Cleavage of C3 by Neutral Proteases from Granulocytes in Pleural Empyema

The possibility of direct inactivation of C3 by granular enzymes from polymorphonuclear leukocytes(PMNLs) in pleural empyema was examined. As a group, pleural empyema from 10 patients with purulent effusions and a positive bacteriologic culture cleaved significantly more 125I-labeled C3 bound to Sepharose (18.4% ± 7.3%) than did 19sterile pleural effusions (2.4% ± 0.9%; P << 0.001)and sonicates from bacterial strains commonly found in empyema (1.4% ± 0.2%). Granular enzymesfrom 7 × 106 PMNLs cleaved 78.5% of 125I-labeled C3 bound to Sepharose. When proteolysis of 125I-labeled C3 after incubation with pleural empyema or PMNL granular enzymes was examined with polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, breakdown products were similar. Granulocyte elastase-like activity was detected in four samples of pleural empyema. Granulocyte elastase inhibitors, as well as 10% human serum, effectively suppressed cleavage of C3 and elastase-like activity. In pleural empyemas, granular enzymes from PMNLs, especially elastase, apparently contribute to low complement-mediated opsonic activity by direct inactivation of C

Foreign Body Infection: Role of Fibronectin as a Ligand for the Adherence of Staphylococcus aureus

Foreign bodies made of polymethylmethacrylate coverslips were implanted subcutaneously into guinea pigs, were explanted four weeks later, and were tested for in vitro adherence of Staphylococcus aureus strain Wood 46. In the presence of serum, the level of staphylococcal adherence to explanted coverslips was 20 times higher than that of adherence to unimplanted coverslips. Adherence to explanted coverslips was caused by fibronectin deposits on the foreign body surface and was inhibited in a dose-related fashion by specific antibodies to fibronecti

Trends in clinical hemapheresis 1986. Progress report on the 4th annual meeting of the European Society for Hemapheresis

After a rather long initial period fraught with difficulties, plasma exchange has become an adjunct to the treatment of numerous diseases, such as hyperviscosity syndrome, where it alleviates disease symptoms, hemophilia due to inhibitors to clotting factor VIII, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, rapidly progressing and Goodpasture glomerulonephritis, myasthenia gravis and Guillain Barre syndrome. In addition, plateletpheresis has also grown from being a procedure of experimental clinical application to one of practical routine importance; at the Berne University Hospital, approximately 25% of all transfused platelets in 1986 were apheresis platelets, a proportion that elsewhere may reach 40%. Despite the successes so far obtained with apheresis, many aspects of this therapy remain to be reconsidered. Improvement of donor-recipient matching and of yield in plateletpheresis, better selection of replacement fluids, and increased donor and patient safety and comfort may further strengthen the value of apheresis in therapeutic protocols. This was the major background for the scientific program of the 4th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Hemapheresis that was assembled to shed light on those aspects of the apheresis field which are still unclear. A total of 31 lectures and 76 individual contributions were debated by 280 participants from Europe and overseas. The present essay is a review of the highlights of this meeting, the main lectures of which were published in Plasma Therapy and Transfusion Technology, vol. 7, 1986