Hypersensitivity reactions to intravenous lipid emulsion in swine: relevance for lipid resuscitation studies.

Background: Reports in the recent experimental literature have provided contradicting results in different animal species regarding the efficacy of IV lipid emulsion (ILE) in the reversal of cardiovascular and central nervous system symptoms of local anesthetic and other lipophilic drug overdoses. In particular, ILE seemed to be effective in rats, rabbits, dogs, and humans, but not in swine, for which it not only failed to reverse the adverse effects of anesthetics, but the animals also developed a generalized cutaneous mottling or a dusky appearance immediately after ILE, suggestive of another type of toxicity. The latter symptoms arise in complement (C) activation-related pseudoallergy, a hypersensitivity reaction to particulate drugs and agents.

Elevated complement factor H levels in asthmatic sputa.

Background: The alternative pathway of the complement system is known to play a role in the generation of asthmatic airway inflammation, but its regulatory complement protein, factor H has not been investigated in this disease.

Purpose: Our aim was to determine the local bronchial complement factor H (CFH) levels in asthma, and to investigate its relationship with complement activation, systemic CFH concentrations and clinical characteristics of patients.

Methods: Induced sputum and plasma were collected from 21 healthy and 26 asthmatic subjects, and complement factor H and SC5b-9 concentrations were assessed by ELISA.

Circulating and exhaled vascular endothelial growth factor in asthmatic pregnancy.

Context: Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays a role in asthma and pathological pregnancies.

Objective: This is the first study assessing plasma and exhaled breath condensate VEGF levels in asthmatic pregnancy.

Material And Methods: Thirty-one asthmatic pregnant, 29 asthmatic nonpregnant, 28 healthy pregnant and 22 healthy nonpregnant women were enrolled.

Complement activation by polyethoxylated pharmaceutical surfactants: Cremophor-EL, Tween-80 and Tween-20.

Immunosafety analysis of pharmaceutical surfactants is an important step in understanding the complex mechanisms by which they induce side effects in susceptible patients. This paper provides experimental evidences that polyethoxylated surfactants, Cremophor-EL and Tween-80, also known as Polysorbate-80, activate the complement system in vitro, in normal human serum and plasma. They appeared to be more efficient reactogens than their structural homolog, Tween-20.

Liposome-induced complement activation and related cardiopulmonary distress in pigs: factors promoting reactogenicity of Doxil and AmBisome.

Unlabelled: Hypersensitivity reactions to liposomal drugs, often observed with Doxil and AmBisome, can arise from activation of the complement (C) system by phospholipid bilayers. To understand the mechanism of this adverse immune reaction called C activation-related pseudoallergy (CARPA), we analyzed the relationship among liposome features, C activation in human serum in vitro, and liposome-induced cardiovascular distress in pigs, a model for human CARPA. Among the structural variables (surface charge, presence of saturated, unsaturated, and PEGylated phospholipids, and cisplatin vs.

Proinflammatory activation pattern of human umbilical vein endothelial cells induced by IL-1β, TNF-α, and LPS.

Endothelial cells play a critical role in inflammation by responding to several endogenous and exogenous proinflammatory stimuli. The three most studied factors that provide inflammatory signals to endothelial cells are lipopolysaccharide (LPS), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and interleukin (IL)-1β; however, their effects on endothelial cells were thoroughly compared at the level of gene expression only. Therefore, our aim was to assess the differences in the signaling pathways, adhesion molecules, and cytokines induced by proinflammatory factors in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC).