Correlative analysis of the sagittal profile of the spine in patients with beta-thalassemia and in healthy persons.

This prospective study compares several roentgenographic parameters of the thoracic and lumbar spine in patients with beta-thalassemia and in healthy persons who served as controls. Eighty-four patients with beta-thalassemia and 84 age- and gender-matched healthy persons were examined clinically and radiologically (thoracic kyphosis, lumbar lordosis, and vertebral and sacral inclination). Although there was a significant difference in the vertebral inclination from T6 to L1, L4, and L5 between patients and controls, thoracic kyphosis and lumbar lordosis did not differ in the two groups.

Regulation of sucrase-isomaltase gene expression in human intestinal epithelial cells by inflammatory cytokines.

Using metabolic labeling techniques in human intestinal epithelial cell lines in tissue culture and in situ hybridization techniques in normal and inflamed (Crohn's) intestine, recent studies have shown that there is synthesis of acute phase proteins in enterocytes. Moreover, these studies have shown that acute phase protein biosynthesis in enterocytes is regulated by inflammatory cytokines in a manner characteristic of the physiologic acute phase response. In the course of these studies it was noticed that one inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-6 (IL-6), mediated selective down-regulation of the enterocyte-specific, differentiation-dependent integral membrane protein sucrase-isomaltase (SI) in the Caco2 intestinal epithelial cell line.

N-formylpeptide and complement C5a receptors are expressed in liver cells and mediate hepatic acute phase gene regulation.

Although the classical chemotactic receptor for complement anaphylatoxin C5a has been associated with polymorphonuclear and mononuclear phagocytes, several recent studies have indicated that this receptor is expressed on nonmyeloid cells including human endothelial cells, vascular smooth muscle cells, bronchial and alveolar epithelial cells, hepatocytes, and in the human hepatoma cell line HepG2. In this study, we examined the possibility that other members of the chemotactic receptor family are expressed in HepG2 cells and human liver, and the possibility that such receptors mediate changes in acute phase gene expression in HepG2 cells. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of HepG2 mRNA with primers based on highly conserved regions of the chemotactic subgroup of the G protein-coupled receptor family, we identified a PCR fragment from the formyl-methionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (FMLP) receptor, as well as one from the C5a receptor.

Evidence for an acute phase response in human intestinal epithelial cells.

During the host response to inflammation/tissue injury there are many changes in intermediary metabolism including a dramatic change in the concentrations of many "acute phase" plasma proteins. Although many of these acute phase proteins are predominantly derived from the liver and the response can be elicited from liver cells incubated in tissue culture with cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1 (IL-1), tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interferon-gamma, leukemia inhibitory factor, interleukin-11 (IL-11), and oncostatin M, there is now evidence that the response can also be elicited in extrahepatic tissues and cell types. In this study, we show that many of the acute phase plasma proteins are expressed in human intestinal epithelial cell lines Caco2 and T84 and that their expression is induced or regulated by cytokines IL-6, IL-1, interferon, and tumor necrosis factor in a manner characteristic of the acute phase response.