increasing use of granulocyte transfusion it is becoming important to determine if granulocytes can be preserved for a few days. If so, the optimum storage conditions must be identified. We studied the function in vitro of granulocytes collected as they would be for transfusion by continuous-flow centrifuge leukapheresis (CFCL) and filtration leukapheresis (FL). Granulocytes collected ...