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Biomedical subjects

Z T Handzel

Publications and source records attributed to Z T Handzel.

69 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1978

An in-vitro immunological assay for diagnosis of coeliac disease.

Production of leucocyte-migration-inhibition factor (L.I.F.) by peripheral-blood lymphocytes in response to challenge with gluten fractions was studied in 55 patients with coeliac disease and in 32 controls. 96% of the patients with coeliac disease demonstrated significant L.I.F. reaction in response to gluten fractions irrespective of their dietary status. Only 2 out of 32 controls had a positive reaction. This was in response to the B2 or B3 fraction, but never to both. The agarose microdroplet method of L.I.F. assay is reliable and technically simple enough for use in most clinical laboratories. The assay of L.I.F. production by peripheral-blood lymphocytes in response to gluten fractions, would be a useful adjunct in the diagnosis of gluten-sensitive enteropathy.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Immune deficiency of T system with possible T cell regulatory activity defect.

The occurrence of T system immunodeficiency in an infant together with excessive production of IgM and, to a lesser degree, of IgG and IgA, is an unusual combination. A case is reported in which an unremitting lung infection with lymphadenopathy and hepatosplenomegaly developed in a previously healthy two-month-old infant. Leukocytosis with lymphocytosis, monocytosis and eosinophilia was rapidly followed by leukopenia and lymphocytepenia after a blood transfusion for anemia. There was a transient clinical remission, but on relapse 10 days later, quantitative and functional T cell deficiency was found together with increased IgG and IgA and with IgM values reaching 50 times greater than normal. Thymic humoral factor was successful in vitro in increasing the number of identifiable T cells (E rosetts) as well as T cell function (leukocyte migration inhibition factor production). However, the infant died suddenly, and at autopsy evidence of a generalized inflammatory reaction compatible with a viral infection was found. The thymus was small, hypoplastic and hypocellular. It is speculated that the T system deficiency may have been acquired following Epstein-Barr virus infection, and that T cell regulatory activity of immunoglobulin production was defective.

Antibodies, Viral↗
PubMed1977

Cellular immunity in newborn infants and children: stimulation of lymphocyte protein synthesis as a measure of immune competence.

An assay based on the early stimulation of protein synthesis in lymphocytes has been used as an in vitro measure of cellular immune competence. 3H-labelled leucine incorporation into human peripheral lymphocytes (PBL) stimulated by the mitogens phytohaemagglutinin (PHA), wax bean agglutinin (WBA) and Concanavalin A (Con A) was measured after one day in culture. This assay offers a technical advantage over the analogous 3H-labelled thymidine incorporation assay, because of the short incubation time required and the absence of homologous serum in the assay system. Newborn infants and patients with Down's syndrome as a group had normal responses, whereas those suffering from recurrent infections demonstrated normal or hyper-reactive responses. Patients with lymphoproliferative disorders, ataxia telangiectasia, and some patients under steroid therapy had diminished immune proliferative reactions. These results are in agreement with most previously reported studies using other assay systems.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Leucocyte migration inhibition factor (LIF) production by lymphocytes of normal children, newborns, and children with immune deficiency.

The reproducibility of a simplified, sensitive and rapid agarose-cell droplet assay for leucocyte migration inhibition factor (LIF) activity was studied. Removal of T cells with anti-T-cell serum eliminated LIF activity, indicating that in humans it is probably the T cell that produces LIF. Cord blood lymphocytes produce LIF, although spontaneous migration of leucocytes is less than in older children. The cause of this apparently does not reside in the PMN leucocytes. Studies of children with immunodeficiency suggest that the T-cell population in humans is heterogenous. B-cell deficiencies such as hypogammaglobulinaemia, have normal PPD and PHA induced LIF production, whilst some patients with ataxia-telangiectasia have defective PPD LIF activity, their PHA LIF activity being only minimally depressed. On the other hand, Down's syndrome patients with reduced blood T cells have remarkably deficient LIF activity to PHA and relatively good activity to PPD. Children receiving steroid therapy lose much of their ability to produce LIF to the specific antigen PPD, but not to the non-specific mitogen PHA.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Heteroimmunization to the capsular polysaccharide of Haemophilus influenzae type b induced by enteric cross-reacting bacteria.

