Temporal trends of circulating nitric oxide and pro-inflammatory cytokine responses ex vivo in intra-abdominal sepsis: results from a cohort study.

Objective And Design: To evaluate the association of pro-inflammatory mediators with organ dysfunction and adverse outcome in intra-abdominal sepsis patients.

Subjects: Twenty-one patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were prospectively included in the study. Only patients with surgical diagnosis of intra-abdominal sepsis were enrolled.

Induction of IgA and sustained deficiency of cell proliferative response in chronic hepatitis C.

Aim: In the present study, antibody and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) proliferative responses against hepatitis C virus (HCV) antigens were evaluated in HCV chronically infected patients.

Methods: Paired serum and PBMC samples were taken six months apart from 34 individuals, either treated or not, and tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester staining.

Results: Over 70% of the patients showed specific IgG and IgM against capsid, E1 and NS3, while HVR-1 was recognized by half of the patients.

Inhibition of LPS-responses by synthetic peptides derived from LBP associates with the ability of the peptides to block LBP-LPS interaction.

The ability of LPS-binding protein (LBP) to greatly potentiate cell responses to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) may largely contribute to LPS toxicity in sepsis. The study of agents with the capacity to block the interaction between LBP and LPS might improve the understanding of the role of LBP in Gram-negative infections as well as offering new therapeutic tools for septic disorders. Here we confirm the ability of synthetic peptides comprising the human LBP amino acid region 86-108 to interfere with the LBP-LPS interaction.

A Limulus anti-LPS factor-derived peptide modulates cytokine gene expression and promotes resolution of bacterial acute infection in mice.

Sepsis in experimental animals and humans has been associated with perturbed immune response. A major event contributing to the decrease in immune functions in septic disorders seems to be the inadequate balance of cytokines mediating the interactions between the innate and adaptive immune systems. We previously observed that a cyclic peptide derived from the Limulus anti-LPS factor (LALF), which partially protect mice from endotoxic shock lethality, has the ability to modulate cytokine secretion in vitro.