Eosinophilia and fluid retention in systemic administration of interleukin-2.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G J Gleich.
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By utilizing the colloidal gold particle technique, we localized eosinophil granule major basic protein, eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), and eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (EDN) in human nasal polyp sections by immunoelectron microscopy. Sections stained with affinity chromatography purified rabbit anti-human major basic protein, and subsequently with gold colloidal particle-goat anti-rabbit IgG, showed gold particles predominantly within granule cores, and not within other eosinophil organelles, plasma cells, mast cells, lymphocytes, or neutrophils. Sections stained with anti-ECP or anti-EDN showed gold particles concentrated over the granule matrix with fewer particles centrally. Control sections treated with preimmunization sera showed no staining of cells or organelles. These results verify the localization of major basic protein to the crystalloid core of the human eosinophil granule and show that ECP and EDN reside in the granule matrix. This technique provides a means of accurately locating the sites of major basic protein, ECP, and EDN deposition and thus of identifying eosinophil degranulation patterns in human disease.
Lymph nodes from each of the four histologic types of Hodgkin's disease were examined for the presence of eosinophils and for eosinophil degranulation by immunofluorescent localization of eosinophil granule major basic protein (MBP). Eosinophil degranulation shown by MBP deposition outside of eosinophils was found in six of eight nodes from patients with nodular sclerosing disease and in two of eight nodes from patients with lymphocyte depletion-type disease. Three nodes of the mixed cellularity type, one node of the lymphocyte predominance type, and one lymph node of the lymphocyte depletion type showed one or two small foci of extracellular MBP deposition. Lymph nodes from patients without Hodgkin's disease showed no extracellular deposition of MBP. Large numbers of eosinophils were found in seven of eight nodes of the nodular sclerosing variant, but were less frequently seen among the other types of Hodgkin's disease. The presence of extracellular MBP in lymph nodes of patients with Hodgkin's disease indicates that eosinophil degranulation commonly occurs and suggests that the released eosinophil granule proteins may participate in the inflammatory reaction in this disorder more extensively than is presently appreciated.
Although blood eosinophilia is commonly present in atopic dermatitis, accumulation of tissue eosinophils is not prominent. To determine whether eosinophil degranulation occurs in lesions of atopic dermatitis, we analyzed tissues by immunofluorescence for the presence of the eosinophil-granule major basic protein. Twenty biopsy specimens from 18 patients with atopic dermatitis were studied, and all showed major basic protein staining outside eosinophils. In 18 specimens, the staining was fibrillar, was located in the upper half of the dermis, and was similar to the distribution of elastic fibers. Twelve specimens with fibrillar staining also showed major basic protein staining in the form of extracellular granules. One specimen from unaffected skin showed minimal faint, fine, fluorescing fibrils, but there was marked deposition of the protein in affected skin. The fibrillar pattern of major basic protein staining in atopic dermatitis was very similar to that seen in lichenified lesions of untreated onchocerciasis. These results suggest that eosinophils commonly release granule proteins in the dermis and that assessment of eosinophil involvement in disease cannot be based simply on numbers of eosinophils in tissue.
Seasonal variation of symptoms and IgE response to short ragweed (SRW) allergens is well documented. Clinical symptoms generally parallel the rise and fall of the SRW-pollen count, whereas total and specific-IgE levels peak after the SRW-pollen season with a more gradual return to preseason levels. Because IgE synthesis is under T-lymphocyte control, we tested for seasonal variation in T cell-proliferative response to SRW antigen E (AgE) in vitro. Nine untreated SRW-sensitive and five nonallergic individuals were studied on 15 occasions from June 1981 through May 1982. In vitro proliferative index (SI) to AgE, serum total and specific IgE and SRW-pollen counts were measured; all persons studied kept daily symptom diaries. The mean SI was higher for the atopic group on all 15 sampling dates. The cumulative SI and the daily SI were statistically different between groups before, during, and after pollination. The peak SI for the atopic patients occurred almost 1 2/5 wk after the pollination peak, and the peak IgE antibody levels to SRW occurred at 5 2/5 wk after the pollination peak. We conclude that in vitro responsiveness to AgE is a specific response of allergic individuals and that this response demonstrates a significant seasonal component.
