Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to F Saal.
This preliminary study shows, for the first time to our knowledge, decreased whole blood serotonin levels in AIDS patients as compared to healthy controls and cancer patients. The lowest serotonin levels were found in AIDS patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms. Finally the present data suggest an inverse relationship between serotonin level and AIDS severity.
HTLV-I, the causative agent of Adult T cell Leukemia, has recently been found to be associated with chronic neuromyelopathies common in tropical areas and in Japan. We report here the establishment of a lymphoid T cell line from peripheral blood lymphocytes of a patient with Tropical Spastic Paraparesis. This cell line produces a retrovirus whose morphologic, antigenic and genetic characteristics show no detectable difference from the leukemogenic prototype of HTLV-I.
Human T cell leukemia/lymphoma virus type I (HTLV-I) isolated in 1980, is a human retrovirus. This CD4+ lymphotropic type C retrovirus is endemic in South Western Japan, the Caribbean region and Africa where it is associated with a rare form of lymphoproliferative disease, adult T cell leukemia. Recently, HTLV-I antibodies has been found in sera and CSF from patients with tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP), a chronic neuromyelopathy of unknown etiology common in tropical areas and in Japanese patients with a similar clinical myelopathy. These data suggest that HTLV-I or an antigenically related virus might be neurotropic or neurovirulent and etiologically linked to such chronic neuromyelopathies. The fact that TSP affects about 10 to 100 persons/100,000 in tropical HTLV-I endemic areas, a prevalence comparable to that of multiple sclerosis in temperate regions, increases considerably the public health interest in HTLV-I and associated diseases. The possible neurotropism or neurovirulence of this retrovirus is discussed.
Significantly (p less than 0.001) decreased whole blood unconjugated serotonin levels were detected in AIDS patients as compared to patients with advanced cancers and to healthy individuals.
We demonstrate that Simian Foamy viruses (SFV) types 1, 2, 4 and 10 do not induce Interferon (IFN) production in mouse and primate (simian and human) cell lines, but that their cytopathogenic effect is blocked by this viral inhibitor. The mechanisms of action of IFN seems to be different from that of other Retroviridae. No trapping of virions appears in treated cells examined by ectron microscopy. Moreover, neither precursor nor mature virus particles were observed in infected cultures submitted to IFN treatment.
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The magnitude, the potency, the duration, and the specificity of histamine-induced cyclic AMP formation has been compared in human promyelocytic leukemic HL-60 cells and in human peripheral neutrophils. In HL-60 cells incubated at 37 degrees in the absence of phosphodiesterase inhibitor, histamine caused a 20-fold stimulation of basal cyclic AMP levels, with an EC50 of 5 X 10(-6) M. Typical H2 receptors were involved as shown by the relative potencies of the H1-selective agonists, 2-(2-pyridyl)ethylamine (PEA) and 2-(2-amino-ethyl)thiazole (AET), and the H2-selective agonists, impromidine and 4-methyl)histamine(4-MH): impromidine greater than histamine greater than 4-MH greater than AET greater than PEA. In this system, impromidine had mixed agonist-antagonist properties as shown by the rightward shift of the concentration-response curve of histamine (EC50 = 2 X 10(-3) M histamine in the presence of 10(-4) M impromidine). Histamine stimulation was competitively inhibited by the furane derivative ranitidine (Ki = 0.16 X 10(-6) M) as well as by the imidazole analogues oxmetidine (Ki = 0.48 X 10(-6) M) and cimetidine (Ki = 0.65 X 10(-6) M), whereas the H1 antagonist diphenhydramine inhibited histamine action at about 100-300 times higher concentrations (Ki = 51 X 10(-6) M). Prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) also stimulated cyclic AMP levels (50-fold increase) in HL-60 cells; half-maximal activation by PGE1 occurred at 3.2 X 10(-6) M. Our results indicate, first, that prostaglandin and histamine H2 receptors are present and functional at an early stage during myeloid differentiation; second, that there is no substantial difference between the pharmacological properties of the histamine H2 receptors in HL-60 cells and in mature human peripheral neutrophils; third, that the remarkable capacity for cyclic AMP formation noted in HL-60 leukemic cells after cell surface interaction by histamine or prostaglandin suggests that cyclic AMP and agents which increase its formation may have a role in the regulation of proliferation and/or differentiation of human myeloid progenitor cells.
Studies on the susceptibility of several human cell lines cultured in vitro, to infection by different type C xenotropic retroviruses, demonstrate the existence of a wide variation in the responses of the cells investigated. These results suggest a genetic control mechanism of the viral replication by human cells.
This report concerns the establishment of a human cell line cryptically infected by a murine leukemia virus (MuLV). This cell line, named J112, is characterized by the presence of genetic viral information in a majority of cells as demonstrated by immunological and virological methods, and by the absence of detectable viral activity in the supernatant culture fluids. Nevertheless, electron microscopy demonstrated the presence of a small number of particles which have the morphology of immature type C particles. We discuss the importance of this experimental model in relationship with non-producing (NP) infections of human cells by oncogenic retroviruses.
An anti-idiotypic serum was prepared by injecting BALB anti-AKR serum into (BALB X AKR)F1 mice. Pretreatment of BALB anti-AKR immune cells with this anti-idiotypic serum plus complement abrogated a leucocyte migration inhibition reaction (LMIR) against AKR extracts but not against purified protein derivative By itself, the serum induced LMIR in immune cells but not in normal cells. The reaction was strain-specific and anti-Thy 1,2 plus complement sensitive. These results indicate that alloantigen receptors, able to trigger in LMIR in immune cells, have idiotypic determinants similar to those of circulating antibodies of the same specificity. Thus the LMIR is a good model for the study of receptors cell-mediated immune reactions of primed cells.
A new type of syncytium-forming (foamy) virus was isolated from peripheral lymphocytes of a Papio cynocephalus baboon after cocultivation with a rhesus monkey cell line. The isolate was characterized by cytopathogenic effect, host range, electron microscopy, reverse transcriptase activity and physical and chemical properties. Seroneutralization tests indicate that the new isolate is antigenically distinct from the other nine known simian foamy virus serotypes.
The sera of 28 patients with aplastic anaemia were examined for their effect on granulocyte colony growth in soft agar. Normal sera did not affect colony growth, but 13 sera from patients with aplastic anaemia, three from multiparous women, and six from patients polytransfused for various disorders caused colony inhibition. This inhibition was not due to the presence of HLA antibodies in aplasia patients because some sera inhibited HLA compatible bone marrow, and polyspecific HLA antibodies were not found in all inhibitory sera. All patients who failed to show engraftment or who rejected their bone marrow graft within three weeks had serum inhibitory to normal bone marrow cell culture, but inhibition could not be demonstrated against autologous bone marrow cells in these patients with aplastic anaemia. The results show that patients with serum inhibitors have an increased risk of early graft rejection and suggest that this rejection is mediated by antibodies directed against bone marrow stem cells.
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A human heteroploid cell line of malignant origin (J111) was infected with Mouse Moloney Sarcoma Virus. [MSV-M(MLV)]. The replication of the virus was demonstrated by different methods. After a few passages of infected cultures, the transforming component of MSV-M(MLV) disappeared from the supernatant fluids and cells. The non transforming helper component continued to be produced. The relatively low amount of helper virus released by the cells suggests a control of its replication in the J111 cellular system.
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