The capacity of recombinant human interleukin 2 (rl l-l1.2), alone or in combination with recombinant tumor necrosis factor (r-TNFa), to activate murine resident peritoneal macrophages to a tumoricidal state was examined. Resident peritoneal exÃodate cells from C57BL/6 mice were cultured for 18 h with activating agents and washed and the ad herent cells (macrophages) were assessed for cytolytic...

Five reciprocal cycles of subtractive hybridization using cDNA generated from fibroblasts with normal lipopolysaccharide (LPS) responsiveness (lps(n)) and from hyporesponsive (lps(d)) fibroblasts have led to the finding that caveolin-1 is expressed at markedly higher levels of mRNA in lps(d) than in lps(n) fibroblasts. Caveolin-1 message can also be readily detected via reverse transcription-PC...

Arginase exists in two isoforms, the hepatic (arginase I) and extrahepatic types (arginase II). Arginase I is markedly induced in rat peritoneal macrophages and rat tissues in vivo by bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). In contrast, both arginase I and arginase II are induced in LPS-activated mouse peritoneal macrophages. In the present study, expression of arginase isoforms and related enzymes...

OBJECTIVES Monocyte/macrophage recruitment and activation at vascular predilection sites plays a central role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Heterotrimeric G proteins of the G12/13 family have been implicated in the control of migration and inflammatory gene expression, but their function in myeloid cells, especially during atherogenesis, is unknown. APPROACH AND RESULTS Mice with my...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Translocation of intestinal bacteria to ascitic fluid is probably the first step in the development of episodes of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in patients with cirrhosis. We have recently reported the detection of bacterial DNA in blood and ascitic fluid from patients with advanced cirrhosis, what we consider as molecular evidence of bacterial translocation. Several st...

AIM To study the activation of pancreatic and pulmonary mast cells and the effect of mast cell inhibition on the activation of peritoneal and alveolar macrophages during acute pancreatitis. METHODS Pancreatitis was induced by intraductal infusion of 5% sodium taurodeoxycholate in rats. The mast cell inhibitor cromolyn was administered intraperitoneally (i.p.) 30 min before pancreatitis induct...

Action of poly-[(trans-l,2-diaminocyclohexane)platinum]-carboxyamylose (poly-plat) and cisplatin (CDDP) on the immune system was studied using isolated peritoneal macrophages and compared with liver resident macrophages from normal, CDDP and poly-plat [10 mg/kg] treated Swiss Webster mice for 2-12 days. Peritoneal macrophages were treated [10 mg/L] for 2 h and allowed to grow in normal medium a...

Some biological parameters before and after an acute episode of cigarette smoking in rats have been evaluated. The carboxyhaemoglobin levels depended either on the number of cigarettes, or on the time of exposure to cigarette smoke and returned to pre-smoking values in about 2 h. The evaluation of the kinetics of alveolar and peritoneal macrophages in rats after a smoking session of three cigar...

Rats are naturally resistant to Toxoplasma gondii infection, particularly the RH strain, while mice are not. Previous studies have demonstrated that inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and arginase-1 of rodent peritoneal macrophages are linked to the mechanism of resistance. As an increasing number of studies on human and animal infections are showing that pulmonary toxoplasmosis is one of t...

Alcohol binge-drinking (acute ethanol consumption) is immunosuppressive and alters both the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system. Antigen presentation by macrophages (and other antigen presenting cells) represents an important function of the innate immune system that, in part, determines the outcome of the host immune response. Ethanol has been shown to suppress antigen presentation i...