سال:1382 | دوره: | شماره: |تعداد مقالات:10

MTT assay is designed for spectrophotometric quantification of cell growth and viability without using the radiactive isotopes. The aim of this study is comparison of LTT and MTT as sensitive poliferation assays in immunodeficient patients. 20 immunodeficient and 20 healthy subjects were selected in this study. All of them had normal lymphocytes count, normal CD3 and negative DTH reaction to PPD, DT and candida. The immunodeficient patients regularly suffered from herpes, candida and staph abscess. The lymphocytes of immunodeficient control groups were treated with PHA as mitogen. The lymphocyte proliferation was evaluated by MIT and LTT. The results showed a strong correlation between LTT and MITT between immunodeficient patients and healthy controls. The sensitivity test for MTT was 90%, and the sensitivity test for LTT was 98%. MTI method can be considered as a non-radiactive evaluation of cell proliferation. Detecting cell proliferation with accurate, sensitive, fast, easy and safe method is more preferable than LIT.

Multi drug resistance(MDR) is a major problem in the treatment of cancer and hematological malignancies. This resistance is multi factorial and is the result of decreased intra cellular drug accumulation. This is partly due to the presence of a 170KD intra membranous protein termed P-glycoprotein(p-gp) that is an energydependent efflux pump which has increased expression on drug-resistance cells. In this study we identified the presence ofP-gp by staining with Fluorescent Iso Thio Cyanate (FITC) conjugated anti P-gp in acute leukemia patients and flow cytometry in addition to performing immunophenotype analysis and French, American British (FAB) classification. Results revealed that one fifth of leukemic patients exp~essed P-gp and this phenotype was more prevalent in Acute Undifferentiated Leukemia(AUL) and Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) than in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia(ALL). Other findings showed a logical relationship between this phenotype and age groups. There was not any association between P-gp+ phenotype and FAB and Immunophenotyping sub classification, but there was a linear relationship between CD34 and CD7 expression and P-gp+ phenotype. The accumulation ofP-gp molecule that was stated as Mean Fluorescence Intensity (MFI) on the blasts membrane ofAUL and AML patients showed marked increase in comparison to ALL. Furthermore MFI in P-gp+ relapsed patients was much more than P-gp+ pretreatment patients.

Asthma management is a major concern because some asthmatic patients either do not respond or else hardly respond to treatment. Therefore in the present study, an attempt has been made to determine the predictors of treatment response in asthmatic patients. Thirty six asthmatic adults including 13male and 23 female were studied during a 3 month treatment period. Asthma symptom score (SS) and wheezing were recorded before and after treatment. Pulmonary function tests (PFTs) including forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV), peak expiratory flow (PEF), maximal expiratory measured at the beginning and the end of the study.The increase in PFT values 10min after 200 /-Lginhaled salbutamol (in percentage) was considered as reversibility in airway constriction. There were significant improvements in SS (p<0.001) and PFT variables (p<0.05 to p<0.00l) except of MEF25 due to 3 months treatment. However, the reversibility of airway constriction improved after treatment but these improvements were not statistically significant except that ofPEF (p<0.05). There were significant correlations between both baseline symptom score and wheeze with an improvement seen in these two parameters (p<0.05 to p(0.00l).There were also significant correlations between reversibility in FEV with improvement in FEVand MEF25aftet treatment and between reversibility in PEF and improvement in FEV at end of the study (p<0.05 to p<0.00l). The results of these study showed that a well conducted therapeutic program could lead to improvement in symptoms, wheeze, and PFT values. In addition symptom score, wheeze, and reversibility in FEV and PEF could be good indicators of response to treatment in asthma.

Primary complement deficiencies are rare and two related patients are reported here. The first patient is a 41- year- old man with eighteen episodes of pneumococcal meningitis and other purulent infections. The serum C3 level was checked at three separate times, showing that this was a primary C3 deficient case; other immunological tests were however normal. This patient now takes prophylactic antibiotics and the meningitis has not recurred, but he does have glomerulonephritis. The second case is a 40 - year-old woman with repeated episodes of orofacial and laryngeal edema and dyspnea. The serum C INH levels were 4.3 to 7 mg/dL which were very low compared with normal healthy subjects (C,INH was 40-50 mg/dL in ten normal controls) and C4 was lower than normal but other immunological tests were normal. Other causes of angioedema such as lymphoproliferative disorders were excluded. She had hereditary angioedema without a family background. The condition may be due to genetic mutation. The angioedema was controlled with Danazol and Stanasol. As our patients are related, this may suggest a genetic relationship between these two disorders.

One of the most prevalent manifestations of primary antibody deficiencies is gastrointestinal disorders. In this study we reviewed 83 patients including 25 with X-Linked agammaglobulinemia, 40 with common variable immunodeficiency, 14 with IgA deficiency and 4 with IgG subclass deficiency. The mean age of patients was 10 year (l-28yr). The ratio of male to female was 1.5. Gastrointestinal system was affected in more than half (57.8%) of them. The most common symptom was diarrhea (56.6%) and the most prevalent pathogen was. G. Lamblia. Other disorders were chronic active hepatitis in 6 patients, ulcerative colitis in 2, small intestinal villus atrophy in 5, nodular lymphoid hyperplasia of small intestine in 3 and chronic gastritis in 4 patients. One patient suffered from abdominal lymphoma. We found a direct correlation between failure of patients to thrive a.l1dthe duration of the delay in diagnosing the underlying disease. This difference was more apparent in those with both antibody deficiency and gastrointestinal involvement.

