Hydrophobins are small amphiphilic fungal proteins empirically divided into two classes. We investigated the self-assembled structures of class I SC3 from and class II HFBII from transferred to mica from the air-water interface by using the Langmuir-Schaefer (LS) technique and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The main focus is the influence of areal constraint and multiple compressions and expansions on the morphology of the protein films.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) is effective, tolerable, and convenient for many allergic patients. Still, real-world evidence is scarce and the aim of this study is to assess the patient reported outcome of treatment with SLIT against grass pollen allergy in a consecutive patient population.
Methods: Patients (n = 329) who were confirmed to be allergic to timothy grass and had been prescribed SLIT were consecutively enrolled in the study and completed a questionnaire online or in hard copy.
Background: Allergic and non-allergic asthma are viewed as separate entities, despite sharing similarities. The aims of this study were to determine differences in symptoms from the upper airways and the skin in allergic and non-allergic asthma. The secondary aims were to identify childhood risk factors and to compare quality of life in the two asthma groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Angioedema is a rare and serious adverse drug reaction (ADR) to angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor treatment. Dry cough is a common side effect of ACE inhibitors and has been identified as a possible risk factor for angioedema.
Objective: We compared characteristics between patients with ACE inhibitor-induced angioedema and cough with the aim of identifying risk factors that differ between these adverse events.
NPJ Prim Care Respir Med
October 2016
Health status is a prognostic factor included in the assessment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The aim of our study was to examine the associations of clinical factors with change in health status over a 7-year follow-up period. In 2005, 970 randomly selected primary and secondary care patients with a COPD diagnosis completed questionnaires including the Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ); and in 2012, 413 completed the CCQ questionnaire again.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: The COPD Assessment Test (CAT) and the Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ) are both clinically useful health status instruments. The main objective was to compare CAT and CCQ measurement instruments.
Methods: CAT and CCQ forms were completed by 432 randomly selected primary and secondary care patients with a COPD diagnosis.
Background: Asthma control is achieved in a low proportion of patients. The primary aim was to evaluate risk factors for uncontrolled asthma. The secondary aim was to assess quality of life associated with asthma control.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Fc glycosylation of therapeutic antibodies is crucial for their effector functions and their behavior in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. To monitor the Fc glycosylation in bioprocess development and characterization,high-throughput techniques for glycosylation analysis are needed. Here, we describe the development of a largely automated high-throughput glycosylation profiling method with multiplexing capillary-gel-electrophoresis (CGE) with laser induced fluorescence (LIF) detection using a DNA analyzer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFManufacturers worldwide produce influenza vaccines in different host systems. So far, either fertilized chicken eggs or mammalian cell lines are used. In all these vaccines, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase are the major components.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe PI3K pathway plays a major role in many vital cell processes. Our primary aim was to investigate signalling through PI3K for in vitro degranulation from allergen-primed eosinophils and neutrophils in allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma after seasonal and experimental allergen challenge. Nine patients with allergic rhinitis, eight with allergic asthma and four controls were studied during birch pollen season and after nasal and bronchial allergen challenge.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Patients with allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma demonstrate comparable local and systemic eosinophil inflammation, and yet they present with different clinical pictures. Less is even known about the contribution of neutrophil inflammation in allergic diseases. The aim of the study was to examine the propensity and selectivity of granule release from primed systemic eosinophils and neutrophils in allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma after seasonal and experimental allergen exposure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: Seasonal allergy is an interesting model to study the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in allergic inflammation. However, experimental allergen exposure is easier to perform and standardise. The primary aim of this study was to compare the inflammatory responses to high-dose bronchial challenge and natural exposure during birch pollen season.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The aim of the study was to investigate inflammation during the birch pollen season in patients with rhinitis or asthma.
Methods: Subjects with birch pollen asthma (n = 7) or rhinitis (n = 9) and controls (n = 5) were studied before and during pollen seasons. Eosinophils (Eos), eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) and human neutrophil lipocalin were analysed.
Schweiz Monatsschr Zahnmed
February 2006
Tooth-coloured adhesive inserted fiber posts are used to restore endodontically treated teeth. In this investigation, the tensile bond strength of two different fiber posts systems (ER DentinPost and DT Light Post) in combination with five different resin cements was tested. The posts were inserted into artificial root canals in bovine dentin using Clearfil Core, RelyX Unicem, Panavia 21ex, Panavia F2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Respir Crit Care Med
September 1997
Tenascin and fibronectin are extracellular matrix glycoproteins expressed during morphogenesis and tissue repair. In the present study bronchial biopsies were studied by the morphometric method of immunocytochemistry to reveal the distribution of different tenascin and fibronectin isoforms as well as the presence of inflammatory cells in the airway mucosa of patients with chronic asthma (n = 32) and those with seasonal birch-pollen-sensitive asthma out of season (n = 17), both in comparison with healthy control subjects (n = 12). The results showed an increase in tenascin immunoreactivity in the bronchial subepithelial reticular basement membrane layer in patients with chronic asthma (p < 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBronchial biopsy specimens from subjects with intermittent or "early" asthma were compared with specimens taken from healthy subjects. Patients with early asthma included those with seasonal asthma and occupational asthma. There was a small but statistically significant increase in the thickness of the subepithelial extracellular matrix protein tenascin in subjects with seasonal and occupational asthma compared with control subjects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Respir Cell Mol Biol
October 1996
Laminins (Ln) are crucial in airway morphogenesis. Because they are able to interact with inflammatory cells, they are likely to participate in inflammation accompanied by airway structural remodeling in asthma. Taking biopsies and using immunohistochemistry and quantitative image analysis, we characterized the distribution of Ln chains alpha 1, alpha 2, and beta 2 in the bronchial mucosa of patients with seasonal (n = 17), early occupational (n = 8), and chronic asthma (n = 16) for comparison with that of normal controls (n = 8).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe clinical effect of inhaled radio-labeled (Technetium-99m diethylenetriamine-pentaacetic acid) methacholine was studied in two separate experiments performed in eight symptom-free asthmatics with bronchial hyperresponsiveness. Aerosols were formed by two different nebulizers, producing either mainly small aerosol particles (2-microns mass median aerodynamic diameter [MMAD]) for peripheral, or mainly large aerosol particles (9-microns MMAD) for large airway deposition. The intended site of deposition was confirmed by gamma camera recordings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Allergy Clin Immunol
January 1992
The secretion of granule proteins from eosinophils and neutrophils was studied in isolated cells, obtained from 11 pollen-atopic patients with asthma, twice during and twice outside pollen season. Granulocytes were stimulated with serum-opsonized Sephadex particles, and the released amount of eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), eosinophil protein X (EPX), and myeloperoxidase (MPO) were measured by means of specific radioimmunoassay (RIA). Eosinophils from the pollen-atopic patients obtained during pollen season released significantly more (p less than 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this study the ability of a human endothelial cell monolayer to expand over specific components of the basement membrane and extracellular matrix was investigated over a 5-day period. The method was intended as a model to study the mechanisms of endothelial regeneration. All components were coated onto sterile coverslips at a concentration of 10 micrograms/ml.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVirchows Arch B Cell Pathol Incl Mol Pathol
June 1990
The purpose of the present study was to observe the expansion of a monolayer of endothelial cells over specific components of the basement membrane. This was performed in vitro in a monolayer expansion assay over 5 days. The control surface was uncoated glass in the form of coverslips.
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