Failure of Kupffer cell blockade to prevent disseminated intravascular coagulation in endotoxemic rats despite improved survival.

Objective: Studies were conducted to evaluate the impact of gadolinium chloride (GdCl3), an agent which blocks the phagocytosis of liver macrophages (Kupffer cells, KC), on the coagulation system and on mortality in a model of rats subjected to a lethal dose of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (10 mg/kg body weight, intravenously).

Methods: Rats were either pretreated with GdCl3 (10 mg/kg, i.v.

Inhalation of prostacyclin (PGI2) for 8 hours does not produce signs of acute pulmonary toxicity in healthy lambs.

Objective: To study the potential side effects and toxicity of inhaling prostacyclin (PGI2) aerosol for 8 h.

Design: In a prospective, randomized study 14 healthy lambs received either PGI2 (n = 7) or 0.9% NaCl (n = 7) as an aerosol for 8 h.

Decreased fibrinolytic stimulation by a short-term venous occlusion test in patients with cerebrovascular disease.

The aim of the present study was to determine whether patients with previous cerebrovascular disease have abnormalities in hemostatic functions stimulated by a 5-min venous-occlusion-test. Twenty-two patients with brain ischaemia 3-6 months previously were compared to a control group of twenty patients with non-vascular neurological diseases. Cases showed less increase in tissue plasminogen activator and fibrin degradation products than controls.

[Previous activation of platelets during storage: possible causes].

Stored single-donor platelets are characterized by a progressive cell activation. The data presented indicate that activation of plasma coagulation and complement system could contribute to this storage lesion process.

[The genetics of factor XII deficiency].

There are two main forms of factor XII deficiency: patients with immunological cross-reacting material (CRM+) and patients without (CRM-). For 1 case of CRM+ an amino acid substitution (Cys571-->Ser) has been described. We are currently investigating two families of Hageman CRM- trait with the typical hemostaseological pattern: one member with virtually no factor XII activity and antigen, whose sisters and children have about 50% of activity and antigen.

Localization of prodynorphin messenger rna in rat brain by in situ hybridization using a synthetic oligonucleotide probe.

An in situ hybridization technique has been developed to study the distribution of messenger RNA (mRNA) encoding prodynorphin (proenkephalin B) in sections of rat brain. A 100-mer oligonucleotide was used as a template to synthesize a 32P-labelled DNA probe complementary to the coding region of rat prodynorphin mRNA. Using this probe, dense labelling was observed in the supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei of the hypothalamus, in the striatum and in the dentate gyrus.

Immunological correspondence between arthropod hemocyanin subunits. II. Xiphosuran (Limulus) and spider (Eurypelma, Cupiennius) hemocyanin.

The hemocyanins of the horseshoe crab Limulus polyphemus (48-mer), the tarantula Eurypelma californicum (24-mer), and the lycosid spider Cupiennius salei (dodecamer, hexamer) were dissociated into subunits, the subunits isolated and studied by two-dimensional immunoelectrophoresis for interspecific cross-reactivities. Among the subunits a to g of Eurypelma on the one side, and I to VI of Limulus on the other, a number of cross-reactions were obtained which agree with the topologic subunit positions in the published models of quaternary structure: a = II, b-c = V-VI, d = IV, e = I, f = IIIb, g = IIIa (IIa). However, cross-reactivity was only strong in the following combinations: a/II, d/IV, b-c/V-VI (the monomers of the two heterodimers could not be correlated individually).

Hemocyanins in spiders, XVI[1]. Subunit topography and a model of the quaternary structure of Eurypelma hemocyanin.

Specific antibodies were prepared against the individual subunits of the hemocyanin isolated from the tarantula Eurypelma californicum. From the antibodies, the monovalent antigen-binding fragments (Fab) were made by papain treatment. Native 37S hemocyanin was incubated with individual Fab species and the labelling of the seven subunits (a, b, c, d, e, f and g) analyzed by electron microscopy.