The function of the eosinophil in eosinophilic pulmonary syndromes and asthma is uncertain. To determine if eosinophils might play a harmful role in these conditions, we cocultured purified human eosinophils, eosinophil major basic protein (MBP), and chromatographically eluted eosinophil granule fractions with human A549 and rat type II pneumocytes. Damage to these target cells was measured as cell lysis and nonlethal cell detachment. We found that unstimulated intact eosinophils affected minimal lysis or detachment of either pneumocyte target, but eosinophils stimulated with phorbol myristate acetate and other activators produced time- and dose-dependent nonlytic detachment of both targets. In contrast, supernatants from activated eosinophils did not produce significant injury, suggesting that close apposition of the effector and target cells was required. Catalase and superoxide dismutase did not inhibit the detaching activity of eosinophils, suggesting that hydrogen peroxide and superoxide anion were not activity of eosinophils, suggesting that hydrogen peroxide and superoxide anion were not responsible for mediating this form of injury. In contrast to our findings with intact eosinophils, we observed that the addition of purified eosinophil MBP to pneumocytes caused marked cytolysis with little detachment. When sequential fractions of eosinophil granules separated by Sephadex G-50 chromatography were added to A549 and rat type II pneumocyte targets, it was found that different fractions produced distinct forms of injury. Higher molecular weight fractions containing lysosomal enzymes and eosinophil peroxidase produced predominantly detachment, whereas fractions enriched in MBP produced lysis. These results indicate that intact eosinophils can produce nonlytic detachment of alveolar pneumocytes that is probably not dependent on the generation of toxic oxygen radicals but rather appears to be mediated by granule-associated products, possibly lysosomal enzymes. Furthermore, although intact eosinophils are not capable of lysing alveolar epithelial cells under the conditions of our assay, MBP has the potential to do so when the protein is released in high enough concentrations. The in vivo relevance of these findings in eosinophilic lung diseases may be that eosinophils, by producing both desquamation and death of alveolar epithelium cells, may increase the permeability of the alveolus to fluid and cells. Moreover, these forms of damage might also enhance the ingress of inhaled antigens across the pulmonary epithelial barrier, thus increasing immunologic sensitization.
Leukocytes of 22 individuals were incubated with a suboptimal concentration of eosinophil granule major basic protein and the amount of histamine release was determined. Cells from 20 of the 22 donors had a histamine release of greater than or equal to 15%. The use of selected donors on repeated occasions revealed significant variability in individual donor responsiveness. The findings support a role for major basic protein activation of human basophils in allergic reactions.
We investigated the density of blood eosinophils from patients with asthma using polyvinylpyrrolidone-coated silica gel (Percoll) discontinuous density gradient centrifugation of peripheral blood leukocytes. Ten patients with allergic asthma, 10 normal subjects, and 2 patients with the hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) were studied. The density distribution profiles of eosinophils from normal subjects showed: (1) peaks at densities of 1.085 to 1.090 g/ml and (2) inflection points or nadirs near 1.082 g/ml, below which only 10% of eosinophils were found. On the basis of these results, we divided eosinophils into 2 subpopulations: normodense (greater than 1.082 g/ml) and hypodense (less than 1.082 g/ml). Densities of eosinophils from patients with asthma and HES peaked at 1.083 and 1.076 g/ml (mean values), respectively, significantly lighter than eosinophils from normal donors (p less than 0.005 and p less than 0.001, respectively). The proportions of hypodense eosinophils in patients with asthma and HES were 35 and 95%, respectively, and were significantly greater than that in normal donors (p less than 0.002 and p less than 0.001, respectively). The density distribution profiles of a normal subject were stable over time, but those of asthmatic patients varied with time. For the 22 participants, there was a positive correlation between log-transformed blood eosinophil counts and the percentage of hypodense eosinophils (r = +0.86, p less than 0.001). Similarly, for 15 of them, plasma eosinophil granule major basic protein correlated with the numbers of peripheral blood eosinophils (r = +0.92, p less than 0.0005) and hypodense eosinophils (r = +0.92, p less than 0.0005). Thus, a portion of the eosinophils in asthmatic patients and most of the eosinophils in patients with HES are hypodense.