The role of vascular endothelial growth factor in a murine chronic granulomatous tissue air pouch model of angiogenesis.

Chronic granulomatous inflammation may be considered an angiogenic-dependent process. Recently it has been demonstrated that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) or vascular permeability factor is essential for tumour angiogenesis. Its role in inflammation-mediated angiogenesis has yet to be determined.

Sewage effluent: likely source of Salmonella enteritidis, phage type 4 infection in a commercial chicken layer flock in southern California.

Following the diagnosis of Salmonella enteritidis, phage type 4, infection in a commercial layer flock in southern California, effluent from a nearby sewer treatment plant was investigated as a potential source of infection. Between July 1994 and March 1995, 68 Salmonella isolations, comprising 27 serotypes, were made from the inflow (raw sewage) and effluent (treated sewage). Thirty-nine of 68 (57%) isolations yielded six serotypes, which consisted of S.

Salmonella enteritidis, phase type 4 infection in a commercial layer flock in southern California: bacteriologic and epidemiologic findings.

Salmonella enteritidis, phage type 4 (SE PT4), was isolated from five of six 27-wk-old layer chickens submitted for necropsy from a flock of 43,000. Bacteriologic and epidemiologic investigations on the ranch revealed that five of the eight flocks (n = 176,000) were infected. The prevalence of SE PT4 in randomly selected healthy birds ranged from 1.

Impaired activity of protease inhibitors towards neutrophil elastase bound to human articular cartilage.

Objective: To investigate the effects of protease inhibitors on the ability of free and cartilage bound neutrophil elastase to degrade cartilage proteoglycan in vitro.

Methods: Cryostat sections of human articular cartilage were used as substrate, and proteoglycan loss induced by free or cartilage bound elastase was quantified by alcian blue staining, followed by scanning and integrating microdensitometry.

Results: High molecular mass protease inhibitors (alpha 1 protease inhibitor, alpha 2 macroglobulin, and soya bean trypsin inhibitor) and synovial fluid from patients with rheumatoid arthritis were effective in blocking proteoglycan loss from sections treated with free elastase, but their activity towards cartilage bound elastase was much reduced.

A highly porous 3-dimensional polyphosphazene polymer matrix for skeletal tissue regeneration.

Current methods for the replacement of skeletal tissue in general involve the use of autografts or allografts. There are considerable drawbacks in the use of either of these tissues. In an effort to provide an alternative to traditional graft materials, a degradable 3-dimensional (3-D) osteoblast cell-polymer matrix was designed as a construct for skeletal tissue regeneration.

Heme oxygenase: a novel target for the modulation of the inflammatory response.

Chronic inflammatory diseases place a heavy social and economic burden on the resources of many nations, but the number of safe and effective treatments is limited. To date, the major research effort has concentrated on those mediators responsible for the initiation and maintenance of the pathological process. In contrast, little attention has been focused on endogenous factors responsible for the resolution of the inflammation.

Esophageal trichomoniasis in chickens.

Esophageal trichomoniasis has been rarely reported in chickens. At the California Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory System-Turlock Branch, this disease was recently diagnosed in two cases submitted from backyard chicken flocks. The esophageal lesions observed were similar to those seen in several other important diseases of chickens.

Ascaridia dissimilis larval migration associated with enteritis and low market weights in meat turkeys.

A meat turkey ranch had a history of producing flocks with low market weights. Live bird samples and environmental samples from the ranch were collected over a period of eight months and analyzed at the California Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory System-Turlock Branch. The disease condition consistently present was enteritis associated with Ascaridia dissimilis infection in birds from growout houses.

Modulation of heme oxygenase activity in rat brain and spleen by inhibitors and donors of nitric oxide.

The capacity of nitric oxide to activate or inhibit metalloprotein-containing enzymes underlies many of its biological actions. Heme oxygenase, involved in a variety of biological processes, does not contain heme but utilises it as a substrate. The substrate for nitric oxide, L-arginine (0.

The pharmacological modulation of angiogenesis in chronic granulomatous inflammation.

Angiogenesis is required for the progression of chronic inflammation, and agents that alter it can affect the development of inflammation and the consequent tissue destruction. However, in vivo quantification of neovascularization and its modulation by angiostatic and angiogenic agents is difficult. Studies have relied on reported effects of drugs on embryonic and tumor vasculature to infer angiomodulatory actions.

