34,681 research outputs found
Cooperation between interleukin-5 and the chemokine eotaxin to induce eosinophil accumulation in vivo.
Experiments were designed to study the effect of systemically administered IL-5 on local eosinophil accumulation induced by the intradermal injection of the chemokine eotaxin in the guinea pig. Intravenous interleukin-5 (IL-5) stimulated a rapid and dramatic increase in the numbers of accumulating eosinophils induced by i.d.-injected eotaxin and, for comparison, leukotriene B4. The numbers of locally accumulating eosinophils correlated directly with a rapid increase in circulating eosinophils: circulating eosinophil numbers were 13-fold higher 1 h after intravenous IL-5 (18.3 pmol/kg). This increase in circulating cells corresponded with a reduction in the number of displaceable eosinophils recovered after flushing out the femur bone marrow cavity. Intradermal IL-5, at the doses tested, did not induce significant eosinophil accumulation. We propose that these experiments simulate important early features of the tissue response to local allergen exposure in a sensitized individual, with eosinophil chemoattractant chemokines having an important local role in eosinophil recruitment from blood microvessels, and IL-5 facilitating this process by acting remotely as a hormone to stimulate the release into the circulation of a rapidly mobilizable pool of bone marrow eosinophils. This action of IL-5 would be complementary to the other established activities of IL-5 that operate over a longer time course
Demonstration of Robust Quantum Gate Tomography via Randomized Benchmarking
Typical quantum gate tomography protocols struggle with a self-consistency
problem: the gate operation cannot be reconstructed without knowledge of the
initial state and final measurement, but such knowledge cannot be obtained
without well-characterized gates. A recently proposed technique, known as
randomized benchmarking tomography (RBT), sidesteps this self-consistency
problem by designing experiments to be insensitive to preparation and
measurement imperfections. We implement this proposal in a superconducting
qubit system, using a number of experimental improvements including
implementing each of the elements of the Clifford group in single `atomic'
pulses and custom control hardware to enable large overhead protocols. We show
a robust reconstruction of several single-qubit quantum gates, including a
unitary outside the Clifford group. We demonstrate that RBT yields physical
gate reconstructions that are consistent with fidelities obtained by randomized
benchmarking
Upregulation of Transglutaminase andε(γ-Glutamyl)-Lysine in the Fisher-Lewis Rat Model of Chronic Allograft Nephropathy
Background. Tissue transglutaminase (TG2), a cross-linking enzyme, modulates deposition of extracellular matrix protein in renal fibrosis. This study aimed to examine TG2 and its cross-link product ε(γ-glutamyl)-lysine in the Fisher-Lewis rat renal transplantation (RTx) model of chronic allograft nephropathy (CAN). Materials and Methods. Left renal grafts from male Fisher and Lewis were transplanted into Lewis rats, generating allografts and isografts, respectively. Blood pressure, renal function, and proteinuria were monitored for up to 52 weeks. At termination, CAN was assessed in the renal tissue by light and electron microscopy, TG2 and ε(γ-glutamyl)-lysine by immunofluorescence, and the urinary ε(γ-glutamyl)-lysine by high performance liquid chromatography.
Results. Compared to the isograft, the allografts were hypertensive, proteinuric, and uraemic and developed CAN. Extracellular TG2 (glomerulus: 64.55 + 17.61 versus 2.11 + 0.17, P<0.001; interstitium: 13.72 + 1.62 versus 3.19 + 0.44, P<0.001), ε(γ-glutamyl)-lysine (glomerulus: 21.74 + 2.71 versus 1.98 + 0.37, P<0.01; interstitium: 37.96 + 17.06 versus 0.42 + 0.11, P<0.05), TG2 enzyme activity (1.09 + 0.13 versus 0.41 + 0.03 nmol/h/mg protein, P<0.05), TG2 mRNA (20-fold rise), and urinary ε(γ-glutamyl)-lysine (534.2 + 198.4 nmol/24 h versus 57.2 + 4.1 nmol/24 h,P<0.05) levels were significantly elevated in the allografts and showed a positive linear correlation with tubulointerstitial fibrosis. Conclusion. CAN was associated with upregulation of renal TG2 pathway, which has a potential for pharmacological intervention. The elevated urinary ε(γ-glutamyl)-lysine, measured for the first time in RTx, is a potential biomarker of CA
Eotaxin: a potent eosinophil chemoattractant cytokine detected in a guinea pig model of allergic airways inflammation.
Eosinophil accumulation is a prominent feature of allergic inflammatory reactions, such as those occurring in the lung of the allergic asthmatic, but the endogenous chemoattractants involved have not been identified. We have investigated this in an established model of allergic inflammation, using in vivo systems both to generate and assay relevant activity. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid was taken from sensitized guinea pigs at intervals after aerosol challenge with ovalbumin. BAL fluid was injected intradermally in unsensitized assay guinea pigs and the accumulation of intravenously injected 111In-eosinophils was measured. Activity was detected at 30 min after allergen challenge, peaking from 3 to 6 h and declining to low levels by 24 h. 3-h BAL fluid was purified using high performance liquid chromatography techniques in conjunction with the skin assay. Microsequencing revealed a novel protein from the C-C branch of the platelet factor 4 superfamily of chemotactic cytokines. The protein, eotaxin, exhibits homology of 53% with human MCP-1, 44% with guinea pig MCP-1, 31% with human MIP-1α, and 26% with human RANTES. Laser desorption time of flight mass analysis gave four different signals (8.15, 8.38, 8.81, and 9.03 kD), probably reflecting differential O-glycosylation. Eotaxin was highly potent, inducing substantial 111In-eosinophil accumulation at a 1-2-pmol dose in the skin, but did not induce significant 111In-neutrophil accumulation. Eotaxin was a potent stimulator of both guinea pig and human eosinophils in vitro. Human recombinant RANTES, MIP-1α, and MCP-1 were all inactive in inducing 111In-eosinophil accumulation in guinea pig skin; however, evidence was obtained that eotaxin shares a binding site with RANTES on guinea pig eosinophils. This is the first description of a potent eosinophil chemoattractant cytokine generated in vivo and suggests the possibility that similar molecules may be important in the human asthmatic lung
Preliminary Results for LP VPE X-Ray Detectors
Thick epitaxial layers have been grown using Low Pressure Vapour Phase
Epitaxy techniques with low free carrier concentrations . This type of material
is attractive as a medium for X-ray detection, because of its high conversion
efficiency for X-rays in the medically interesting energy range.Comment: 4 pages. PS file only - original in WORD. Also available at
http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/preprints/97/07
Modeling hormonal and inflammatory contributions to preterm and term labor using uterine temporal transcriptomics
Binary Collisions and the Slingshot Effect
We derive the equations for the gravity assist manoeuvre in the general 2D
case without the constraints of circular planetary orbits or widely different
masses as assumed by Broucke, and obtain the slingshot conditions and maximum
energy gain for arbitrary mass ratios of two colliding rigid bodies. Using the
geometric view developed in an earlier paper by the authors the possible
trajectories are computed for both attractive or repulsive interactions
yielding a further insight on the slingshot mechanics and its parametrization.
The general slingshot manoeuvre for arbitrary masses is explained as a
particular case of the possible outcomes of attractive or repulsive binary
collisions, and the correlation between asymptotic information and orbital
parameters is obtained in general.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication Dec'07, Celestial
Mechanics and Dynamical Astronom
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