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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The human eosinophil granule contains several distinctive cationic proteins that have been purified to homogeneity, including major basic protein (MBP), eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), and eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (EDN). Two earlier studies have shown that MBP and ECP both damage schistosomula of Schistosoma mansoni in vitro in a dose-dependent fashion. The present study expands upon these observations by comparing the toxicity of MBP, ECP, as well as EDN when tested at equimolar concentrations (0.03-2 X 10(-5) M). On a molar basis, ECP was 8 to 10 times more potent than MBP, and the ECP-mediated killing of schistosomula was qualitatively different than that of MBP. Purified ECP produced complete fragmentation and disruption of schistosomula, whereas MBP produced a distinctive ballooning and detachment of the tegumental membrane. In contrast, EDN was only marginally toxic at high concentrations and caused crinkling of the tegumental membrane. Heating MBP and ECP for four hr at 56 degrees C caused precipitation and loss of toxicity for MBP, but not for ECP. Native MBP (with reactive sulfhydryl groups intact) and stabilized, reduced and alkylated MBP had comparable toxicity. To determine the relative contribution of MBP, ECP and other potentially helminthotoxic eosinophil granule constituents to schistosomulum damage, fractions of acid soluble granule extracts prepared by chromatography on Sephadex G-50 columns were analyzed for toxicity to schistosomula and for MBP and ECP levels by radioimmunoassay. Schistosomula were killed by fractions containing MBP, and to a much lesser and more variable extent by fractions containing EDN and a 21,000 dalton protein, but not by fractions coincident with the elution of ECP, which contained concentrations of ECP below that required to produce significant killing of schistosomula by the purified protein. Therefore, although ECP is a more potent helminthotoxin for schistosomula than MBP on a molar basis, MBP, by virtue of its abundance in the granule, accounts for the bulk of the toxicity in fractions of acid solubilized granules obtained from eosinophils of patients with marked eosinophilia.
Two patients had recurrent facial edema and peripheral blood eosinophilia. One patient showed a marked increase in the serum level of the eosinophil granule major basic protein. In both patients, skin biopsy samples showed nonspecific mononuclear cell inflammation with few eosinophils. However, immunofluorescence staining showed extracellular localization of the major basic protein within the dermis, similar to that previously shown in chronic urticaria and the recently described syndrome of episodic angioedema with eosinophilia. These observations provide further evidence that degranulation of eosinophils occurs in the skin and suggest that eosinophil mediators may play a role in the development of cutaneous edema.
We have recently shown that a proportion of previously designated human eosinophil "(Eo)-type" colonies in methylcellulose contain basophils and histamine (Denburg et al Blood 61:775, 1983). In the present studies, individual Eo-type colonies have been analyzed by cell morphology as well as by biochemical assays for histamine, Charcot-Leyden crystal protein (CLC), and eosinophil granule major basic protein (MBP). Clonal origin of single Eo-type colonies was confirmed by G6PD isoenzyme analysis. Morphological observations of such colonies revealed the existence of two distinct colony types: (1) Eo type containing 100% basophils and (2) Eo type containing mixtures of basophils and eosinophils, including cells with mixed basophil-eosinophil granulation. Histamine was not detected in pure, mature peripheral blood eosinophils. Immunofluorescent studies demonstrated bright staining for CLC and MBP in 95% +/- 3% of cells in Eo-type colonies but only in 5% +/- 4% of cells in GM-type colonies. Radioimmunoassay for MBP was positive in 5/9 Eo-type and 0/10 neutrophil-macrophage ("GM-type") colonies, with a mean level (nanogram/colony) of 11.6 +/- 4.2 per Eo-type colony; four of the latter colonies were doubly positive for both histamine and MBP. These and previous findings point out the morphological and biochemical heterogeneity of peripheral blood Eo-type colonies and provide direct evidence for the existence of a common, circulating basophil-eosinophil progenitor.
