BACKGROUND Fecal lactoferrin has been introduced as a useful tool for the diagnosis and monitoring of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The aim of this study was to assess if fecal lactoferrin can be employed to predict or estimate the effect of granulocyte and monocyte adsorptive apheresis (GMA) in ulcerative colitis (UC). METHODS This was a prospective study involving 21 patients with UC. P...

The existence of lactoferrin was first reported by S0rensen and S0rensen,' who observed a red protein fraction in human milk. The protein was first isolated by Groves2 from bovine and by Johansson3 from human milk, and subsequent studies showed that this protein (which has been variously called red milk protein, ekkrinosiderophilin, and lactotransferrin) is strikingly similar in many respects t...

Immunisation against the mycobacterial heat shock protein (hsp-65) has been proposed to lead to production of autoantibodies against human lactoferrin. Such antibodies occur in ulcerative colitis and in primary sclerosing cholangitis. This study analysed the distribution of hsp-65 and lactoferrin in biopsy specimens from patients with inflammatory bowel disease and primary sclerosing cholangiti...

Little is known about the metabolic fate of ingested lactoferrin in human-milk-fed term or preterm infants. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and sodium dodecyl sulfate/polyacrylamide gradient gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGGE) with immunoblots have demonstrated that the urinary excretion of lactoferrin by preterm infants fed exclusively human milk exceeded that by formula-fed infants. The origin...

Neutrophil extracts were prepared from the peripheral blood of 40 normal volunteers and tested for their ability to inhibit CSA production by mononuclear leukocytes. Highly dilute neutrophil extracts inhibited CSA production/release, while extracts selectively depleted of lactoferrin by antibody affinity chromatography did not. In addition, higher concentrations of neutrophil extracts and highe...

Previous studies on postmortem human brain tissue have shown that the iron-binding glycoprotein lactoferrin is upregulated in dopamine (DA) neurons resistant to degeneration in Parkinson disease (PD). To study how this could possibly relate to disease progression, we used midbrain cultures and experimental settings that model the progressive loss of DA neurons in this disorder. Human lactoferri...

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is resistant to most antibiotics and infects the respiratory tract of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients (5). CF sputum contains a high concentration of lactoferrin (0.9 mg/ml) (9). Lactoferrin damages outer membranes of gram-negative bacteria (6), which might explain why MICs for Pseudomonas aeruginosa of rifampin and chloramphenicol were reduced in the presence of 0.9 ...

lactoferrin (lf) has antimicrobial properties against bacteria, fungi and several viruses including herpes virus, hiv and hepatitis c virus. the aim of this study was to detect lf in pmns and plasma of the patients suffering from hepatitis c and the healthy persons. the sonicated solutions of pmns of two groups were evaluated by sds-page (10%), isoelectric focusing (30%) and dot blotting .the l...

Although lactoferrin has antimicrobial activity, its mechanism of action is not full defined. Recently we have shown that the protein alters the Gram-negative outer membrane. As this membrane protects Gram-negative cells from lysozyme, we have studied whether lactoferrin's membrane effect could enhance the antibacterial activity of lysozyme. We have found that while each protein alone is bacter...

Although lactoferrin has antimicrobial activity, its mechanism of action is not fully defined. Recently we have shown that the protein alters the Gram-negative outer membrane. As this membrane protects Gram-negative cells from lysozyme, we have studied whether lactoferrin's membrane effect could enhance the antibacterial activity of lysozyme. We have found that while each protein alone is bacte...