Antiproliferative factor (APF) is a sialoglycopeptide elevated in the urine of patients with interstitial cystitis (IC)-a chronic, painful bladder disease of unknown etiology. APF inhibits the proliferation of normal bladder epithelial and T24 bladder carcinoma cells in vitro by binding to cytoskeleton-associated protein 4 (CKAP4) and altering the transcription of genes involved in proliferatio...

The function of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family member HER4 remains unclear because its activating ligand, heregulin, results in either proliferation or differentiation. This variable response may stem from the range of signals generated by HER4 homodimers versus heterodimeric complexes with other EGFR family members. The ratio of homo- and heterodimeric complexes may be infl...

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is an immune-mediated chronic inflammatory disease of the liver of unknown etiology. Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in patients with PBC, and many studies have demonstrated the significant effect of calcitriol on liver cell physiology. Vitamin D has antiproliferative and antifibrotic effects on liver fibrosis. Genetic studies have provided an opportunit...

Lymphocyte subsets were assessed in patients with measles using the OKT range of monoclonal antibodies. A significant decrease in cells reacting with the OKT3 and OKT4 monoclonal antibodies was observed. When the tests were repeated 3 wk after the acute infection, significant recovery of these subsets was observed. The abnormality in lymphocyte subsets could be reproduced by treating normal lym...

Pyridoxine deficiency leads to impairment of immune responses. It appears that the basic derangement is the decreased rate of production of one-carbon units necessary for the synthesis of nucleic acids. The key factor is a pyridoxine enzyme, serine hydroxymethyltransferase. This enzyme is very low in resting lymphocytes but increases significantly under the influence of antigenic or mitogenic s...

Normal serum contains a lymphocyte response depressive factor and this is more active against the lymphocytes of the blood from which the serum was obtained than against lymphocytes from a different normal blood. The suppressive factor is thus "tailor-made" to its own lymphocytes though cross-reactivity with other lymphocytes does occur. The significance of this is discussed. The suppressive fa...

PURPOSE Although the clinical efficacy of cyclosporin A (CSA) in retinoblastoma (RB) has been attributed to multidrug resistance reversal activity, the authors hypothesized that CSA is also directly toxic to RB cells through inhibition of calcineurin (CN)/nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT) signaling. METHODS Antiproliferative effects of CSA, PSC-833 (a CSA analogue that does not inhib...

Silibinin, a naturally occurring flavonoid antioxidant found in the milk thistle, has recently been shown to have potent antiproliferative effects against various malignant cell lines, but the underlying mechanism of action remains to be elucidated. We investigated the effect of silibinin on androgen-independent prostate cancer PC-3 cells. At pharmacologically achievable silibinin concentration...

In the present study, we have investigated the bee venom (BV) and melittin (a major component of BV)-mediated antiproliferative effect and defined its mechanisms of action in cultured rat aortic vascular smooth muscle cell(s) (VSMC). BV and melittin ( approximately 0.4-0.8 microg/ml) effectively inhibited 5% fetal bovine serum-induced and 50 ng/ml platelet-derived growth factor BB (PDGF-BB)-ind...

PURPOSE To determine whether lacrimal gland acinar cells are involved in modulating local immune response; to isolate and characterize a lacrimal gland factor that exerts biological activities on T lymphocytes. METHODS A protein factor has been purified from lacrimal gland extracts by a combination of ion exchange and gel-filtration chromatography. This factor has the capacity to enhance prol...