The divalent cation ionophore A23187 is frequently used for studies of eosinophil degranulation. Nonetheless, the mechanism whereby A23187 induces degranulation in human eosinophils is still unclear. In the present experiments, A23187 caused human eosinophils to release a granule protein, eosinophil-derived neurotoxin (EDN) and a membrane-associated protein, Charcot-Leyden crystal (CLC) protein in a calcium and a concentration-dependent manner. However, A23187 at a concentration (1 microgram/ml) that caused 15% EDN release and 30% CLC protein release also produced release of the cytoplasmic enzyme lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) and loss of cell viability, both of which were calcium dependent. CLC protein release preceded EDN release and was detectable even at 15 min after the addition of 1 microgram/ml A23187, whereas EDN release occurred after a lag period of 30 min, and coincided with LDH release. At 1 microgram/ml A23187, neither the release of LDH nor the loss of viability occurred with purified neutrophils obtained in the same blood sample as a by-product of eosinophil purification. Electron microscopic examination demonstrated that exposure to A23187 for 15 min resulted in an increase and elongation of microridges on the cell surface, and exposure for 45 min caused cell disruption followed by extrusion of membrane-bound granules through breaks in the plasma membrane. Only once was granule exocytosis observed. These results indicate that A23187 treatment of eosinophils causes an initial release of membrane-associated CLC protein by a noncytolytic mechanism, and causes degranulation as a result of eosinophil lysis.
HL-60 promyelocytic leukemia cells differentiated to eosinophils and eosinophilic precursors when cultured under mildly alkaline conditions (pH 7.6-7.8) for 7 d without refeeding. New cytoplasmic granules appeared blue in the least mature cells and red in the most mature cells when stained with Wright-Giemsa. The granules also stained with Luxol-fast-blue, a characteristic of eosinophil granules. Furthermore, most cells contained the eosinophil major basic protein (MBP); the Charcot-Leyden Crystal (CLC) protein (lysophospholipase), eosinophil peroxidase, acid phosphatase, and arylsulfatase were also detected in a portion of these cells. The eosinophil major basic protein was found in a high proportion of undifferentiated cells, and thus may be constituitively produced. By examining finely banded chromosomes, translocation break points were demonstrated at q22 on one chromosome 16 and at q23 on the other homologue; abnormalities in this region of the long arm of 16 are a characteristic finding in the recently described syndrome of acute myelomonocytic leukemia (AMMoL) with abnormal bone marrow eosinophils. In common with the bone marrow eosinophils in these patients, the HL-60 eosinophil granules contained chloroacetate esterase and periodic-acid Schiff (PAS) reactive material; crystalloid inclusions were rare. Therefore, the HL-60 cell line appears to be an in vitro model for eosinophilopoiesis and may be specially suited for the study of the abnormal eosinophils seen in certain malignant conditions.
We have recently reported that human pregnancy is characterized by a 10- to 20-fold elevation of eosinophil major basic protein (MBP) immunoreactivity in maternal blood. Here we show, by immunofluorescence, that placental tissue specifically binds antibody to MBP in and around the placental X cells and placental-site giant cells and, using thin plastic sections, that placenta has no infiltrating eosinophils. The X cells line the inner aspects of placental septal cysts, and the cyst fluid, obtained by aspiration, contains immunoreactive MBP at concentrations of 100 micrograms/ml, a sixfold greater concentration than the highest levels measured in maternal blood. The soluble MBP immunoreactivities in placental homogenates and in maternal serum chromatograph identically on Sephadex G-50, and both these gestational MBP molecules migrate as though substantially larger than the MBP found in serum from patients with hypereosinophilic syndrome or purified from the eosinophil granule. Our inability to demonstrate eosinophils in maternal blood or placental tissue, coupled with the large quantities of immunoreactive MBP highly localized in placental cysts and the chromatographic behavior of this molecule, suggest that the MBP detected in human gestation is produced by placenta.
We studied four patients with recurrent attacks of angioedema, urticaria, and fever. During attacks, body weights increased up to 18 per cent, and leukocyte counts reached 108,000 per microliter (88 per cent eosinophils). The disease did not appear to threaten the function of vital organs. The two children received prednisone intermittently; the adults did not require treatment or were given alternate-day prednisone. Glucocorticoid therapy caused defervescence and diuresis and decreased total leukocyte and eosinophil counts. No patient had evidence of cardiac involvement (follow-up, 2 to 17 years). One patient remained in spontaneous remission for 20 years before symptoms recurred. Histologic studies showed that eosinophils localized and degranulated in the dermis, and they appeared to induce edema. Although this syndrome might be classified as a variant of the hypereosinophilic syndrome, we believe it is a separate entity because of its distinctive characteristics and its benign course.
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