Monoclonal antibody to the type II Fc receptor for human IgG blocks potentiation of monocyte and neutrophil IgG-induced respiratory burst activation by aggregated C-reactive protein

The acute phase protein, CRP, when heat-aggregated (Agg-CRP), binds to human monocytes and neutrophils and potentiates the respiratory burst stimulated by heat-aggregated IgG (Agg-IgG). Earlier data from our laboratory and others have indicated that CRP binds to phagocytic cells at membrane sites associated with IgG Fc receptors. The present study utilized monoclonal antibodies (MAb) to determine whether the Agg-CRP potentiation of oxidative metabolism could be linked to activation through Fc gamma RI, Fc gamma RII, or Fc gamma RIII. Preincubation of monocytes with MAb 32.2, which recognizes an Fc gamma RI epitope distinct from its IgG binding site, had only a minimal (20%) inhibitory effect on Agg-IgG-induced luminol chemiluminescence (CL) and exerted no significant effect on its enhancement by Agg-CRP. MAb 10.1, which blocks IgG binding to Fc gamma RI, reduced Agg-IgG-induced monocyte CL by 40%, but did not alter the Agg-CRP-mediated enhancement. In contrast, exposure to MAb IV.3, which binds to Fc gamma RII on monocytes and neutrophils and blocks IgG binding to this receptor, resulted in a greater than 70%, inhibition of Agg-IgG-induced CL and also significantly suppressed the enhancement by Agg-CRP. MAb Leu-11b, which reacts with Fc gamma RIII on neutrophils, reduced Agg-IgG-induced CL by 70% but did not suppress the Agg-CRP potentiation. Preincubation of monocytes and neutrophils with anti-Leu-M1, anti-CR1, or anti-CR3 failed to block Agg-IgG-induced CL or its enhancement by Agg-CRP. Although the potentiating effect of Agg-CRP on Agg-IgG-elicited CL was blocked by MAb IV.3, this antibody failed to reduce binding of Agg-CRP to either monocytes or neutrophils. These results indicate that, although Agg-CRP does not bind to phagocytic cells at the IgG-binding determinant of Fc gamma RII, it alters Agg-IgG-induced cell activation through this receptor.     

Hypertrophic tonsils as a cause of hypoxia and growth stagnation

A case is reported describing severe hypoxaemia and growth retardation in a child suffering from hypertrophic tonsils. A rapid increase in weight and length was demonstrated postoperatively and on clinical examination one year after tonsillectomy the child shows no signs of obstruction of the airways.     

Direct and indirect antioxidant properties of α‐lipoic acid and therapeutic potential

Diabetes has emerged as a major threat to worldwide health. The exact mechanisms underlying the disease are unknown; however, there is growing evidence that the excess generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) associated with hyperglycemia, causes oxidative stress in a variety of tissues. In this context, various natural compounds with pleiotropic actions like α‐lipoic acid (LA) are of interest, especially in metabolic diseases such as diabetes. LA, either as a dietary supplement or a therapeutic agent, modulates redox potential because of its ability to match the redox status between different subcellular compartments as well as extracellularly. Both the oxidized (disulfide) and reduced (di‐thiol: dihydro‐lipoic acid, DHLA) forms of LA show antioxidant properties. LA exerts antioxidant effects in biological systems through ROS quenching but also via an action on transition metal chelation. Dietary supplementation with LA has been successfully employed in a variety of in vivo models of disease associated with an imbalance of redox status: diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The complex and intimate association between increased oxidative stress and increased inflammation in related disorders such as diabetes, makes it difficult to establish the temporal sequence of the relationship.     

Where Do Bugs Come From?

The analysis of bug databases reveals that some software components are far more failure-prone than others. Yet it is hard to find properties that are universally shared by failure-prone components. We have mined the Eclipse bug and version databases to map failures to Eclipse components. The resulting data set lists the defect density of all Eclipse components, and may thus help to find features that predict how defect-prone a component will be.     

