Immunoregulatory T-cell defects in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia: cause or consequence of the disease? The contributory role of decreased availability of interleukin 2 (IL-2)

Several phenotypic and functional defects have been described within the residual T-lymphocyte population of patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL), particularly in those in the more advanced stages of the disease. In this study, we review these abnormalities and discuss their possible effects on the course of the illness. Particular emphasis is devoted to the role of interleukin 2 (IL-2) in B-CLL. Evidence is provided that the IL-2 released by B-CLL T-lymphocytes may be utilized by the neoplastic B-cell clone that expresses the IL-2 receptor and that decreased availability of IL-2 may play a contributory role in some of the T-cell defects encountered in B-CLL.     

The isolation of spirochaetes from the rat caecum

Spirochaetes indigenous to the conventional rat caecum were cultivated on agar medium using selective isolation techniques. The 27 axenic isolates represented four morphological types of spirochaetes differing in cell size, cell coiling pattern and number of protoplasmic flagella.     

Plasma catecholamines and erythrocyte swelling following capture stress in a marine teleost fish

Plasma concentrations of adrenaline and noradrenaline were measured at rest from cannulated fish and following net capture. Adrenaline and noradrenaline concentrations in capture-stressed fish averaged 36,740 pmol l-1 and 38,860 pmol l-1 respectively, whereas resting values were less than 200 pmol l-1 for both amines. Erythrocyte swelling and raised blood lactate were evident in stressed fish. In vitro effects of 5 mmol l-1 adrenaline on erythrocyte suspensions suggested that the catecholamine had a direct effect on erythrocyte volume. The significance of these results is discussed in relation to the oxygen transport properties of the blood.     

Alveolar macrophages in pulmonary immune responses. I. Role in the initiation of primary immune responses and in the selective recruitment of T lymphocytes to the lung

Antigen inoculated intratracheally (IT) into animals can induce primary immune responses and selectively recruit specific T cells to the lung. In the current study, the role of alveolar macrophages (AM) in these two responses was investigated. Antigen-pulsed bronchoalveolar cells (BAC) inoculated IT into guinea pigs generated a population of immune T cells that proliferated in vitro on reexposure to antigen-pulsed macrophages (M?). The possibility that antigen-pulsed donor BAC shed antigen that was subsequently processed and presented by host M? was ruled out by genetic experiments. Thus, peritoneal exudate lymphocytes (PEL) from (2 X 13)F1 guinea pigs primed with antigen-pulsed BAC from strain 2 animals responded preferentially to antigen-pulsed strain 2 M? rather than to antigen-pulsed strain 13 M?. In a second set of studies, antigen-pulsed BAC inoculated IT into guinea pigs selectively recruited antigen-specific T cells to the lung. Genetic experiments verified that inoculated BAC were the source of the antigen-presenting cells responsible for selective recruitment. Thus, antigen-pulsed strain 2 BAC inoculated IT recruited a greater proportion of (2 X 13)F1 T cells that recognized antigen in the context of strain 2 M? than F1 T cells that recognized antigen on strain 13 M?. Taken together, these studies suggest that AM contribute to the regulation of pulmonary immunity by both inducing T lymphocyte immunity and selectively recruiting specific T cells to the lung.     

Breeding-site productivity of the swamp forest mosquitoes Mansonia bonneae and Ma.dives in Sarawak, East Malaysia

Studies on larval population densities and adult emergence rates of the Brugian filariasis vectors Mansonia bonneae Edwards and Ma. dives Schiner were conducted in freshwater swamp forest bordering the Sadong River, Serian District, Sarawak, East Malaysia, during 1984-85. Three species of aquatic host-plants in the Family Araceae were identified as supporting immature stages of the Ma. bonneae/dives complex. Proportions of positive plants were 4.7%, 6.5% and 3.4% with 6.4 +/- 2.6, 7.3 +/- 2.8 and 10.1 +/- 1.1 larvae per positive plant, respectively, for the plant species Homalomena cordata Schott, H. rostrata Griffiths and Hydrostemma motleyi (Hook. f.) Mabberley. These data indicate no significant preferences between the three types of host-plant. Detailed monitoring of the host-plant H. cordata revealed no significant monthly fluctuations in larval density per plant nor the proportion of positive plants. 11.6% of larvae were Ma. dives and 88.4% were Ma. bonneae. Mean daily yields of Ma. bonneae/dives adults per square metre of H. cordata vegetated water surface were 0.45 males plus 0.57 females during the wet season (December-February) compared with 0.2 males plus 0.31 females during the dry season (June-August). Thus output of adults per plant was approximately halved, and suitable breeding areas were further reduced, during the dry season. By extrapolation from these rates, a crude mean estimate for productivity of Ma. bonneae/dives females is 1.6 million per hectare per annum in swamp forest habitats vegetated with any of the host-plants studied.     