Cross-reacting Escherichia coli strains Easter and 89 and Bacillus pumilis fed to newborn rabbits and E. coli fed to adult rhesus monkeys did not exert untoward reactions. The E. coli regularly colonized the newborns' intestinal tract from 1 to 7 weeks. High doses of E. coli were necessary to colonize adult primates. Colonization occurred in fewer newborn rabbits and lasted only 1 to 3 weeks with B. pumilis. Colonized newborn rabbits and adult rhesus had an active Haemophilus influenzae type b (HITB) immune response. In the rabbit, colonization resulted in accelerated induction of immunoglobulin (Ig) M-. IgA-, and IgG-producing cells in the spleen, mesenteric lymph nodes, and Peyer's patches after HITB challenge. E. coli-fed and control newborn primates were naturally colonized with nasopharyngeal and enteric cross-reacting bacteria and both groups rapidly developed HITB antibodies in the absence of the homologous organisms. Human newborn stool cultures, taken at the time of discharge from the nursery, showed a 0.9% carriage rate for cross-reacting E. coli. These "carrier" infants acquired HITB antibodies more rapidly than their age-matched "noncarrier" controls.

Animals↗
PubMed1973

Induction of Haemophilus influenzae type b capsular antibody in neonatal rabbits by gastrointestinal colonization with cross-reacting Escherichia coli.

In two separate experiments, newborn rabbits were fed a live suspension of either of two Escherichia coli strains which possess a "K" antigen cross-reactive with the capsular polysaccharide of Haemophilus influenzae type b. Both feedings were harmless and resulted in fecal excretion of the fed E. coli in most animals as well as active immunization of fed animals toward H. influenzae type b. Feeding non-enteropathogenic, cross-reacting E coli to newborns may be a method for inducing active immunity toward H. influenzae type b diseases by accelerating the acquisition of "natural" immunity.

Animals↗
PubMed1972

Enteric bacteria cross-reactive with Neisseria meningitidis groups A and C and Diplococcus pneumoniae types I and 3.

Enteric bacteria of 1,335 individual strains were studied for serological cross-reactions with Neisseria meningitidis groups A and C and Diplococcus pneumoniae types I and III. Enterobacterial antigens cross-reactive with the capsular polysaccharides of these four bacteria were found. Bacteria cross-reactive with noncapsular antigens of meningococci and pneumococci were also observed. Since some enteric bacteria possess antigens with serological specificities similar to those of meningococci, the possibility that enteric bacteria cross-reactive with meningococcal antigens provide an antigenic stimulus for the observed age-related "natural" immunity to this pathogen is discussed.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Specific in vitro proliferative immune responses and lymphokine production in Ethiopian children with and without tuberculosis.

UNLABELLED: We investigated the profile of some in vitro parameters of cellular immune responses in non-HIV-infected Ethiopian children and young adults with and without tuberculosis (TB) as compared to healthy Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian controls. The in vitro proliferative responses of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) to purified protein derivative (PPD) were determined in 15 Ethiopian children and young adults with TB, 12 healthy Ethiopian children who were contacts of TB patients, 20 Ethiopian children without contact with TB and ten non-Ethiopian controls. All TB patients and contacts had a positive Mantoux skin test. The PBMC proliferative response to PPD of the Ethiopian children with TB was significantly higher than that of the Ethiopian children without TB, while all Ethiopian children demonstrated stronger proliferative response as compared to non-Ethiopian healthy controls. Interleukin 2 (IL-2), interferon gamma (IFN-gamma), interleukin 4 (IL-4) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) were measured by ELISA assays performed on the supernatant of PPD-stimulated and non-stimulated PBMC cultures of seven Ethiopian children with TB, ten Ethiopian children without TB and eight non-Ethiopian controls. IFN-gamma and IL-4 were undetectable and IL-2 levels in unstimulated supernatants were low in all groups. PPD stimulation induced a significant rise in IL-2 levels in Ethiopians with TB as compared to all other groups. There was no increase above baseline in IL-6 levels in any group studied. CONCLUSIONS: Ethiopian children with TB exhibit a strong cellular immune response as expressed by Mantoux tests and lack of stimulation of IL-4 and IL-6 production. This pattern suggests a Th1 type effective cellular immune response to mycobacteria in a cohort of young Ethiopians with TB.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Effects of environmental pollutants on airways, allergic inflammation, and the immune response.

Particulate and gaseous air pollutants are capable of damaging the airway epithelial lining and of shifting the local immune balance, thereby facilitating the induction of persistent inflammation. Epidemiological studies are inconclusive regarding whether air pollution increases the incidence of asthma and chronic bronchitis in the population. Clearly, environmental pollution can, however, precipitate attacks and emergency-room admissions in those already suffering from such conditions. The catastrophic potential of airborne pollution was demonstrated in the 1960s and 1970s, when inverted atmospheric pressure conditions trapped smog over cities on the Eastern coast of the United States and over Europe. This smog resulted in thousands of hospital admissions and dozens of deaths. With the general rise in the incidence of atopy and asthma in the Western population, it is of major public health interest to reduce, as much as possible, the exposure of such populations to anthropogenic and natural sources of pollution.

Acrolein↗