Intravenous immunoglobulin inhibits IgE production in human B lymphocytes.

Background: Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is commonly used as both an immune-enhancing and immune-modulating agent. Treatment with high doses of IVIG diminishes IgE secretion in patients with severe steroid-dependent asthma.

Objective: We studied the action of IVIG on IgE production in highly purified B lymphocytes stimulated without additional T cells to determine the action of IVIG on B lymphocytes.

Glucocorticoid receptor mRNA and protein in fetal rat lung in vivo: modulation by glucocorticoid and androgen.

Pulmonary glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is essential to timely preparation for the onset of breathing air at birth. We have previously used primary culture of late-gestation fetal rat lung cells to demonstrate differential regulation of GR by glucocorticoid depending on cell type. In this study, we hypothesized that the action of glucocorticoid on GR mRNA expression and protein elaboration in lung cells might be modulated by interactions present in vivo but not in primary culture.

Sex hormones regulate CFTR in developing fetal rat lung epithelial cells.

Sex hormones modulate two normal processes of late-gestation mammalian lung development: the onset of augmented production of surfactant phospholipids and the loss of mesenchymal cells. As prenatal lung development advances, epithelial chloride secretory pathways diminish as opposing sodium absorptive pathways increase in expression. We hypothesized that sex hormones may influence both the gene expression and functional activity of the chloride channel known as the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) in fetal lung epithelium.

DNA methyltransferase in normal and Dnmtn/Dnmtn mouse embryos.

The mouse genome experiences a large decrease in net 5-methylcytosine between fertilization and implantation; de novo methylation brings 5-methylcytosine to adult somatic cell levels between implantation and gastrulation. Very little is known of the regulation of demethylation or de novo methylation. Levels of the one known form of DNA methyltransferase are very high in early embryos, but the enzyme is localized to the cytoplasm during most of preimplantation development.

Differential regulation of glucocorticoid receptor expression by ligand in fetal rat lung cells.

The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) mediates glucocorticoid stimulation of surfactant production by fetal mammalian lung. In many other tissues, glucorticoids decrease expression of GR, thereby reducing responsiveness to these hormones. We therefore determined whether there is a similar effect of exogenous glucocorticoids on GR in fetal rat whole lung, and in the principal cell types involved in the stimulation of surfactant, the fibroblasts and the epithelial cells.