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BACKGROUND: Although a large number of allergens have been characterised, the structural, functional, and biochemical features that these molecules have in common, and that could explain their ability to elicit powerful IgE antibody responses, are still uncertain. Recently, there has been considerable interest in the role of the cysteine protease activity of the house dust mite allergen Der p 1 in biasing the immune response in favour of IgE production. AIMS: To search for remote homologues of Der p 1 with sequences similar to the 30 conserved amino acids surrounding the catalytic cysteine residue (Cys34). METHODS: Potential homologues were analysed by examining their three dimensional structures and multiple sequence alignments using the programs PROPSEARCH, ClustalW, GeneDoc, and Swiss Pdb Viewer. RESULTS: Diverse allergens (for example, the plant cysteine protease papain, the transport protein lipocalin Mus m 1, and the ragweed allergen Amb a 5) have a similar structural motif; namely, a groove resembling the substrate binding groove of Der p 1. The groove is located inside an alpha-beta motif, between an alpha helix on one side and an antiparallel beta sheet on the other side. A similar common motif (a cysteine stabilised alpha-beta fold) can also be found in some toxins and defensins. CONCLUSION: Allergens of diverse sources have a common structural motif, namely a groove located inside an alpha-beta motif, which could potentially serve as a ligand binding site.
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Twenty Chinese medicinal herbs of the Compositae family were investigated for the presence of pyrrolizidine alkaloid. Of these, only the Eupatorium species were shown to contain pyrrolizidine alkaloid. The amount present was found to vary with species, parts of the plant used, purchase sources and extraction methods. Possible toxicity from the use of these herbs is discussed.
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Adult Sprague-Dawley rats were treated once with 105 mg/kg monocrotaline (MCT) subcutaneously or an equivalent volume of isotonic saline and examined 2, 5, 10, and 14 days later. The earliest changes observed were in the platelet count, which was decreased in the MCT animals at 2, 5, and 10 days postinjection. Clearance of perfused 5-hydroxytryptamine, a function of pulmonary vascular endothelium, was unaltered in isolated lungs of treated rats until 5 days after dosing but decreased progressively thereafter in the MCT animals and was 24% less than controls by 14 days. The magnitude of this effect was dose related. Inflow perfusion pressure was elevated in perfused lungs of MCT-treated animals at day 14. Right heart hypertrophy, measured as an increase in the ratio of right ventricle to left ventricle plus septum weights, was not evident until 14 days after treatment. A larger dose of MCT (130 mg/kg) resulted in significant mortality, whereas a lower dose (60 mg/kg) did not result in right ventricular hypertrophy 2 wk after treatment. The treatment regimen described has advantages over administration of MCT by ingestion and may prove suitable for investigations of the mechanism by which MCT results in pulmonary hypertension.
The membrane properties of smooth muscle cells in rat main pulmonary artery (MPA) and small pulmonary artery (SPA) were investigated during chronic normobaric hypoxia and after monocrotaline injection. As chronic pulmonary hypertension developed, pronounced differences between MPA and SPA were observed. These findings may shed light on mechanisms of smooth muscle hypertrophy. 1) The resting membrane potential of smooth muscle in MPA became less negative than the normal (depolarized), whereas the resting membrane potential of smooth muscle in SPA became more negative (hyperpolarized). 2) In MPA, both the length and time constants diminished. 3) In MPA, the maximum membrane depolarization produced by a 10-fold increase in extracellular [K+] decreased. 4) In SPA, the depolarization observed in K+-free solution was more rapid and greater in amplitude, and the transient hyperpolarization following restoration of K+-containing solution increased. 5) In SPA, initial and sustained depolarization evoked by Na+-deficient solutions were increased. 6) Depolarization in MPA was due to increased membrane permeability, perhaps to Cl-, whereas hyperpolarization in SPA could be attributed to increased activity of an electrogenic Na+-K+ pump.
Previous work in our laboratory has shown that the development of monocrotaline-induced pulmonary vascular disease in rats is preceded by a prolonged activation of lung ornithine decarboxylase (ODC). We now report that significant increases in rat lung adenosylmethionine decarboxylase activity and levels of the diamine putrescine and the polyamines, spermidine and spermine, are produced by a single dose of monocrotaline (MCT). Lung putrescine levels were increased from days 7 through 21, and both spermidine and spermine were first elevated at day 10 following MCT administration. This sustained elevation of lung polyamine levels substantially preceded the development of right ventricular hypertrophy and pulmonary hypertension, which were first evident at days 14 and 16, respectively. Continuous treatment with alpha-difluoromethylornithine, a highly specific enzyme-activated, irreversible inhibitor of ODC activity, prevented the development of MCT-induced pulmonary toxicity. It thus appears that ODC and the polyamines may be important mediators of hypertensive pulmonary vascular disease that develops in response to monocrotaline administration.