Tobacco industry litigation position on addiction: continued dependence on past views

This paper reviews the tobacco industry's litigation strategy for addressing the addiction issue through trial testimony by its experts, and opening and closing statements by its lawyers. Despite the fact that several companies now claim to accept, in varying degrees, the conclusions of the Surgeon General concerning tobacco addiction, the tobacco industry litigation strategy pertaining to addiction is essentially unchanged since that of the early 1980s when the issue emerged as crucial. The industry uses its experts and the process of cross-examination of plaintiff's experts to imply that the addictiveness of tobacco and nicotine are more comparable to substances such as caffeine, chocolate, and even milk, than to heroin, cocaine and alcohol. Furthermore, the tobacco industry contends that the definition of addiction has now become so broadened as to include carrots and caffeine and hence that any concurrence that smoking is addictive, does not imply that cigarettes are addictive to the standards that drugs such as heroin and cocaine are addictive. Finally, the industry has continuously asserted that tobacco users assumed the risks of tobacco since they understood that quitting could be difficult when they began to use, and moreover, that the main barrier to cessation is lack of desire or motivation to quit and not physical addiction. These positions have been maintained through the 2004-2005 US Government litigation that was ongoing as the time of this writing.     

UV-induced index changes in Undoped Fluoride glass

Undoped fluoride glass slides have been exposed to pulsed 193-nm ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Their absorption changes have been measured to evaluate UV-induced index changes using Kramers-Kronig relation. A layer-peeling polishing technique was applied to characterize the local UV-induced index change of highly absorbing glass. Index changes up to 1.75/spl times/10/sup -4/ have been evaluated with this method in fluorozirco-aluminate glass. Fluoroaluminate and fluorozirconate glass showed only small index changes of about 2.0/spl times/10/sup -6/ and 2.6/spl times/10/sup -6/ at a wavelength of 1550 nm.     

Electron microscopy may reveal structure of docosahexaenoic acid-rich oil within Schizochytrium sp

Schizochytrium sp. is an algae-like microorganism utilized for commercial production of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)-rich oil and dried microalgae for use as a source of DHA in foods, feeds, and nutritional supplements. Electron microscopic analysis of whole cells of Schizochytrium sp. employing sample preparation by high-pressure freeze substitution suggests the presence of secondary and tertiary semicrystalline structures of triacylglycerols within the oil bodies in Schizochytrium sp. A fine secondary structure consisting of alternating light-and darkstaining bands was observed inside the oil bodies. Dark bands were 29±1 Å in width, and light bands were 22±1 Å in width. The tertiary (three-dimensional) structure may be a multilayered ribbon-like structure which appears coiled and interlaced within the oil body. In freeze-fracture photomicrographs, Schizochytrium oil bodies exhibited fracture planes with terraces averaging 52±7 Å in height which could correspond to the combined width of two halves of two light bands and one dark band observed in the high-pressure freeze substitution photomicrographs. The results suggest that triacyglycerols within Schizochytrium sp. oil bodies may be organized in a triple chainlength structure. High-pressure freeze substitution electron micrographs of two other highly unsaturated oil-producing species of microalgae, Thraustochytrium sp. and Isochrysis galbana, also revealed this fine structure, whereas microalgae containing a higher proportion of saturated oil did not. The results suggest that the staining pattern is not an artifact of preparation and that the triple chain-length conformation of triacylglycerols in Schizochytrium sp. oil bodies may be caused by the unique fatty acid composition of the triacylglycerols.     

3-D Reconstruction of Urban Scenes from Image Sequences

In this paper, we address the problem of the recovery of a realistic textured model of a scene from a sequence of images, without any prior knowledge either about the parameters of the cameras or about their motion. We do not require any knowledge of the absolute coordinates of some control points in the scene to achieve this goal. First, using various computer vision tools, we establish correspondences between the images and recover the epipolar geometry, from which we show how to compute the complete set of perspective projection matrices for all camera positions. Then, we proceed to reconstruct the geometry of the scene. We show how to rely on information of the scene such as parallel lines or known angles in order to reconstruct the geometry of the scene up to, respectively, an unknown affine transformation or an unknown similitude. Alternatively, if this information is not available, we can still recover the Euclidean structure of the scene through the techniques of self-calibration. The scene geometry is modeled as a set of polyhedra. Textures to be mapped on the scene polygons are extracted automatically from the images. We show how several images can be combined through mosaicing in order to automatically remove visual artifacts such as pedestrians or trees from the textures.This vision system has been implemented as a vision server, which provides to a CAD-CAM modeler geometry or texture information extracted from the set of images. The whole system allows efficient and fast production of scene models of high quality for such applications as simulation, virtual, or augmented reality.