Distribution of cyclooxygenase isoforms in murine chronic granulomatous inflammation. Implications for future anti-inflammatory therapy.

Inhibition of the enzyme cyclooxygenase (COX) is the basis for the mechanism of action of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). COX exists as a constitutive (COX-1) and a mitogen-inducible (COX-2) isoform. The relative contribution of COX-1 and COX-2 to inflammation is unknown.

Nitric oxide synthase in the rat fallopian tube is regulated during the oestrous cycle.

Nitric oxide produced from L-arginine by nitric oxide synthase (NOS) acts in a variety of biological processes via the stimulation of guanylyl cyclase and subsequent elevation of cGMP. Constitutive, calcium-dependent isoforms of NOS are found in endothelial cells (eNOS) and neurones (nNOS), while macrophages express an inducible, calcium-independent isoform (iNOS) in response to the action of certain cytokines or bacterial endotoxin. While the regulation of NOS by exogenous glucocorticoids and steroid hormones is well documented, the effects of endogenous steroid hormones on NOS activity, such as those released during the oestrous cycle, is unknown.

OM-89 modulation of chronic inflammation: relevance to clinical use.

The modulatory effects of a glycoprotein-rich endotoxin-free extract of Escherichia coli (OM-89) have been studied using the cotton pellet model of chronic inflammation in the male Wistar rat. OM-89 had a suppressive effect on the size of granuloma surrounding implanted cotton pellets at both 4 and 40 mg/kg given three times weekly. The lower dosage of 4 mg was effective throughout and there was little to be gained by increasing the dose as further reduction of granuloma size was not obtained.

Angiostasis and vascular regression in chronic granulomatous inflammation induced by diclofenac in combination with hyaluronan in mice.

Angiostasis and vascular regression in chronic granulomatous inflammation was assessed in mice induced with diclofenac in combination with hyaluronan. The local injection of 0.1 mL HYAL EX-0001 (0.

Is tolerance induction a possible mode of action of OM-89?

Neonatal Wistar rats were injected intraperitoneally with either 20 mu g OM-89 at birth and on day 3 after birth or 2 mg three times weekly until 200 g body weight. At this weight, groups were either implanted subcutaneously with a cotton pellet to induce granuloma, or had avridine polyarthritis or pleurisy induced. Both OM-89 treatment regimes significantly reduced granuloma weight (p < 0.

The modulation of granulomatous tissue and tumour angiogenesis by diclofenac in combination with hyaluronan (HYAL EX-0001).

In a novel application, hyaluronan has been utilized as a delivery system for topical and i.v. therapeutics.

Hyaluronan as a drug delivery system for diclofenac: a hypothesis for mode of action.

Hyaluronan (HA) in combination with diclofenac is currently undergoing clinical trials as a topical preparation in the management of osteoarthritic pain, basal-cell carcinoma and actinic keratosis. These are clearly diverse pathologies, but in all cases substance P plays a central role either directly or through secondary mediators such as prostaglandin E2 and nitric oxide. A common mechanism for HA in combination with diclofenac in these conditions may be through ameliorating the direct and indirect effects of substance P.

Beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) and APP-RNA are rapidly affected by glutamate in cultured neurons: selective increase of mRNAs encoding a Kunitz protease inhibitor domain.

Alternative splicing of beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) RNA generates APP isoforms with or without a Kunitz protease inhibitor (KPI) domain. Previously, we showed that KPI (+) APP RNA, but not KPI (-) APP RNA, is upregulated in response to experimental lesions in which neurotoxicity is dependent on NMDA receptor activation and in Alzheimer's disease hippocampus. Recent studies by Mucke et al.

Gunshot wound injuries. Frequency and cost analyses in south central Los Angeles.

Nine hundred fifty-two patients with gunshot wound injuries admitted between July 1, 1989 and June 30, 1990 in a level one trauma center in South Central Los Angeles were studied retrospectively. The authors attempted to define those periods that gunshot injuries were most likely to occur, to characterize the involved high-risk populations, and to estimate direct and indirect cost of care to society.