Linear IgA disease and ulcerative colitis

Linear IgA disease is an acquired bullous disease of the skin characterized by linear IgA deposits along the dermal-epidermal junction. Inflammatory bowel diseases have been rarely reported in association with linear IgA disease. We have recently observed a patient suffering from ulcerative colitis who developed a cutaneous bullous eruption that was diagnosed as a linear IgA disease. Foreign antigens penetrating the inflamed bowel mucosa might give rise to the production of autoantibodies cross-reacting with the cutaneous antigens involved in the pathogenesis of linear IgA disease.

Investigations into mechanisms modulating proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis in cultured liver, adrenal, skin, and bone cells

The intricate modulatory roles played by manifold hormones, growth factors, cytokines, extracellular calcium concentrations, intracellular second messengers, protein kinases, and nuclear poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase in proliferative, differentiative, and apoptotic processes have been the subject of investigations that were carried out by means of in vitro either primary or secondary/tertiary cultures of differentiated epithelial (hepatocytes, keratinocytes, and adrenocytes) and connective tissue cells (osteoblasts and fibroblasts) obtained from man and/or other mammalians. In most cases, an ad hoc model system, in which cells were floated on the top of the growth medium and, hence, could enjoy nearly normal respiratory exchanges, was used. Such a system increased cell viability and the ability of parenchymal epithelial cells to respond to extremely low concentrations of growth factors, hormones, and pharmaco-toxicological agents in a way conceivably very close to their behaviour in vivo.

Effect of alcohol abuse and glutathione administration on the circulating levels of glutathione and on antipyrine metabolism in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis

Glutathione (GSH) is a principal cellular scavenger of free radicals. Chronic alcohol abuse, as well as liver disease, induces a decrease of hepatic GSH. We evaluated the effect of GSH administration (2.4 g day-1 in saline i.v. for 15 days) on the concentration of GSH in plasma and erythrocytes and on liver function tests, including galactose and antipyrine tests. We studied 40 alcoholic cirrhotic patients: 22 treated with GSH (10 persistent alcohol abusers and 12 weaning from alcohol during the study) and 18 treated with saline only (8 persistent alcohol abusers and 10 abstainers). Treatment with GSH improved the concentration of GSH in plasma and erythrocytes only in abstainers from alcohol; it did not affect liver function tests or galactose clearance. Persistent alcohol consumption significantly prolonged antipyrine metabolism; GSH administration counteracted this effect.

TPA and cycloheximide modulate the activation of NF-kappa B and the induction and stability of nitric oxide synthase transcript in primary neonatal rat hepatocytes

12-O-Tetradecanoylphorbol 13-acetate (TPA) elicited a transient increase in the transcription of the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) gene coupled with a shortening of the half-life of its mRNA in primary neonatal rat hepatocytes. These effects of TPA were preceded by a surge in nuclear translocation of the transcription factor NF-kappa B, and followed by a mounting accumulation of NO-2 in the growth medium. Even cycloheximide (CHX) added by itself elicited an early, sustained activation of NF-kappa B followed by an intense induction of iNOS gene expression, irrespective of what degree of protein synthesis inhibition was brought about by the several concentrations tested. When given together, TPA and CHX exerted additive effects on hepatocellular iNOS mRNA levels. These results suggest the likelihood of an ordered sequence of events by which an activated NF-kappa B mediates the induction of iNOS gene expression in TPA- and/or CHX-treated primary hepatocytes.

Tissue culture of adult human osteoblasts isolated from jaw bones

Shreds of biopsied adult human jaw bones were divided into four groups that were each incubated together with borosilicate glass chips in one of four variants of DMEM expansion medium (i.e., with a high or low calcium complement and with or without sodium ascorbate added). The outgrown bone cells were propagated in secondary cultures kept in the same DMEM expansion medium variants prior to being transferred to a beta-glycerophosphate-enriched high-Ca2+ and ascorbate-containing DMEM mineralisation medium. In this latter medium the proliferation rates and the simultaneous expression of alkaline phosphatase by the four distinct groups of osteoblasts were assessed during 7 days of staying in vitro via biochemical methods. Human osteoblasts previously expanded in high-Ca2+ ascorbate-added DMEM medium were found to initially express a quite high alkaline phosphatase activity that subsequently declined, while their proliferative activity remained rather low. Conversely, osteoblasts formerly expanded in low-Ca2+ ascorbate-devoid DMEM medium exhibited minimal levels of alkaline phosphatase activity while simultaneously maximally proliferating in the mineralisation medium. Moreover, a mixture (1:1 v/v) of the DMEM mineralisation medium with Ham's medium (in which the aminoacid proline abounds) was found to accelerate, in comparison to DMEM alone, the intracellular type I procollagen synthesis, the extracellular assembly of type I collagen fibrils, and the calcification of the extracellular matrix by the human osteoblasts. Hence, the presence or absence of calcium and/or ascorbate in the expansion medium and of proline in mineralisation medium can significantly modulate the progression of human jaw bone cells from an undifferentiated highly proliferating condition to the mature osteoblastic phenotype.

