The Candida albicans vacuole is required for differentiation and efficient macrophage killing.

Yeast-hypha differentiation is believed to be necessary for the normal progression of Candida albicans infections. The emergence and extension of a germ tube from a parental yeast cell are accompanied by dynamic changes in vacuole size and morphology. Although vacuolar function is required during this process, it is unclear if it is vacuolar expansion or some other vacuolar function that is important.

Postnatal modulation of prenatally programmed hypertension by dietary Na and ACE inhibition.

Adult hypertension in the rat can be programmed experimentally by changes in intrauterine environment. The offspring typically do not become hypertensive until 6 to 8 wk of age, and recent evidence suggests that renal dysfunction may participate in the pathogenesis. The present study was based on the hypothesis that the window for programming extends to the postnatal period in the rat.

Alcohol-induced suppression of lung chemokine production and the host defense response to Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Background: Acute alcohol intoxication impairs neutrophil migration in response to intrapulmonary infection with Streptococcus pneumoniae, the most common bacterial cause of pneumonia. Many of the same host defense functions that are impaired in the alcohol-intoxicated host are mechanistically associated with chemokines, a group of proinflammatory molecules that enhance neutrophil adhesion and direct neutrophil migration to sites of inflammation. The purpose of this study was to determine whether alcohol-induced chemokine suppression is responsible for impaired neutrophil recruitment into the lung during infection of the alcohol-intoxicated host.

Hypertension after kidney transplantation: impact, pathogenesis and therapy.

Hypertension (HTN) contributes to the high incidence of cardiovascular disease mortality as well as chronic allograft nephropathy (CAN) and late graft failure in renal transplant recipients. The mechanisms are complex and may involve pathogenic factors attributable to the host, allograft, and immunosuppressive drugs. Calcium channel blockers should be used to ameliorate the nephrotoxicity of calcineurin inhibitors in the early years after transplantation.

Regulation and distribution of MAdCAM-1 in endothelial cells in vitro.

Mucosal addressin cell adhesion molecule-1 (MAdCAM-1) is a 60-kDa endothelial cell adhesion glycoprotein that regulates lymphocyte trafficking to Peyer's patches and lymph nodes. Although it is widely agreed that MAdCAM-1 induction is involved in chronic gut inflammation, few studies have investigated regulation of MAdCAM-1 expression. We used two endothelial lines [bEND.