The role of hormonal changes throughout the menstrual cycle on genital tract inflammation during chronic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is not well defined, but it has implications for HIV prevention. We assessed daily levels of 26 vaginal cytokines and chemokines from 15 women infected with HIV-1. Taking into account coexisting sexually transmitted infections, behavioral factors,...

Myeloid cell lines and primary leukemic myeloblasts express two classes of granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) binding sites of high (Kd 20-50 pM) and low affinity (Kd 5-10 nM). High affinity binding is caused by the association of two chains, p80 alpha and p130 beta, whereas p80 alpha alone confers low affinity binding only. Furthermore interleukin-3 (IL-3) competes for t...

Normal hematopoiesis is a well-regulated process in which the generation of mature blood elements occurs from a primitive pluripotent stem cell in an ordered sequence of maturation and proliferation. Regulation occurs at the level of the structured microenvironment (stroma), via cell-cell interactions and by way of the generation of specific hormones and cytokines: erythropoietin, interleukin 3...

Fusion of two genes at DNA level produces a single protein, known as a chimeric protein. Immunotoxins are chimeric proteins composed of specific cell targeting and cell killing moieties. Bacterial or plant toxins are commonly used as the killing moieties of the chimeric immunotoxins. In this investigation, the catalytic domain of Shiga-like toxin (A1) was fused to human granulocyte macrophage ...

BACKGROUND Areca nut chewing is associated with oral submucous fibrosis (OSF). Raised vascular basic fibroblast growth factor may induce fibrosis. Arecoline is a muscarinic alkaloid in areca nut, which we earlier reported causes injury and necrosis of human endothelium. MATERIALS AND METHODS Human umbilical vein endothelial cells were exposed to arecoline with or without tumor necrosis factor...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) are well-known hematopoietic growth factors. Although recent studies revealed that CSFs are involved in many inflammatory conditions, the local production of CSFs and its regulation in the kidney is not well elucidated. Therefore, using cultured human proximal tubular epithelial cells (PTEC), we examined the effect of thrombin on CSFs production...

Oncostatin M (OM) is structurally and functionally related to a subclass of hematopoietic cytokines including leukemia-inhibitory factor (LIF), ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), and interleukin-6 (IL-6). Using human endothelial cells (HEC) as a model for cytokine regulation of hematopoietic growth factor expression, we tested OM as an inducer of ...