Differential expression and release of CD54 induced by cytokines.

Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1, CD54) is upregulated in many cell types stimulated by cytokines. A human hepatoblastoma cell line (C3A, a subclone of HepG2/C3 that is currently being used as a surrogate liver) and human lung adenocarcinoma cells (A549) were stimulated with interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF alpha), interferon-gamma (IFN gamma), or IL-6 to determine any differences in cell type responsiveness to individual cytokines for ICAM-1 upregulation. Time courses were performed with each cytokine evaluating ICAM-1 mRNA, surface expression, and cICAM-1 in the cell culture media.

Myocardial contrast echocardiography: relation of collateral perfusion to extent of injury and severity of contractile dysfunction in a canine model of coronary thrombosis and reperfusion.

Objectives: This study sought to determine whether myocardial contrast echocardiography could be used to detect and quantitate collateral blood flow capable of limiting the effects of ischemia in an experimental model of coronary thrombosis and reperfusion.

Background: Myocardial contrast echocardiography has been used to assess collateral blood flow in humans, but this technique has not been extensively validated in the experimental laboratory.

Methods: Myocardial ischemia occurred after electrically induced left circumflex coronary artery thrombosis in a canine model.

Myocardial contrast echocardiography: relation between on-line and off-line assessment of myocardial perfusion.

Background: Quantitative assessment of myocardial perfusion by myocardial contrast echocardiography has been made possible by the use of custom-made off-line video-intensity programs. A standardized program that could be used by all investigators would improve the reproducibility of results and enhance its clinical utility.

Methods And Results: The purpose of this study was to determine if the assessment of myocardial perfusion by contrast echocardiography using a new commercially available, quantitative on-line software program correlates with an off-line custom-made video-intensity program previously validated by our laboratory and with radiolabeled microspheres, under various experimental myocardial perfusion conditions.

Doppler quantification of echo-contrast injections in vivo.

It is difficult to quantify myocardial perfusion using contrast echocardiography because the echogenicity of injected contrast is unknown. We propose that a measurement of Doppler amplitude from blood in a systemic artery during the passage of contrast could define the needed input function. Time-amplitude curves from pulsed Doppler cuffs on coronary and carotid arteries of 7 dogs were analyzed during aortic root and left atrial injections of Albunex.

An alpha-adrenergic coronary constriction during esophageal distention in the dog.

Previous work has shown an increase in sympathetic stimulation of the heart during chemical or mechanical irritation of visceral organs, but the involvement of the coronary circulation in such reflexes is not clear. In five preliminary experiments in anesthetized dogs, esophageal distention produced a sympathetic stimulation of the heart, as evidenced by an increase in heart rate, which was abolished by non-selective beta-adrenergic and muscarinic blockades. On the basis of these preliminary data, we further examined a sympathetic coronary constriction during acute esophageal distension in which any direct adrenergic coronary constriction was unmasked by muscarinic blockade with atropine (100 micrograms/kg, i.