Effect of iron restriction on outer membrane protein composition of Pseudomonas strains studied by conventional and microchip electrophoresis.

In this study the outer membrane protein (OMP) composition of six Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains had been analyzed by conventional CE and microchip electrophoresis. Bacterial OMPs are important virulence factors and play a significant role in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. Changes in their composition might refer to the altered pathogenic properties and antibiotic sensitivity of a certain strain.

The beta subunit of the type I Fcepsilon receptor is a target for peptides inhibiting IgE-mediated secretory response of mast cells.

Peptides originally derived from complement component C3a were earlier shown to inhibit the type I FcepsilonR (FcepsilonRI)-mediated degranulation of mucosal type mast cells. In the present study, we show that C3a7, a peptide with a natural sequence, and its modified derivative, C3a9, are powerful inhibitors of the above response of both serosal and mucosal type mastocytes. We demonstrate that these peptides inhibit FcepsilonRI-induced membrane proximal events, suppress phosphorylation of the FcepsilonRI beta subunit, the protein tyrosine kinase Lyn, as well as the transient rise in free cytosolic Ca2+ level.

Cholesterol sensitivity of detergent resistance: a rapid flow cytometric test for detecting constitutive or induced raft association of membrane proteins.

Background: Lipid rafts are cholesterol- and glycosphingolipid-rich microdomains in the cellular plasma membranes that play critical roles in compartmentalization (concentration, coupling, and isolation) of receptors and signal molecules. Therefore, detecting constitutive or induced raft associations of such proteins is of central interest in cell biology. This has mostly been done with time- and cell-consuming immunobiochemical techniques affected by several sources of artifacts.

Regulation of mast cell activation by complement-derived peptides.

It is known for more than 25 years that the complement-derived anaphylatoxic peptides, C3a, C4a and C5a are potent activators of basophils and certain types of mast cells. Although tissue distribution of receptors for C3a and C5a well exceeds myeloid cells, apparently they are not expressed on mucosal type mast cells, consequently these cells are not activated by C3a and C5a. Our results do however demonstrate that C3a and peptides related to this complement activation product are able to inhibit FcRI-clustering induced activation of mucosal type mast cells-such as RBL-2H3 cells and bone-marrow derived mast cells.

Mucosal type mast cells express complement receptor type 2 (CD21).

Fragments of complement component C3 generated upon activation of the cascade play an important role in the induction and regulation of immune responses. Receptors interacting with various fragments of this versatile complement protein are expressed on a wide variety of cell types, including lymphocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells, follicular dendritic cells, granulocytes, erythrocytes and consequently, C3-products may influence several biological functions at different sites of the body, where complement activation occurs. Regarding the expression of various C3-receptors on mast cells, mainly rodent serosal type mastocytes have been investigated so far.

Bone marrow-derived mast cell differentiation is strongly reduced in histidine decarboxylase knockout, histamine-free mice.

Mast cells are differentiated in vitro from bone marrow precursors. In this study the development of bone marrow-derived mast cells was examined from histidine decarboxylase deficient (HDC-/-) and wild-type mice in the presence of IL-3. The number of non-adherent, tryptase- and c-kit-positive mast cells in bone marrow-derived cultures of HDC(-/-) mice was decreased compared to that of wild-type (HDC+/+) animals, but within the tryptase- and c-kit-positive cells there was no difference in the expression intensity of both markers between the two groups.