RNase A (bovine pancreatic RNase) is the founding member an extensive family of divergent proteins that share specific elements of sequence homology, a unique disulfide-bonded tertiary structure, and the ability to hydrolyze polymeric RNA. Among the more intriguing and perhaps counterintuitive findings, at the current state of the art, the connection between RNase activity and characterized hos...

The eosinophil granulocyte is an inflammatory cell involved in allergic diseases such as asthma and rhinitis. Eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) is a basic and potentially cytotoxic granule protein that is released from the eosinophil upon activation. The aim was to study secretion of molecular variants of ECP from blood eosinophils with the hypothesis that the stored noncytotoxic ECP is altered...

Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) was performed on eleven healthy smokers before and after eight weeks of oral treatment with N-acetylcysteine (NAC) 200 mg t.i.d. The concentrations of selected eosinophil and neutrophil granule constituents and of selected proteases and protease inhibitors, albumin and endotoxin were determined in the recovered BAL fluid and in plasma or serum samples. In addition, ...

Neutrophil-specific granule deficiency is a disorder of leukocyte maturation associated with decreased levels of mRNA for a distinct subset of granule proteins. Our work indicates that this disorder, previously thought to be limited to the neutrophil lineage, can also include eosinophils. Immunofluorescence staining led to the discovery of a small but distinct population of peripheral white blo...

A case of eosinophilic myocarditis following high serum levels of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) is described. A 27 year old woman was admitted with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III congestive heart failure. A haematological study showed hypereosinophilia with degranulation and vacuoles; the total eosinophil count was 7980/ml and the ECP serum concentration was noticeably high at ...

Aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of a 2-year course of subcutaneous specific immunotherapy or continuous oral antihistamine treatment on the eosinophilic inflammation in nasal secretions of patients with severe persistent allergic rhinitis caused by house dust-mites. After informed consent, 31 rhinitis patients, sensitive to dust-mite antigens, were enrolled: 12 were randomly assigne...

BACKGROUND Nasal polyps often are associated with asthma. The phenotype of these patients is unknown. OBJECTIVE To identify the mucosal factors associated with asthma comorbidity, we analyzed the inflammatory patterns of nasal polyps. METHODS Nasal polyps from 70 Belgian patients, 34% with asthma, were analyzed for type of inflammation, T-cell cytokines, and IgE antibodies to Staphylococcus...

PURPOSE Computed tomography studies demonstrate thickening of the asthmatic airway wall and its relation to disease severity. We evaluated the effect of inhaled corticosteroid on this phenomenon. METHODS Cross-sectional images of the right upper lobe apical segmental bronchus were obtained by helical computed tomography in 45 corticosteroid-naïve patients with persistent asthma and 28 healthy...