Psychopharmacological activity of anaphylatoxin C3a in rat hypothalamus

C3a anaphylatoxin injected into the perifornical hypothalamic region of sated rats increased the eating response to norepinephrine and the drinking response to carbamyl choline but had no effect on food or water intake in sated, saline control animals. This potentiation of drug-stimulated intakes was reversible by intrahypothalamic injection of catecholamine receptor antagonists haloperidol and phentolamine. We propose that C3a acts as a catecholamine agonist in the central nervous system. The results suggest that C3a may play a role in mediating the neuropsychiatric manifestations associated with immune complex formation or deposition in the central nervous system.

Effects in mice of rat bromelain-treated RBC and lipopolysaccharide on autoantibody production against bromelain-treated isologous RBC

Autoantibody production against mouse bromelain-treated (brom) red blood cells (RBC) was significantly increased in mice injected with rat brom RBC. These autoantibodies were not adsorbed by rat brom RBC in serological assays and did not lyse rat brom RBC in plaque-forming cell (PFC) assays using mixtures of rat brom RBC and mouse brom RBC as targets. These data suggest that the increased response induced by rat brom RBC is not due to the presence of common, or similar, antigens on the two types of RBC. The spleens of mice injected with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), or with both LPS and rat brom RBC, had a markedly increased number of PFC lysing mouse brom RBC. About 20% of the PFC induced by LPS and rat brom RBC also lysed rat brom RBC. The autoimmune response was not increased in mice injected twice with rat brom RBC and the secondary response induced by two injections of LPS was lower than that induced by one injection of LPS. However, injection of LPS after an initial challenge with rat brom RBC induced an autoimmune response similar in size to that induced by LPS alone. The decreased secondary response against mouse brom RBC following a second injection of rat brom RBC was associated with decreased production of antibodies of various specificities as detected in a reverse PFC assay. These results do not support the hypothesis that the poor secondary responses against mouse brom RBC following a second injection of rat brom RBC are due to the exhaustive differentiation of autoimmune B cells as part of a fail-safe mechanism to prevent autoimmunity.

Feedback in pulse rate change and divergent affective reactions for high and low sensation-seekers

The present investigation examined the relationship between affect and pulse rate (PR) change for individuals with different sensation-seeking preferences. Based on their scores on the Sensation-Seeking Scale (Zuckerman, Kolin, Price, & Zoob, 1964), high (HSS) and low (LSS) sensation-seekers were assigned randomly to either 40 minutes of feedback or nofeedback in PR. Subjects were instructed either to decrease or to increase PR. Measures of affect were administered after the 40-minute period. The results indicated that while feedback caused subjects to change PR in either direction, HSS subjects were more successful at increasing, while LSS subjects were more successful at decreasing. Moreover, negative affect resulted only when HSS subjects decreased and LSS subjects increased PR. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of considering individual differences in preference for activation in order to clarify the relationship between physiological and affective responses.

[Nephroblastoma and Wilms' tumor in hemihypertrophy. Presentation and discussion of a case]

The authors describe the case of a young girl with hemihypertrophy who developed a Wilms tumour in a kidney affected by nephroblastomatosis. The history and clinical findings are presented together with the histological results. The relationship between the congenital abnormality (hemihypertrophy), the dysgenesis (nephroblastomatosis) and the tumour is discussed.

Experimental erythrocyte autoimmunity. Specificity of autoantibodies of autoantibody-specific suppressor cells elicited by RBC from various strains of rats

Autoantibodies and autoantibody-specific suppressor cells are produced in mice injected with RBC from rats. In this report it is shown, first, that the RBC from various strains of rats stimulate similar clones of auto-reactive B-cells. The evidence for this conclusion was obtained using antibodies eluted from the RBC and sera from mice positive in direct Coombs' tests. Autoantibodies elicited by RBC from any strain of rat were absorbed by RBC from all strains of rat tested but not by sheep RBC. Secondly, it is shown that spleen cells from mice injected with RBC of one strain of rat delayed autoantibody production elicited by RBC from syngeneic and allogeneic rats when transferred to syngeneic mice before the first injection of rat RBC. Serum antibody levels to rat RBC were not reduced.

