High mortality rate of (NZW x BXSB)F1 mice induced by administration of lipopolysaccharide attributes to high production of tumour necrosis factor-alpha by increased numbers of dendritic cells.

(NZW x BXSB)F1 mice (W/BF1 mice) have been reported to be a type of autoimmune-prone mice, showing symptoms of proteinuria, anti-DNA antibodies and anti-platelet antibodies. In this paper, we report that W/BF1 mice show hyperproduction of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, responding to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in comparison with normal mice, resulting in induction of death. In normal mice, monocytes/macrophages (Mo/MØ) are the main producer of TNF-alpha, while both Mo/MØ and dendritic cells (DCs) produce TNF-alpha in W/BF1 mice.

Intra-bone marrow injection of donor bone marrow cells suspended in collagen gel retains injected cells in bone marrow, resulting in rapid hemopoietic recovery in mice.

We have recently developed an innovative bone marrow transplantation (BMT) method, intra-bone marrow (IBM)-BMT, in which donor bone marrow cells (BMCs) are injected directly into the recipient bone marrow (BM), resulting in the rapid recovery of donor hemopoiesis and permitting a reduction in radiation doses as a pretreatment for BMT. However, even with this IBM injection, some of the injected BMCs were found to enter into circulation. Therefore, we attempted to modify the method to allow the efficient retention of injected BMCs in the donor BM.

Analyses of expression of cytoglobin by immunohistochemical studies in human tissues.

Cytoglobin (Cygb) is a recently discovered member of the vertebrate globin family, which includes probably most extensively studied proteins, hemoglobin (Hb), myoglobin (Mb) and neuroglobin (Ngb). It has been reported that Cygb is expressed ubiquitously at the mRNA or protein level. However, details of the distribution of Cygb in the various tissues have hitherto been unclear.

FKBP51 expressed by both normal epithelial cells and adenocarcinoma of colon suppresses proliferation of colorectal adenocarcinoma.

It has been reported, as a result of Western blot analyses, that FKBP51 is expressed in various tissues, but that it is not expressed in the pancreas, lung, colon, stomach, or spleen. In this paper, we show, using Western blot analyses, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, and immunohistochemical analyses of samples from colon cancer patients, that both normal epithelial cells and adenocarcinoma in the human colon express FKBP51, and that there are no significant differences in the expressions of FKBP51 between them. We also show that FKBP51 suppresses the proliferation of colorectal adenocarcinoma, possibly due to the suppression of functions of the glucocorticoid receptors.

Intra-bone marrow injection of dendritic cells for treatment of malignant tumor in mice.

It has recently been reported that antigen presentation from dendritic cells (DCs) to T cells occurs in the bone marrow, and that not only tumor antigen-pulsed DCs but also unpulsed DCs have some anti-tumor effects, resulting from the induction of anti-tumor immunity. In this paper, we examined whether dendritic cells induced from bone marrow cells (BMCs) have the capacity to suppress tumor growth and, if so, which route (intravenous, subcutaneous, or intra-bone marrow injection) is best. BALB/c mice that had been subcutaneously inoculated with Meth A (a murine fibrosarcoma cell line) were injected with BMC-derived DCs via the above three routes.

Immunotherapy for malignant tumors using combination of allogeneic intra-bone marrow-bone marrow transplantation, donor lymphocyte infusion and dendritic cells.

We have previously shown that the combination of allogeneic intra-bone marrow-bone marrow transplantation (IBM-BMT) and donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) using CD4+ cell-depleted spleen cells is effective in suppressing tumor growth, but that this does not induce graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in mice. In this report, we show that formalin-fixed tumor cell-pulsed dendritic cells (FFTCP DCs) have an additive effect with IBM-BMT plus DLI on the suppression of tumor growth, but that the DCs do not augment GVHD. BALB/c mice, which had been subcutaneously inoculated with Meth A (BALB/c-derived fibrosarcoma), were irradiated at a low dose (5 Gy) and were transplanted with bone marrow cells (BMCs) from C57BL/6 (B6) mice into the bone marrow cavity (IBM-BMT).

Allogeneic intrabone marrow-bone marrow transplantation plus donor lymphocyte infusion suppresses growth of colon cancer cells implanted in skin and liver of rats.

We have recently found that allogeneic intrabone marrow-bone marrow transplantation (IBM-BMT) + donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) using CD4(+) cell-depleted spleen cells (CD4(-) cells) can prevent graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) but suppress tumor growth (Meth A: fibrosarcoma) in mice. In the present study, we show that allogeneic IBM-BMT + DLI using CD4(-) cells also has suppressive effects on the growth of colon cancer cells implanted not only in the skin but also in the liver of rats. First, we examined the effects of allogeneic IBM-BMT + DLI on the subcutaneously inoculated ACL-15 (rat colon cancer cell line).

Effects of low-dose irradiation on enhancement of immunity by dendritic cells.

Low-doses of irradiation have been reported to have beneficial effects, particularly anti-tumor effects. In this paper, we show the effects of the low-dose irradiation on T cell activation induced by dendritic cells (DCs). DCs, which had been pre-irradiated at 0.