After infection and a prolonged incubation period, the scrapie agent causes a degenerative disease of the central nervous system in sheep and goats. Six lines of evidence including sensitivity to proteases demonstrate that this agent contains a protein that is required for infectivity. Although the scrapie agent is irreversibly inactivated by alkali, five procedures with more specificity for modifying nucleic acids failed to cause inactivation. The agent shows heterogeneity with respect to size, apparently a result of its hydrophobicity; the smallest form may have a molecular weight of 50,000 or less. Because the novel properties of the scrapie agent distinguish it from viruses, plasmids, and viroids, a new term "prion" is proposed to denote a small proteinaceous infectious particle which is resistant to inactivation by most procedures that modify nucleic acids. Knowledge of the scrapie agent structure may have significance for understanding the causes of several degenerative diseases.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/216/4542/136.full.pdf

Novel proteinaceous infectious particles cause scrapie

Authors Jan L. