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Biomedical subjects

M Abbal

Publications and source records attributed to M Abbal.

108 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1975

[Rheumatoid synovial fluid].

In making a comparative study of different parameters in the examination of synovial fluid (rheumatoid factors, ragocytes, leucocytes, synovial complement, immunoglobulins) the authors show that rheumatoid fluid has characteristics that make differentiation from other inflammatory arthropathies possible on a statistical basis, thanks to the test for the homogeneity of the means. The presence of these characteristics seems to constitute a diagnostic argument which can be measured by mathematical methods.

Arthritis↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Ex vivo flow cytometry determination of intracytoplasmic expression of IL-2, IL-6, IFN-gamma, and TNF-alpha in monocytes and T lymphocytes, in chronic hemodialysis patients.

AIMS: To determine the intracytoplasmic expression of TNF-alpha, IL-2, IL-6 and IFN-gamma, ex vivo and in vitro, in both monocytes and T lymphocytes by flow cytometry after appropriate stimulation using phorbol myristate acetate (PMA)/ionomycin or lipopolysaccharides (LPS) in the presence of monensin, in order to assess the bio(in)compatibility of different dialysis membranes. METHODS: We examined monocytes and T lymphocytes taken from chronic hemodialysis patients (using either cuprophane (CUP), n = 6; polyacrylonitrile (AN 69), n = 6; or polysulfone (PS), n = 6 membranes), before and after a dialysis session. We compared the results with those obtained from end-stage chronic renal failure patients (n = 3) and healthy volunteers (n = 11). RESULTS: Before any stimulation there was a statistically significant difference in the percentages of TNF-alpha, IL-6, and IFN-gamma- expressing monocytes with respect to the dialysis membrane used. The highest percentages were observed for CUP and AN69 patients with figures of around 30% for each cytokine; the lowest percentages were found in PS patients and healthy volunteers. One hour after LPS stimulation the patterns remained unchanged for TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma, whereas the percentages of IL-6-expressing cells in PS patients and in healthy volunteers reached the figures obtained in the other groups. When we examined the percentage of IFN-gamma-, TNF-alpha- and IL-6-expressing monocytes in patients before and after a dialysis session, before any stimulation, we found that the results were significantly different for the three membranes (p = 0.01). Thus, a dialysis session with polysulfone membranes had no significant effect on the precentages of IFN-gamma-, TNF-alpha-, and IL-6-expressing monocytes, whereas percentages were significantly lower after the dialysis session when using cuprophane or AN69 membranes, suggesting a release of these cytokines by the monocytes during dialysis. A significant number of IFN-gamma- and IL-2-expressing T lymphocytes were only detected after 18 hours of PMA/ionomycin stimulation. The percentages of IFN-gamma-expressing T cells recorded for the different membranes were not statistically different from those recorded for healthy subjects or pre-dialysis patients, i.e., they were between 11.5 and 20%. However, the percentages of IL-2-expressing T lymphocytes were significantly different between the 5 groups, i.e., 31.3, 30.5, 18.6, 13.9 and 7. 6%, respectively, for CUP patients, pre-dialysis patients, healthy volunteers, PS and AN69 patients. This suggests that pre-dialysis and CUP patients have, at baseline, a stimulation of their T lymphocytes. Finally, a 4-hour dialysis session had no impact on the percentages of IL-2-expressing T lymphocytes, whereas it was associated with a significant decrease in the percentage of IFN-gamma-expressing cells, but only when cuprophane membranes were used. CONCLUSION: Cytokine flow cytometry enables one to study, ex vivo, i.e., without any stimulation of the cells, and in vitro after appropriate stimulation, the bio(in)compatibility of dialysis membranes assessed by the intracytoplasmic cytokine profiles of TNF-alpha, IFN-gamma, IL-6 and IL-2, evaluated at the single cell level.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Lack of effect of chronic hepatitis C virus infection on T-cell cytokine production in chronic hemodialysis patients.

It has been shown that chronic hemodialysis modifies, to some extent, the normal immune response by both T and B lymphocytes elicited by antigenic stimulation, e.g. by impairing the T-cell-dependent response after vaccination. A new technique, i.e. flow cytometry, enables to assess intracytoplasmically, at the single cell level, the production of a given cytokine. By using it, we studied in healthy volunteers (HV) and in chronic hemodialysis (CHD) patients, with respect to their hepatitis C virus (HCV) status, the production by the T lymphocytes of type 1, and type 2 cytokines. We studied the following cytokines (CK): IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-10, IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha in the T-cell lymphocytes (whole, CD4+ and CD8+). There were 13 HV and 59 CHD patients (36 HCV(-) and 23 HCV(+)). Amongst the latter, there were 32 men and 27 women, aged 59.5 +/- 2 years, undergoing CHD since 70 +/- 9.4 months. We found that: (1) the total number of lymphocytes as well as those expressing CD3, CD4, or CD19 were significantly decreased in CHD patients as compared to those from HV; (2) the total number of lymphocytes as well as their different subsets were similar in HCV(+) and in HCV(-) CHD patients; (3) the frequency of T-cell-expressing IL-5 or IL-10 was always low (<1%) in both HV and CHD groups; (4) overall in CHD patients, the mean percentages of T lymphocytes expressing IL-2, IL-4, IFN-gamma or TNF-alpha were respectively 31 +/- 13, 2.5 +/- 1.3, 28 +/- 12 and 34 +/- 11% and were not statistically different between HCV(+) and HCV(-) patients; (5) IL-2 was mainly produced by CD4+ T cells, whereas IFN-gamma was produced by CD8+ T cells, in both HV and CHD groups, and (6) the lymphocytes of CHD patients produced significantly more IL-2 and IL-4 than those from HV, suggesting an activation of their T lymphocytes. We conclude that using the cytokine flow cytometry assay, our study demonstrated that in HCV(+) CHD patients, as opposed to what has been described for HCV(+) patients with normal renal function, there was no impairment in the production of type 1 cytokines by peripheral blood mononuclear cells when compared to HCV(-) CHD patients. Conversely to HV, T lymphocytes from CHD patients are activated.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Intrathecal grafting of unencapsulated adrenal medullary tissue can bring CD4 T lymphocytes into CSF: a potentially deleterious event for the graft.

Adrenal medullary tissue including chromaffin cells was grafted intrathecally in cancer patients to relieve intractable pain. The central nervous system (CNS) is considered an immune privileged site. Therefore, non-HLA-matched and unencapsulated tissue was grafted in 15 patients and 1 sham control in a series of at least 20 grafts. We observed an increase in CSF lymphocyte counts in 15/20 allografts (75%). In contrast to peripheral blood, CD4 T cells predominated in the CSF, but failed to exhibit an activated phenotype (CD25+ CD45RO+ HLA-DR+). The positive effect of graft on pain, the high met-enkephalin levels, the absence of any increase in CSF cytokine levels particularly for IFN-gamma or IL-2 (but not IL-10 and IL-6), indirectly indicated that the graft was tolerated despite the presence of CSF lymphocytes. The single treatment failure and three of four cases of partial efficacy occurred in grafts where CSF lymphocytes were present. Moreover, when assayed (n = 7), the CD4+ CSF lymphocytes still retained the capacity to exhibit ex vivo a normal or enhanced frequency of T CD4 cells producing IFN-gamma and IL-2. Taken together, our observations indicate that impairment of the local immunosuppressive balance can lead to activation of those CSF CD4 T cells and drive a rejection process. This study suggests further work on the purification and/or the immunoisolation of tissues grafted in the CNS will be necessary, particularly when the possibility of long-term and repeated grafting is considered.

Adrenal Medulla↗