[Evaluation of the total hepatic function after treatment with fosinopril in hypertensive patients with liver cirrhosis]

Fosinopril is distinguished from other ACE inhibitors by a pharmacokinetic pecularity in the sense that is can be metabolized either by liver or kidney. This was the rationale of the present research the aim of which was to verify if administered to patients with liver cirrhosis the drug was liable to alter global liver function and ability to metabolize drugs. Eight cirrhotic males, mean age 56 years, also suffering from high blood pressure, were studied. In these patients, liver and kidney function tests (BUN, creatinine blood level, serum and urinary electrolytes, creatinine clearance, calcium and phosphor blood level, transaminases, alkaline phosphatase prothrombin time, cholinesterase, gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase) were carried out at baseline and after 30 days' fosinopril treatment (1 capsule every morning in the fasting state); in addition total functioning liver mass was assessed by the galactose test, and drug-metabolizing capacity by the antipyrine test. Treatment resulted in a significant improvement of pressure values in all patients (p < 0.01) and did not alter liver and kidney function parameters. Besides, no side effects were registered, especially no case of orthostatic hypotension. The antipyrine test was not influenced by fosinopril treatment. Therefore, short-term treatment with this ACE-inhibitor can be concluded to be effective and not to cause additional alterations of liver function in patients with liver cirrhosis.

Extracellular calcium modulates prereplicative cyclic AMP surges in EGF-stimulated primary neonatal rat hepatocytes

The cells in nearly pure (96-98%) primary cultures of hepatocytes from neonatal rat liver in high (1.0 mM)-Ca2+, serum-free, synthetic HiWo5Ba2000 medium initiated DNA synthesis and entered mitosis between 11 and 30 h after the addition of 10 ng/ml EGF. During the 10-h prereplicative period, the cultured hepatocytes, like regenerating rat liver cells, generated two large cyclic AMP transients, one peaking between 30 min and 2 h and the other around 6 h. Hepatocytes stimulated by the same concentration of EGF in low (0.02 mM)-Ca2+ medium increased cyclic AMP synthesis as much as the EGF-treated hepatocytes in high-Ca2+ medium, but they released the additional cyclic AMP into the medium and could not generate prereplicative internal cyclic AMP surges, initiate DNA replication, or enter mitosis. These results suggest that one of the ways external Ca2+ controls prereplicative development of hepatocytes is to restrain the release of cyclic AMP and thus enable the cell to accumulate enough internal cyclic AMP to stimulate events required to initiate DNA replication.

Morphology, growth, and gene expression in five newly isolated murine hepatocellular tumor cell lines

Five murine hepatocellular tumor cell lines (HepM-1-5) were isolated and grown in a synthetic medium added with hormones, growth factors and/or serum. The morphology of these lines ranged from a nearly homogeneous epithelial-like shape (HepM-2) to a stromal appearance (HepM-1). The remaining lines displayed a mixed morphology. For their proliferation all of the cell lines retained a clear dependence on the extracellular calcium level and hormonal and/or serum growth factors and, rather homogeneously, they did not express the albumin, alpha-fetoprotein (with the exception of HepM-2 cells), tyrosine aminotransferase, and ornithine transcarbamylase genes, whereas they all exhibited discrete levels of the ornithine aminotransferase mRNA. Only HepM-3 and HepM-5 lines expressed the procollagen type I gene.

Effect of adherence to plastic on peripheral blood monocyte and alveolar macrophage chemiluminescence

The chemiluminescence of peripheral blood monocytes and alveolar macrophages was determined in the presence of luminol and lucigenin, either before or after the cell adherence to the luminometer curvettes. In the case of monocytes, cell adherence induces an increase of luminol-dependent chemiluminescence and has almost no effect on the lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence. However, it shows a strong inhibition of the lucigenin-dependent chemiluminescence and almost no effect on luminol-dependent chemiluminescence, in the case of alveolar macrophages. These results show that adhesion to plastic alters the metabolic burst of both monocytes and alveolar macrophages. Although the mechanisms are poorly understood, they seem to be related to the modifications that take place during the differentiation of peripheral monocytes to alveolar macrophages.

Increased polymorphonuclear leukocyte Fc gamma-dependent chemiluminescence in active psoriasis is not related to FcRIII (CD16) receptor expression

The role of the two main serum opsonins (IgG and C3b) in the induction of polymorphonuclear leukocyte chemiluminescence was studied in a group of psoriatic patients. Chemiluminescence was stimulated with zymosan opsonized by fresh plasma (IgG- and C3b-dependent chemiluminescence) or by complement-depleted plasma (IgG-dependent chemiluminescence). While C3b-dependent chemiluminescence was similar in patients with chronic or active forms of psoriasis, IgG-dependent chemiluminescence was significantly increased in patients with active disease. However, FcR-III expression, evaluated by means of flow cytofluorimetry, was similar in the different groups of patients studied. The discrepancy between Fc-receptor (CD16) expression and IgG-dependent chemiluminescence is, therefore, indicative of modifications that occur in psoriatic neutrophils that do not involve FcIII-receptor expression.