The natural stilbenoid pinosylvin and activated neutrophils: effects on oxidative burst, protein kinase C, apoptosis and efficiency in adjuvant arthritis.

Aim: To investigate the effects of the naturally occurring stilbenoid pinosylvin on neutrophil activity in vitro and in experimental arthritis, and to examine whether protein kinase C (PKC) activation served as an assumed target of pinosylvin action.

Methods: Fresh human blood neutrophils were isolated. The oxidative burst of neutrophils was evaluated on the basis of enhanced chemiluminescence.

Naturally appearing N-feruloylserotonin isomers suppress oxidative burst of human neutrophils at the protein kinase C level.

N-feruloylserotonin (N-f-5HT) isomers, isolated from seeds of Leuzea carthamoides (Wild) DC, inhibited dose-dependent oxidative burst in human whole blood and isolated neutrophils in vitro, which were measured by luminol- and/or isoluminol-enhanced chemiluminescence in the following rank order of stimuli: PMA > OpZ > calcium ionophore A23187. In isolated neutrophils that were stimulated with PMA, N-f-5HT isomers were effective against extracellular and intracellular reactive oxygen species. Liberation of ATP, analysis of apoptosis, and recombinant caspase-3 activity revealed that N-f-5HT isomers, used in concentrations up to 100 μM, did not alter the viability and integrity of isolated neutrophils.

Effect of carvedilol on reactive oxygen species and enzymes linking innate and adaptive immunity.

Objectives: Neutrophils and macrophages are critical components of our innate host defenses. They are a potential source of nitric oxide (NO) and superoxide, known to play an important role in many physiological processes including defense, immune and inflammatory responses. Myeloperoxidase (MPO), a major NO scavenger and a marker of oxidative stress, as well as increased inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression, may affect the NO-superoxide balance, critical for cellular redox balance in the cardiovascular system at physiologic conditions.

In vitro effect of carvedilol on professional phagocytes.

Aim: Superfluous reactive nitrogen and oxygen species generation is implicated in the damage of tissues at sites of inflammation where activated neutrophils and macrophages are involved. This study was conducted to investigate whether the beneficial effects of carvedilol involve modulation of respiratory burst, degranulation-myeloperoxidase release and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression.

Methods: Spectrophotometry and chemiluminescence were used to evaluate the effect of carvedilol on opsonized zymosan (0.

Antiplatelet and antileukocyte effects of cardiovascular, immunomodulatory and chemotherapeutic drugs.

In vitro and ex vivo interactions of betaadrenoceptor blocking drugs, antihistamines and chloroquine with blood platelets and polymorphonuclear leukocytes resulted in different alterations of regulatory functions of these blood cells. Inhibition of platelet aggregation, arachidonate regulatory pathway, 5-hydroxytryptamine transportation, removal of platelet membrane receptors, inhibition of second messenger pathways at subcellular level and suppression of phagocytosis are indicative of nonreceptor rather than specific receptor interactions. Binding of drugs with biomembranes is reversible depending on the ionic charge of the molecule and hydrophobicity of the bilayer, partition coefficient, pH and pKa of the amphiphilic molecules and other physico-chemical properties of amphiphilic drugs.

Reactive oxygen metabolite production is inhibited by histamine and H1-antagonist dithiaden in human PMN leukocytes.

The study evaluated the distinction between extracellular and intracellular production of reactive oxygen metabolites (ROM) in isolated polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNL) stimulated with opsonised zymosan (OZ) and investigated its modulation by the endogenous mediator histamine (0.1-100 mumol/l) and by the H1-antagonist dithiaden (1-100 mumol/l). For this observation, a modified luminol and an isoluminol amplified chemiluminescence (CL) technique were used.

Cationic amphiphilic drugs and platelet phospholipase A(2) (cPLA(2)).

The aim of the study was to verify and compare the effect of cationic amphiphilic drugs (CAD) from different pharmacological groups on activation of platelet phospholipase A2 (PLA2)--the essential enzyme of arachidonic pathway in blood platelets. Beta-adrenoceptor-blocking (BAB) drugs inhibited platelet aggregation in the rank order of potency: propranolol>alprenolol>metipranolol>atenolol. The higher the inhibition of arachidonic acid (AA) liberation by BAB drugs, the higher the inhibition of aggregation.