Targeting lysyl oxidase reduces peritoneal fibrosis.

Background: Abdominal surgery and disease cause persistent abdominal adhesions, pelvic pain, infertility and occasionally, bowel obstruction. Current treatments are ineffective and the aetiology is unclear, although excessive collagen deposition is a consistent feature. Lysyl oxidase (Lox) is a key enzyme required for crosslinking and deposition of insoluble collagen, so we investigated whether targeting Lox might be an approach to reduce abdominal adhesions.

FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH PENTOSIDINE ACCUMULATION IN THE HUMAN VITREOUS.

Purpose: To explore factors associated with pentosidine accumulation in the human vitreous.

Methods: Vitreous samples were obtained during trans pars plana vitrectomy for macular hole or rhegmatogenous retinal detachment. Patient characteristics included age, gender, and diabetes mellitus.

Trypsin-mediated enzymatic degradation of type II collagen in the human vitreous.

Purpose: Aging of the vitreous body can result in sight-threatening pathology. One aspect of vitreous aging is liquefaction, which results from the vanishing of collagen fibrils. We investigated the possibility that trypsins are involved in vitreous type II collagen degradation.

Matrix stiffness modulates proliferation, chemotherapeutic response, and dormancy in hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

Unlabelled: There is increasing evidence that the physical environment is a critical mediator of tumor behavior. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) develops within an altered biomechanical environment, and increasing matrix stiffness is a strong predictor of HCC development. The aim of this study was to establish whether changes in matrix stiffness, which are characteristic of inflammation and fibrosis, regulate HCC cell proliferation and chemotherapeutic response.

Macrophage therapy for murine liver fibrosis recruits host effector cells improving fibrosis, regeneration, and function.

Unlabelled: Clinical studies of bone marrow (BM) cell therapy for liver cirrhosis are under way but the mechanisms of benefit remain undefined. Cells of the monocyte-macrophage lineage have key roles in the development and resolution of liver fibrosis. Therefore, we tested the therapeutic effects of these cells on murine liver fibrosis.

Enzymatic breakdown of type II collagen in the human vitreous.

Purpose: To investigate whether enzymatic collagen breakdown is an active process in the human vitreous.

Methods: Human donor eyes were used for immunohistochemistry to detect the possible presence of the matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-induced type II collagen breakdown product col2-3/4C-short in the vitreous. Western blot and slot blot analyses were used to further identify vitreal type II collagen breakdown products in three age groups with average ages of 25, 45, and 65 years.

Mature enzymatic collagen cross-links, hydroxylysylpyridinoline and lysylpyridinoline, in the aging human vitreous.

Purpose: The vitreous body of the human eye undergoes progressive morphologic changes with aging. Since the enzymatic collagen cross-links hydroxylysylpyridinoline (HP) and lysylpyridinoline (LP) are known to be important for the integrity of the collagen matrix, the presence in the vitreous on aging was studied.

Methods: Vitreous bodies (VBs; n = 143) from 119 donors (age 4-80 years; mean +/- SD, 54.

Lactococcus lactis GEM particles displaying pneumococcal antigens induce local and systemic immune responses following intranasal immunization.

The present work reports the use of non-living non-recombinant bacteria as a delivery system for mucosal vaccination. Antigens are bound to the cell-wall of pretreated Lactococcus lactis, designated as Gram-positive enhancer matrix (GEM), by means of a peptidoglycan binding domain. The influence of the GEM particles on the antigen-specific serum antibody response was studied.