Epstein barr virus (EBV) is one of seven known herpes virus pathogenic for humans. Since it is ubiquitous, it infects nearly 95% of individuals worldwide by adulthood .E BV is the etiologic agent of infectious mononucleosis (IM) and is implicated in burkitt lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma and x-linked lymphoproliferative syndrome. Diagnosis of IM based upon clinical manifestations in conjunction with hematologic evidence for lymphocytosis; and serological changes such as heterophil antibody and or antibodies to EBV specific proteins. The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency of acute and chronic infections by examining the levels of antibodies against viral capsid (VCA-IgG and VCA-IgM) and Epstein Barr nuclear antibody (EBNA-IgG) in the serum of children with IM syndrome (patient group) and the serum of unaffected children (control group). This longitudinal case-control study was performed on thirty one children between 1 to 14 years old who were admitted to the pediatric ward of Rasoo1 Akram hospital; based on diagnostic parameters for IM within two years(1998-2000). Fortheen patients were eliminated due to other diagnosis .The average age of remaining 17 patients was 6.92±3.3,male/female ratio= 9/8.The results of this study showed a significant difference (p 0.038)between the amount of EBNA- IgG but no significant difference in the amount of VCA- IgG, VCA- IgM between case and control groups. .There is no difference between case and control groups in negative values for VCA- IgM ,VCA -IgG and EBNA-IgG.

Although thorough studies on the immune reponse to rubella have been performed, less attention has been given to the cellular mechanism and mediators that shape the process. Specifically, information concerning the nature of cytokine patterns involved in the immune response to Rubella vaccination is not avaliable. This study deals with cytokine production patterns of spleen cells from Balb/c mice following vaccination with the Takahashi strain of Rubella vaccine. Mice were injected intraperitonealy with Rubella virus and PBS and 7, 10 or 14 days later, spleen cells were separated and cultured with varying doses of virus, con A or only the medium. ELISA assays were performed on supernatants for measurement ofIL-4, INF-γ and IL-5. LTT (Lymphocyte Transformation Test) was also performed. The data indicate variation in cytokine patterns during the time penods after vaccination. On day 7 a type 1 pattern was observed. The LTT response was also indicative of CMI (Cell Mediated Immunity) response on the 7th and 14th days while a transient suppression on day 10was observed. These results indicate a time dependent cytokine response with variation ultimately leading to a dominant type 1 (Tl) cytokine response.

Neuropeptides, possessing specific and functional receptors on various cells of the immune system, have the potential to regulate immune responses; and the macrophages as important components of defense against various agents, are at their influence. In this study the effect of neuropeptides substance P (SP) and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) on IL-1 beta production by herpes simplex type-l (HSV-1)-infected and also uninfected mouse peritoneal macrophages were considered. Each neuropeptide separately has upregulated IL-1 beta production by HSV-1 infected macrophages with the greatest effect at the concentrations of 10-9 M for both SP and CGRP, but no synergistic effect on IL-1 production has been observed in the presence of both neuropeptides at optimal concentrations. IL-1β production by uninfected macrophages was also moderately enhanced in the presence of each neuropeptide, but not in the presence of both neuropeptides simultaneously. It can be concluded that IL-1β production, which is part of macrophage mediated inflammatory response to HSV-1, is enhanced by specific doses of neuropeptides.

Bovine tropical Theileriosis caused by Theileria annulata is an economically important disease of cattle. An enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to detelmine antibody levels in vaccinated and unvaccinated cattle, using cellular schizont as antigen and its results were compared with immunofluorescent assay (IFA). For this test 126 sera collected (105 vaccinated, 31 not vaccinated) from cows and assayed with ELISA which among them 104 sera were positive and 32 sera were negative. Same sample assayed with IFA in which 99 were positive sera and 37 were negative sera. Thereby the sensitivity and specificity of this ELISA on comparsion with IFA were 95.5% and 66.6% respectively. This study revealed that ELISA could be successfully used for both differentiating vaccinated and not vaccinated cattle and obtaining the titer of vaccinated cattle.

In present study different protein measurement methods are evaluated on the allergenic extract of Chenopodium album pollen, which was previously prepared in our laboratory and applied in skin prick testing in comparison with a commercial extract. The protein content of similar amounts of these two extracts which had caused similar skin reactions were measured with different protein assays such as protein nitrogen unit, Lowry procedure, ultra-violet absorption, and base catalyzed hydrolysis and ninhydrin (R.H.N.). The latter is recommended by World Health Organization (W.H.O.) in order to determine total protein of standard allergenic extracts. Our study indicated some differences between protein amounts measured by the various procedures. According to W.H.O. reports regarding the advantages of B.H.N. assay, due to good correlation with biological activity of allergenic extracts, we also found that this method can indicate the potency of extracts much more precisely.