A modified approach to systematic desensitization

The system desensitization procedure was modified in a manner that more closely approximates learning principles. Selected muscle groups were tensed, then relaxed contiguous with hiearchy item exposure. Subjects treated with traditional SD and subjects treated with the modified desensitization approach (MD) showed significant improvement in approach behaviour and subjective fear rating of the phobic stimulus. Placebo and no- treatment control group demonstrated no improvement.

Experimental erythrocyte autoimmunity. I. Mice congenic for immunoglobulin allotypes vary in production of autoantibodies but produce suppressor cells not restricted by allotypes

Erythrocyte autoantibodies can be elicited in mnce by injections of rat RBC which are cross-reactive with mouse RBC. This report shows that induction of autoantibodies is dependent, in part, on gene(s) outside the H-2 complex. Using CBA mice congenic for Ig allotype and the F1 and F2 hybrids, a higher incidence of autoantibody production was observed in mice bearing the Ig allotype 1b (1b/b or 1a/b) in contrast to mice homozygous for the allotype Ig-1a. Serum haemagglutination titres against rat RBC were not reduced in the groups of mice with the lower incidence of autoantibody production. A probable explanation for these observations is that the change in Ig allotype is associated with some change in the variable region determining autoimmune specificity that is governed by VH genes linked to allotype genes. The transfer of 30 x 10(6) spleen cells from Coombs' positive mice to syngeneic recipients before starting the immunization regime with rat RBC suppressed autoantibody production and enhanced antibody production against rat RBC. These suppressor cells were effective in congenic mice and in F1 hybrids, which suggest that the Ig allotype is not a crucial site for the effector stage of suppression of this autoimmune response.

Immunohistologic study of blood group substances in polyps of the distal colon. Expression of a fetal antigen

Forty-four polyps and 14 adenocarcinomas of the left colon from 28 patients were studied for the presence of blood group substances of the A, B system, using the method of specific erythrocytic adherence. Forty-one percent of all polyps and 57% of all cancers were found to have reactivity for blood group substances. Fifty-four percent of villous adenomas (seven of 13), 39% of tubular adenomas (five of 13), 14% of mixed tubulovillous adenomas (one of seven), and no hyperplastic polyps (zero of four) showed reactivity for blood group substances. Lesional blood group substance reactivity, when present, was the same as that for the patient's own blood group type, with the exception of two patients of B blood group type, whose lesions had A-blood group substance reactivity. Cytologic atypia showed no correlation with the presence of blood group substances. Polyps with blood group substance reactivity were seen more frequently in patients with cancer. Twelve patients had both a cancer and a polyp studied, with both polyp and cancer showing similar blood group substance reactivity for nine of these patients. A, B, H-blood group substances in the left colon are normally absent in the adult and present only in the fetus. The reappearance of these fetal antigens in both polyps and cancers adds immunologic evidence to the theory that colonic adenocarcinoma evolves through a polyp-cancer sequence.

Identification of a lobe in the adult human pancreas rich in pancreatic polypeptide

Systematic sampling of human necropsy pancreases has revealed that pancreatic polypeptide (PP) cells are not distributed equally in the gland. PP-cells are the most abundant cell type in the posterior part of the pancreatic head while they are scarce or absent in the remainder of the gland. The PP-rich part of the head can be separated by blunt dissection from the pancreas as a discrete lobe. This lobe probably originates from the ventral pancreatic bud during embryogenesis. A quantitative study of the immunofluorescent endocrine cell types (insulin, glucagon, somatostatin and pancreatic polypeptide cells) in PP-rich and PP-poor regions of pancreases in 8 subjects with ages ranging from 33 fetal weeks to 80 years, showed that the proportions of the cell types were different in youngs and adults.

Simian virus 40 t antigen affects the sensitivity of cellular DNA synthesis to theophylline

Cellular DNA synthesis induced by simian virus 40 mutants that lack t antigen is sensitive to concentrations of theophylline that do not affect wild-type-induced synthesis.