Circulating cytokeratin 8:anti-cytokeratin 8 antibody immune complexes in sera of patients with pulmonary fibrosis.

Background: It has been suggested that the humoral immune system plays a role in the pathogenesis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and pulmonary fibrosis associated with collagen vascular disorders (PF-CVD). Although circulating immune complexes in patients' sera have been suggested, none of the antigens have been characterized.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to characterize the antigen of the immune complexes in patients' sera of pulmonary fibrosis.

[Evaluation of lung lobar ventilation dynamics with magnetic resonance imaging: a comparison of interstitial pneumonia patients with normal subjects].

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was utilized to study lung lobar dynamic ventilation in 11 patients with interstitial pneumonia (IP) and 10 non-smoking men. The IP patients included 7 with interstitial lung disease associated with collagen vascular disease, 3 with idiopathic interstitial pneumonia, and 1 with lung cancer who was excluded from statistical analysis. We calculated lung lobar volumes in each phase from each dynamic image and constructed time-volume curves(TVCs).

Cationic uncouplers of oxidative phosphorylation are inducers of mitochondrial permeability transition.

To determine whether cationic uncouplers of oxidative phosphorylation induce permeability transition in mitochondria, the effects of the divalent cationic sulfhydryl cross-linker copper-o-phenanthroline (Cu(OP)2) and the cyanine dye tri-S-C4(5) on rat liver mitochondria were examined. Like Ca2+, they accelerated mitochondrial respiration with succinate and induced mitochondrial swelling when inorganic phosphate (Pi) was present in the incubation medium. The acceleration of respiration and swelling were inhibited by the SH-reagent N-ethylmaleimide, and by the specific permeability transition inhibitor cyclosporin A (CsA).