We used awake, unsedated rats with indwelling cardiovascular catheters to study the role of endothelial injury and increased pulmonary vascular reactivity in the pathogenesis of monocrotaline (MC)-induced pulmonary hypertension. Hemodynamic findings were correlated with morphometric analyses of alterations in the vascular endothelium assessed by electron microscopy and of muscularization of pulmonary arteries assessed by light microscopy. Male Sprague-Dawley rats (200-250 g) were injected with MC (60 mg/kg) or with saline vehicle. The hemodynamic response to acute hypoxia (10% O2 for 10 min) was studied at 4, 8, and 12 days postinjection. Pulmonary artery pressures and resistances (Ppa, Rp) were similar in saline- and MC-injected rats at 4 and 8 days postinjection. In response to acute hypoxia, the rise in Ppa was also similar, but there was a slight but significant rise in Rp, (P less than 0.05) in the 8-day group, due largely to a decrease in cardiac output. At 12 days after injection, base-line Ppa was increased in MC-injected rats (P less than 0.01) and there was a heightened response to hypoxia assessed both as a significant increase in Ppa and Rp (P less than 0.05 each). Endothelial injury was observed as early as 4 days postinjection with pallor and swelling evident qualitatively and by a decreased proportion of microfilaments (P less than 0.05) assessed quantitatively. By light microscopy, extension of smooth muscle into normally nonmuscularized pulmonary arteries was evident by 8 days postinjection. By 12 days postinjection there was marked extension of smooth muscle present (P less than 0.01) with medial hypertrophy of muscular arteries.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
We evaluated the possible contributory role of hypoxia in the development of monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were injected subcutaneously with monocrotaline (60 mg/kg) or saline in controls and were kept in oxygen-enriched (inspired O2 fraction of 0.35) or compressed air chambers. After 21 days, rats were anesthetized while spontaneously breathing room air, hemodynamic parameters and arterial blood gases were measured, and animals were killed. Right ventricular peak systolic pressures (RVPP), right ventricular-to-left ventricular plus septal weight ratios (RV/LV + S), hematocrits, lung dry weight-to-body weight ratios, and medial thickness of pulmonary arteries were significantly reduced in monocrotaline-injected rats exposed to mild hyperoxia compared with air. The air-exposed monocrotaline-injected rats had significantly more arterial hypoxemia than the other groups, and mild hyperoxia had no effect on any of the measured variables in saline-injected rats. To determine whether the effects of mild hyperoxia occurred early or late after monocrotaline injection, we moved separate groups of rats from air to mild hyperoxia and vice versa 10 days after monocrotaline injection. After 21 days, significant reductions in RVPP and RV/LV + S occurred only in rats exposed to mild hyperoxia during the latter 11 days after injection. Our findings suggest that hypoxia contributes to the development of pulmonary hypertension relatively late after monocrotaline injection in rats but that it does not influence the early injury.
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A mechanism for monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension in experimental animals may be the loss of small blood vessels, but when pulmonary arteries have been studied, the results have been controversial. In this report, the density of the entire lung microvasculature as measured by gray-scale analysis of scanning electron microscopic images of corrosion casts is reported. In the first experiment, monocrotaline, 60 mg/kg, was injected intraperitoneally into Sprague-Dawley rats. After 16 days, the pulmonary vascular tree was cast with methylmethacrylate. The vascular density index of the casts at a magnification x 100 on the alveolar surface was 0.40 for the monocrotaline-treated animals and 0.48 for the saline-treated control animals (p less than 0.01). On the pleural surface, it was 0.51 for the monocrotaline animals and 0.67 for the saline animals (p less than 0.001). A second experiment found no significant difference in vascular density index between different doses of monocrotaline. Light and scanning electron microscopy suggest that capillary and small vessel thrombosis may account for the decrease in the density of vessels in pulmonary microvascular casts that occurs in response to monocrotaline.
Multiple lines of evidence suggest that the polyamines, a family of low-molecular-weight organic cations with documented regulatory note in cell growth and differentiation, are involved with hyperplastic and hypertrophic responses of lung cells underlying hypertensive pulmonary vascular disease. Little is known, however, of the factor(s) initiating polyamine synthesis in pulmonary hypertension. This study tested the key aspects of the hypothesis that augmented polyamine synthesis, and attendent vascular structural alterations in monocrotaline (MCT)-treated rats can be ascribed to elaboration of an epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like mitogen. In lungs of rats treated 4 days previously with 60 mg/kg, EGF-like immunoreactivity was detected diffusely throughout perivascular regions. Intravenous administration of human recombinant EGF (125 pg/h) to rats for 1 wk was associated with medial thickening in pulmonary arteries between 100 and 200 microns in diameter, significant increases in lung polyamine contents, and a moderate elevation in mean pulmonary arterial pressure. These observations indicate that EGF can be detected in the lungs of MCT-treated rats and that exogenous EGF mimics some of the action of MCT on the rat lung. It is thus reasonable to speculate that an EGF-like mitogen may participate in the response to MCT in part through a polyamine-dependent mechanism.
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