Search results for "Leukocytes"
showing 10 items of 429 documents
Molecular Pathways Mediating Immunosuppression in Response to Prolonged Intensive Physical Training, Low-Energy Availability, and Intensive Weight Lo…
2019
Exercise and exercise-induced weight loss have a beneficial effect on overall health, including positive effects on molecular pathways associated with immune function, especially in overweight individuals. The main aim of our study was to assess how energy deprivation (i.e., "semi-starvation") leading to substantial fat mass loss affects the immune system and immunosuppression in previously normal weight individuals. Thus, to address this hypothesis, we applied a high-throughput systems biology approach to better characterize potential key pathways associated with immune system modulation during intensive weight loss and subsequent weight regain. We examined 42 healthy female physique athle…
Lack of evidence of mimivirus replication in human PBMCs
2018
The Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus (APMV) was first isolated during a pneumonia outbreak in Bradford, England, and since its discovery many research groups devoted efforts to understand whether this virus could be associated to human diseases, in particular clinical signs and symptoms of pneumonia. In 2013, we observed cytopathic effect in amoebas (rounding and lysis) inoculated with APMV inoculated PBMCs (peripheral blood mononuclear cell) extracts, and at that point we interpreted those results as mimivirus replication in human PBMCs. Based on these results we decided to further investigate APMV replication in human PBMCs, by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and qPCR. No viral fac…
Leukocyte migration test (LMT) in patients with thyroid disease: the response to human thyroid subcellular fractions.
1981
The response of circulating leukocytes to thyroid subcellular fractions was investigated in 19 patients with Graves' disease, 15 patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, 7 patients with toxic adenoma, 19 patients with nontoxic goiter and in 10 healthy students as control subjects. For this purpose, the leukocyte migration test of Soborg and Bendixen was performed against human crude thyroid extract (CTE), cell plasma membranes, nuclei, ribosomes, mitochondria and microsomes. Our results show positive LMT against: 1) CTE in patients with Graves' disease (61 +/- 13, p less than 0.001) and Hashimoto's thyroiditis (65 +/- 11, p less than 0.001) compared to controls (90 +/- 11); 2) cell plasma mem…
Interferon-Beta Therapy of Multiple Sclerosis Patients Improves the Responsiveness of T Cells for Immune Suppression by Regulatory T Cells
2015
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory autoimmune disease characterized by imbalanced immune regulatory networks, and MS patient-derived T effector cells are inefficiently suppressed through regulatory T cells (Treg), a phenomenon known as Treg resistance. In the current study we investigated T cell function in MS patients before and after interferon-beta therapy. We compared cytokine profile, responsiveness for Treg-mediated suppression ex vivo and evaluated reactivity of T cells in vivo using a humanized mouse model. We found that CD4+ and CD8+ T cells of therapy-naive MS patients were resistant to Treg-mediated suppression. Treg resistance is associated with an augmented IL-6 product…
Hormone therapy is associated with better body composition and adipokine/glucose profiles
2012
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the possibility of preventing the metabolic health consequences of postmenopausal hypogonadism with the use of long-term hormone therapy (HT). Methods: We used a monozygotic co-twin control design including 10 twin pairs (aged 56-62 y) discordant for HT (duration of HT, 2-10 y). In addition, 14 premenopausal women (aged 29-35 y) who did not use HT were studied to evaluate the differences in metabolic health between the premenopausal and postmenopausal states. Body composition was determined, and waist-to-hip ratio was used as an estimate for fat distribution. Serum sex steroids, sex hormone-binding globulin, and serum lipid and glucose profil…
Differences in platelet growth factor release and leucocyte kinetics during autologous platelet gel formation.
2006
Three commercial systems for whole blood separation were compared to obtain the buffy coat composed of platelet-rich plasma (BC-PRP) and leucocytes . These samples of the buffy coat were used to make a platelet gel (PG), which was used to measure platelet growth factor (PGF) release, to perform a white blood cell (WBC) count and to measure myeloperoxidase (MPO) release from WBCs. Aliquots of whole blood obtained from ten volunteers were distributed either to a blood cell separator (The Electa Cell-Separator (TM), E-CS) or to a tabletop centrifuge (Gravitational Platelet Sequestration System (TM), GPS) to prepare the BC-PRP. The third system combines the BC-PRP production by E-CS with a micr…
The Association between Peripheral Blood Cells and the Frailty Syndrome in Patients with Cardiovascular Diseases
2020
Background: Frailty syndrome is characterized by multisystem dysregulation frequently found in older individuals or even in younger patients with chronic disabling diseases such as cardiovascular diseases. Objective: To determine whether peripheral blood cell count, and its subpopulations, red blood cell and platelets, morphology and different ratios (neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio and red blood distribution width-to-platelet ratio) are associated with cardiac frail patients, and through this to improve the prediction of frailty status in patients with cardiovascular diseases. Methods: An observational, retrospective, cohort study enrolling 179 patients with c…
Phase I trial of recombinant human tumour necrosis factor alpha in patients with advanced malignancy.
1991
A phase I clinical trial was conducted with recombinant human tumour necrosis factor alpha (rhTNF-alpha) in 62 patients with advanced malignancy refractory to previous standard therapy. rhTNF-alpha was given as a 30 min infusion twice a day at 6 h intervals. A total of 10 different dose levels was escalated in cohorts of 6 patients ranging from 2.5 to 200 micrograms/m2 twice a day for 5 days every second week for a total of 8 weeks followed by a 4-week observation period. Major side-effects of TNF-alpha therapy, seen in almost all patients studied, were fever and chills. As dose-limiting side-effects hypotension and liver toxicity were recorded in 4 of 5 patients treated with 200 micrograms…
Spontaneous echo contrast caused by platelet and leukocyte aggregates?
2001
Background and Purpose —Spontaneous echocardiographic contrast (SEC) is correlated to clinical thromboembolic events. We sought to determine the origin of SEC by utilizing direct analysis of left atrial blood. Methods —We examined the blood of 13 patients with and 19 without SEC. Blood samples were taken from the femoral vein and artery and from the right and left atria after transseptal puncture. Samples were incubated with fluorescence-labeled antibodies directed against the platelet (CD41a-PE, CD42b-PE, and CD62p-FITC) and leukocyte membrane epitopes (CD45-APC and CD14-FITC). The expressed epitopes were analyzed by dual laser flow cytometry immediately after blood withdrawal. Results —I…
Expression of host defense scavenger receptors in spondylarthropathy
2001
Objective Reactive arthritis (ReA) is postulated to be caused by a defective host defense against gram-negative bacteria. HLA–B27 could play a role in this process, but does not account for the many HLA–B27 negative patients. The objective of this study was to test the expression of 3 macrophage scavenger receptors (SRs) that are responsible for innate immunity against gram-negative bacteria: SR class A type I (SR-AI), SR-AII, and the macrophage receptor with collagenous structure (MARCO). We postulate that defects in such receptors might also contribute to the host risk factors that increase the predisposition to ReA and perhaps other subtypes of spondylarthropathy (SpA). Methods Periphera…