[Assay of moniliformin content in household grains from families in patients with Keshan disease]

Ion-pairing extraction and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) were employed for assaying moniliformin (a fungal toxin) content in the corn (Shaanxi) and rice (Yunnan) samples collected from families suffering from Ke-shan disease. The highest contents were found to be 264 micrograms/kg (corn) and 252 micrograms/kg (rice), while a rice sample from Beijing market showed none. The identity of moniliformin was confirmed by 2D-UV detection and co-HPLC with a synthetic toxin sample. These results strongly support the view that moniliformin is a pathogenic factor of Ke-shan disease.

Regulatory control of the terminal complement proteins at the surface of human endothelial cells: neutralization of a C5b-9 inhibitor by antibody to CD59

Functionally inhibitory antibody to the plasma membrane complement inhibitor CD59 has been used to investigate control of the terminal complement proteins at the endothelial cell surface. Antibodies against purified human erythrocyte CD59 (polyclonal anti-CD59 and monoclonal antibodies [MoAbs] 1F1 and 1F5) were found to bind specifically to monolayers of cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells, and by Western blotting to recognize an 18- to 21-Kd endothelial protein. When bound to the endothelial monolayer, anti-CD59 (immunoglobulin G or Fab fragment) potentiated membrane pore formation induced upon C9 binding to C5b-8, and augmented the C5b-9-induced cellular responses, including stimulated secretion of von Willebrand factor and expression of catalytic surface for the prothrombinase enzyme complex. Although potentiating endothelial responses to the terminal complement proteins, anti-CD59 had no effect on the response of these cells to stimulation by histamine. Taken together, these data suggest that human endothelial cells express the CD59 cell surface inhibitor of the terminal complement proteins, which serves to protect these cells from pore-forming and cell-stimulatory effects of the C5b-9 complex. These data also suggest that the inactivation or deletion of this cell surface regulatory molecule would increase the likelihood for procoagulant changes in endothelium exposed to complement activation in plasma.