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Biomedical subjects

R J Levinsky

Publications and source records attributed to R J Levinsky.

172 records · Page 10Linked to original sources
PubMed1978

Circulating soluble immume complexes in recurrent oral ulceration and Behçet's syndrome.

Circulating IgG immune complexes were assayed by means of agglutination inhibition of IgG-coated latex particles to human IgG by rabbit IgM antibodies. Sera from thirty patients with Behçet's syndrome, thirty patients with recurrent oral ulcers and thirty healthy control subjects were analysed. The results showed raised levels of immune complexes in 60% of patients with Behçet's syndrome and 40% of patients with recurrent oral ulcers. There were significant differences in the levels of immune complexes between the neuro-ocular and arthritic types of Behçet's syndrome as compared with the muco-cutaneous type of Behçet's syndrome or recurrent oral ulceration. A close association was found between the disease activity and the amount of immune complexes. These results suggest that immune complexes may play a part in the transition from the epithelial involvement of mucosa or cutaneous tissues to the neuro-ocular and arthritic types of Behçet's syndrome. Another factor in tissue distribution might be the size of immune complexes, as multi-focal involvement of tissues in the neuro-ocular type of Behçet's syndrome is associated with a broad range of immune complexes from 3 X 10(5) to 3 X 10(6) daltons.

Antigen-Antibody Complex↗
PubMed1978

Damaged membrane fragments and immune complexes in the blood of patients with Behcet's syndrome.

Electron microscopic examination of centrifuged pellets of serum from patients with Behcet's syndrome and recurrent oral ulcers revealed the presence of a large number of membrane fragments. Some of these membranes showed numerous 10 nm holes that were identical to lesions produced by the action of complement. An attempt was made to correlate complement levels, antibodies and cellular immunity with the presence of the membrane fragments, without success. However, a significant correlation was found between the membranes and the IgG class of immune complexes. The finding of membrane fragments with complement-induced damage predominantly in the blood of patients with Behcet's syndrome, and the association with soluble immune complexes suggest that the latter may generate C5b-9 complexes which may bind to the surface of cells in result in cell lysis.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia: renin and steroid values during treatment.

Plasma renin activity (PRA), aldosterone (Aldo), 17alpha-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP) and testosterone (T), together with urine sodium, pregnanetriol, 17-oxosteroids and the 11-oxygenation index (11-OH) were estimated in 23 patients (age 5.7--18 yrs.) with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency during glucocorticoid treatment. Elevated PRA levels (1400--17200 ng Al/l/hr) were found in 13 out of 15 patients with a history of salt loss. Three non-salt losers showed high PRA levels and in the remaining 5 the levels were in the upper normal range (540--900 ng Al/l/hr). Plasma Aldo levels were normal (25--620 pmol/l) in 18 patients and slightly elevated (690--2360 pmol/l) in 5. While these results indicate persistent impairment of sodium homeostasis in CAH patients, no significant correlations between log. PRA, log. Aldo and urinary sodium excretion were found. Mid-day 17-OHP levels ranged from 9 to 117 nmol/l and T from 0.3 to 18.0 nmol/l. Neither the 17-OHP nor the T results correlated well with the clinical assessment of therapeutic control. The results of the urinary steroid determinations showed better agreement with the clinical assessment of treatment and the 17-oxosteroid, pregnanetriol and 11-OH index results appeared to be better discriminants between good and poor control. Twelve of the patients with a history of early salt loss were reinvestigated after one month's treatment with oral 9 alpha-flurohydrocortisone (0.05 mg/day). PRA was reduced in 7 patients and 17-OHP fell in 10 patients. No consistent changes were found in Aldo, T, or urinary sodium and steroid excretion during this low-dose mineralocorticoid treatment.

17-Ketosteroids↗
PubMed1977

Serum immune complexes and disease activity in lupus nephritis.

Raised levels of circulating soluble immune complexes were found in sera of 21 of 29 patients with lupus nephritis. They correlated well with clinical disease activity in the group as a whole and with the course of individual patients. In 2 patients, high-dose methylprednisolone reduced levels of immune complexes and led to clinical improvement. The size of the IgG complexes was studied in 7 patients. The complexes were very large (2-5-4X10(6) M.W.) in 6, but only the 4 with diffuse proliferative glomerulonephritis had medium-sized IgG complexes (1-1-5X10(6) M.W.) as well.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

A test for antigen--antibody complexes in human sera using IgM of rabbit antisera to human immunoglobulins.

A simple semi-quantitative test for soluble antigen--antibody complexes using characterized non-human reagents and permitting analysis of their constituents is described. The agglutination of immunoglobulin-coated latex particles by rabbit IgM antibodies to the immunoglobulin is inhibited by complex-containing sera. No inhibition is obtained with monomer immunoglobulins. Semi-quantitative measurement of complexes may be made by electronically counting residual unagglutinated latex particles. The new method of linking proteins to latex by DNP coupling permits the technique to be applied to all constituents of complexes; immunoglobulins, complement and antigens. A new method of decomplementing sera by EDTA-Sigma cell-IgG absorption allows analysis of sera without the false positives and false negatives other methods give. The test gave positive results for IgG complexes in most of twenty-four patients with SLE nephritis. IgA complexes were identified in a patient with Henoch-Schonlein purpura nephritis.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

24-Hour urinary glucose excretion in assessment of control in juvenile diabetes mellitus.

24-Hour urinary glucose excretion was measured in 43 juvenile diabetics during treatment as outpatients. In 20 children studied twice over 1-3 months there was good correlation between glucose excretion on each occasion. Subdivision of the collections into the periods 08 therefore 00-20 therefore 00 and 20 therefore 00-08 therefore 00 hours gave slightly less consistent results with correlation coefficients of 0 therefore 83 and 0 therefore 80, respectively, between the results of the repeat tests. In 37 prepubertal children, 24-hour glucose concentration and height velocity over the previous year were compared, and a highly significant negative correlation found. 10 of the 12 children with glucose excretion greater than 40 g/d had height velocities more than 1 SD below the mean for age, while only 2 of the 25 subjects excreting less than 40 g/d had height velocities more than 1 SD below the mean. The results indicate that estimation of 24-hour urine glucose excretion can be a useful index for monitoring treatment and that subdivision of the total collection may be of value in selecting the most suitable insulin regimen for the patient.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Fetal B lymphocyte subpopulations in normal pregnancies.

In 190 pregnancies undergoing cordocentesis for prenatal diagnosis (n = 174) or elective caesarean section (n = 16), fetal peripheral blood B lymphocyte subpopulations were measured using a fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACScan). The total number of B lymphocytes and polyreactive CD5+ B cells increased exponentially with gestation from respective means of 0.33 x 10(9)/l and 0.25 x 10(9)/l at 17 weeks to a plateau of 0.66 x 10(9)/l and 0.54 x 10(9) at 36 weeks, remaining at that level thereafter. The number of mature CD10- and active CD23+ B lymphocytes increased linearly from a mean of 0.07 x 10(9)/l and 0.11 x 10(9)/l at 17 weeks to 0.24 x 10(9)/l and 0.37 x 10(9)/l, respectively, at 40 weeks. As expected, all B lymphocytes expressed the HLA-DR antigen from as early as 16 weeks gestation. These alterations in specific B lymphocyte subpopulations reflect the pattern of maturation and development of the fetal humoral immune system.

Antigens, CD↗