IL-1 alpha or tumor necrosis factor-alpha stimulate release of three NAP-1/IL-8-related neutrophil chemotactic proteins in human dermal fibroblasts.

Human dermal fibroblasts in culture secrete three protein-like neutrophil chemotactic factors, when stimulated either with human rIL-1 alpha or IL-1 beta; not, however, after incubation with LPS. These three fibroblast-derived neutrophil-activating proteins (FINAP) could be purified by subsequently performed reversed phase and size exclusion HPLC. By high resolution SDS-PAGE, all the proteins were shown to migrate with an Mr of 6,700 (alpha-FINAP), 3,600 (beta-FINAP), and 5,300 (gamma-FINAP).

Isolation and partial characterization of a bacteriophage active on Hyphomicrobium sp. WI-926.

Isolation of a Hyphomicrobium phage from raw sewage from Athens, Ohio, was achieved by a combination of differential centrifugation, filtration, enrichment in mixed Hyphomicrobium cultures, and purification on individual host strains by subculturing single plaques in soft agar overlayers. Enrichments with water from Lake Erie and Lake Beechwood (Ohio) were unsuccessful. Out of 21 Hyphomicrobium strains and 22 other Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria tested, only Hyphomicrobium WI-926 (isolated from a German forest pond) was susceptible.

Altered polymorphonuclear leukocyte responses in psoriasis: chemotaxis and degranulation.

Chemotactic activities of circulating polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) were determined in twenty patients with psoriasis and twenty healthy control persons. After serial dilution of the complement split product C5a and the formylated tripeptide f-met-leu-phe (FMLP), chemotaxis profiles showed that PMN migration toward both chemotaxins was significantly increased in psoriasis. In addition, PMN from psoriatic patients responded to chemotaxins at much lower concentrations compared with controls.

Occurrence ofThioploca in Lake Constance and Lower Saxony, Germany.

Thioploca had been encountered in several locations in Central Europe. Five of these were revisited to find out ifT. schmidlei andT.