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

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

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

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

The UK register of HIV seroconverters: Methods and analytical issues

A Register of HIV-infected persons who have had a negative antibody test within 3 years of their first antibody positive test (seroconverters) is being set up in the UK to monitor the distribution of times from HIV seroconversion to AIDS (the incubation period) and to death. It will also provide a national resource for use by those designing studies in this group of individuals. Clinicians caring for HIV-positive persons in Genito-Urinary Medicine, Infectious Disease and other departments throughout the UK were asked to participate by providing information on eligible subjects. Most laboratories undertaking HIV antibody testing were also contacted and asked to provide the name of the attending clinician for all seroconverters identified through the HIV laboratory reporting systems of the PHLS Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (CDSC) and the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health (SCIEH) and for any other seroconverters known to them but not identified by CDSC or SCIEH. Data items sought for the Register include: sex, ethnic group, probable route of HIV transmission, annual CD4 counts, details of therapy and prophylaxis prescribed, AIDS-defining events and vital status. Follow up information is collected annually. Wherever possible, all seroconverters known to a clinic have been identified, whether currently alive or dead, either from clinic records or laboratory reporting or both. The objective is to establish and update a complete register of seroconverters on a long-term basis to provide reliable estimates of the incubation period on which future projections of AIDS cases in the UK can be made

Genome sequences of five African swine fever virus genotype IX isolates from domestic pigs in Uganda

Complete genome sequences of five African swine fever virus isolates were determined directly from clinical material obtained from domestic pigs in Uganda. Four sequences were essentially identical to each other, and all were closely related to the only known genome sequence of p72 genotype IX

A planetary companion around the K giant eps Corona Borealis

Aims. Our aim is to search for and study the origin of the low-amplitude and long-periodic radial velocity (RV) variations in K giants. Methods. We present high-resolution RV measurements of K2 giant epsilon CrB from February 2005 to January 2012 using the fiber-fed Bohyunsan Observatory Echelle Spectrograph (BOES) at the Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory (BOAO). Results. We find that the RV measurements for epsilon CrB exhibit a periodic variation of 417.9 +/- 0.5 days with a semi-amplitude of 129.4 +/- 2.0 m/s. There is no correlation between RV measurements and chromospheric activity in the Ca II H region, the Hipparcos photometry, or bisector velocity span. Conclusions. Keplerian motion is the most likely explanation, with the RV variations arising from an orbital motion. Assuming a possible stellar mass of 1.7 +/- 0.1 M_Sun for epsilon CrB, we obtain a minimum mass for the planetary companion of 6.7 +/- 0.3 M_Jup with an orbital semi-major axis of 1.3 AU and eccentricity of 0.11. We also discuss the implications of our observations for stellar metallicity versus planet occurrence rate and stellar mass versus planetary mass relations.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publisation in Astronomy & Astrophysic