MATING FREQUENCY AND FECUNDITY IN INSECTS

1. The paper summarizes the published evidence on the relation between mating frequency and fecundity in insects. There is experimental evidence of varying quality for 63 species and non-experimental evidence for about 60.
2. Repeated mating may be universally necessary for full fecundity and fertility in female insects (in species in which the females normally mate more than once).
3. The evidence is remarkably poor. We need more properly designed experiments (and not just observations of natural variation), with sufficient sample sizes and statistics, and measurements of the fecundities and fertilities of singly and multiply mated females, when the multiple matings are separated by many days or weeks. Most of the existing experiments of this sort are defective in some way.
4. In species with greater total fecundity and longevity, multiple mating may be more likely to enhance fertility than in species with small fecundity and short life span.
5. Females in naturally monandrous species do not show increased fecundity or fertility with repeated mating, whereas females of polyandrous species do.
6. There is no obvious connexion between paternal investment, in so far as we know about it, and the increase of fecundity by repeated mating.
7. There is a small tendency for females to breed more quickly and be shorter lived if they mate repeatedly.     

In vivo cellular responses to electrophoretically applied dynorphin in the rat hippocampus

Recent immunohistochemical and radioimmunochemical observations have demonstrated a differential distribution of immunoreactive dynorphin (DYN) in rat brain. The presence of DYN immunoreactivity in a major intrinsic fiber pathway within the rat hippocampus (the mossy fiber system) has led us to evaluate the possible role of DYN and other closely related peptides in this structure. Single cell activity and hippocampal field potentials have been recorded from the CA1-CA3 cellular fields in halothane or urethane anesthetized rats. DYN, DYN1-13, DYN1-8, and alpha-neo-endorphin had an excitatory effect on most CA1-CA3 neurons encountered as has been previously observed for opiates and other opioid peptides. This response could be blocked by naloxone or by co-administration of Mg++ ion suggesting an indirect (synaptic) mechanism of excitation similar to that hypothetized for enkephalin. A significant number of CA3 neurons, however, exhibited a non-naloxone sensitive inhibitory response to DYN, related opioid peptides, and the kappa agonist WIN 35-197 (ethylketocyclazocine). Field potential analysis of CA1-CA3 neuronal responses to mossy fiber activation also indicated an excitatory, Mg++ reversible, action of iontophoretically applied DYN. These observations support our cytochemical and assay studies indicating diverse opioid systems within the rat hippocampus. In addition, these functional studies are congruent with other evidence suggesting multiple opioid mechanisms in this structure.     

Changes in the heat resistance of Salmonella typhimurium during heating at rising temperatures

The heat resistance of Salmonella typhimurium , measured as survival following a standard heat challenge at 55°C for 25 min, increased progressively as cells were heated up at linearly rising temperatures. The amount by which heat resistance increased depended on the rate of temperature rise; the slower the temperature rise, the greater the increase in resistance.     

Susceptibility of neuroactive peptides to aminopeptidase digestion is related to molecular size.

Peptide fragments derived from the NH₂-terminus of corticotropin were found to exhibit widely differing degrees of stability to degradation by aminopeptidase M. Corticotropin itself was 135 times more stable than its NH₂-terminal pentapeptide, and similar differences in stability were observed with peptides derived from the B-chain of bovine insulin. Enkephalin linked covalently to the A-chain of bovine insulin was at least 100 times more stable than the pentapeptide. The results demonstrate that the molecular size of a peptide is one factor that determines its NH₂-terminal stability.