Biomedical subjects

E Leinisch

Publications and source records attributed to E Leinisch.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Affective components and intensity of pain correlate with structural differences in gray matter in chronic back pain patients.

Although chronic back pain is one of the most frequent reasons for permanent impairment in people under 65, the neurobiological mechanisms of chronification remain vague. Evidence suggests that cortical reorganisation, so-called functional plasticity, may play a role in chronic back pain patients. In the search for the structural counterpart of such functional changes in the CNS, we examined 18 patients suffering from chronic back pain with voxel-based morphometry and compared them to 18 sex and age matched healthy controls. We found a significant decrease of gray matter in the brainstem and the somatosensory cortex. Correlation analysis of pain unpleasantness and the intensity of pain on the day of scanning revealed a strong negative correlation (i.e. a decrease in gray matter with increasing unpleasantness/increasing intensity of pain) in these areas. Additionally, we found a significant increase in gray matter bilaterally in the basal ganglia and the left thalamus. These data support the hypothesis that ongoing nociception is associated with cortical and subcortical reorganisation on a structural level, which may play an important role in the process of the chronification of pain.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Gray matter decrease in patients with chronic tension type headache.

Using MRI and voxel-based morphometry, the authors investigated 20 patients with chronic tension type headache (CTTH) and 20 patients with medication-overuse headache and compared them to 40 controls with no headache history. Only patients with CTTH demonstrated a significant gray matter decrease in regions known to be involved in pain processing. The finding implies that the alterations are specific to CTTH rather than a response to chronic head pain or chronification per se.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Recovery of monocytes after bone marrow transplantation--rapid reappearance of tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin 6 production.

After bone marrow transplantation many T-lymphocyte functions, including the production of cytokines (CK), such as interleukin 2, are severely depressed for months. The monocyte-derived cytokines tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin 6 are molecules central to immune functions. Moreover, they may be involved in graft-versus-host disease and in graft-versus-leukemia reaction. Hence, we have studied the reappearance of these CKs after BMT by analyzing whole blood cultures stimulated in vitro with lipopolysaccharide for 6 hr, followed by testing for the secretion of TNF in the WEHI 164/actinomycin D cytotoxicity bioassay and for IL-6 in the 7 TD 1 proliferation assay. We performed sequential studies in 6 children who were transplanted for aplastic anemia or leukemia with allogeneic bone marrow. We found that the production of both CKs can be induced as early as 10-14 days post BMT at the very beginning of engraftment, indicating that the regenerating monocyte system is recovering rapidly after BMT. Depletion and neutralization experiments confirmed that monocytes are the cellular source of the LPS-induced CK secretion after BMT. Control levels were reached 3 to 4 weeks post BMT. When analyzing the endotoxin-induced CK production in a larger panel of BMT patients after complete reconstitution, we could not detect any impact of acute or chronic GvHD, or of allogeneic or autologous BMT, nor did treatment with cyclosporine A (CsA) show any suppressive effect. Thus, our data show that the CK production of the monocyte/macrophage lineage is quite resistant to factors that do influence other cell lineages of the immune system during BMT. The coincident appearance of monocyte-derived cytokines and of GvHD suggests a role for these cytokines in GvHD in man.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Beneficial effect of liposome-encapsulated muramyl tripeptide in experimental septicemia in a porcine model.

In a porcine model of pneumococcal septicemia, animals were pretreated with 1 mg of liposome-encapsulated muramyl tripeptide phosphatidylethanolamine (MTP-PE) or with liposomes alone. After 24 h each animal received an injection of either 10(9) or 10(10) pneumococcal serotype 6B cells. MTP-PE pretreatment resulted in less pronounced leukocytopenia, with a nadir of 6,700 (versus 4,100) leukocytes per mm3 after injection of 10(9) bacteria and a nadir of 4,400 (versus 3,800) leukocytes per mm3 after injection of 10(10) bacteria. At the same time bacterial clearance was substantially improved by MTP-PE pretreatment. Finally, pretreatment with MTP-PE dramatically reduced mortality; the average death rates for both series of animals used were 55% for liposome-pretreated animals and 3% for animals pretreated with MTP-PE-containing liposomes. These results in a preclinical model suggest that treatment with MTP-PE-containing liposomes might be beneficial in controlling septicemia in patients at risk.

Acetylmuramyl-Alanyl-Isoglutamine↗