Chronic rejection after lung transplantation is manifested as obliterative bronchiolitis (OB). The development of de novo lymphoid tissue (lymphoid neogenesis) may contribute to local immune responses in small airways. Compared with normal lungs, the lung tissue of 13 lung transplant recipients who developed OB demonstrated a significantly larger number of small, airway-associated, peripheral n...

Myelin basic protein (MBP) is a major protein of central nervous system myelin which can induce experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in susceptible laboratory animals. The role of T cells in the induction of EAE has been extensively studied, but the antibody response to MBP has not been well characterized. In the present work, we immunized rats with encephalitogenic guinea-pig MBP an...

The relationship between anxiety-related behaviors and voluntary ethanol intake was examined in two pairs of rat lines by the oral ethanol self-administration procedure. Floripa high (H) and low (L) rats selectively bred for contrasting anxiety responses in the open-field test, and two inbred strains, spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and Lewis rats which are known to differ significantly w...

Immune responses against cardiac myosin and group A streptococcal M protein have been implicated in the pathogenesis of rheumatic heart disease. Although cardiac myosin is known to produce myocarditis in susceptible animals, it has never been investigated for its role in production of valvular heart disease, the most serious sequelae of group A streptococcal infection in acute rheumatic fever. ...

Mercurials may induce immune manifestations in susceptible individuals. Mercuric chloride (HgCl2) induces autoimmunity in the Brown Norway (BN) strain but an immunosuppression in the Lewis strain with, however, autoreactive anti-class II T cells present in both strains. In the present study we looked at modifications of cytokine production by PCR and cytofluorometric analyses in normal BN and L...

PURPOSE This study was designed to investigate an animal model of uveitis that resembles anterior uveitis in humans after immunization with iris-ciliary body antigen. METHODS Male Lewis rats 6 to 8 weeks of age were immunized with the buffer- and detergent-insoluble bovine iris-ciliary body antigen mixed with complete Freund's adjuvant and pertussis toxin. Antigen was digested with various pr...

Liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) results in a specific condition where the immune response is potentially directed against both allogeneic and cancer antigens. We have investigated the level of anti-cancer immunity during allogeneic immune response. Dark Agouti-to-Lewis and Lewis-to-Lewis rat liver transplantations were performed and the recipients anti-cancer immunity w...

Mercurials may induce immune manifestations in susceptible individuals. Mercuric chloride (HgCl2) induced autoimmunity in the Brown Norway (BN) strain but an immuno-suppression in the Lewis strain with, however, autoreactive anti-class II T cells present in both strains. In the present study we looked at modifications of cytokine production by PCR and cytofluorometric analyses in normal BN and ...

Previous studies in rat have demonstrated decreased number of mitochondria and uncoupling of oxidative phosphorylation after administration of glucocorticoids but at supraphysiological doses and using synthetic glucocorticoids. To analyze the relationships between corticosterone levels (the natural glucocorticoid in rat) and muscle mitochondrial metabolism, Lewis and Fischer 344 rats were bilat...

The aim of this work was to elucidate the possible role of glucocorticoids in the bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced decrease in hepatic IGF-I synthesis. For this purpose, we studied the effect of LPS on IGF-I in two rat strains, Wistar and Lewis, which have different adrenal responses to inflammation. Compared with Wistar rats, Lewis rats have a reduced hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal r...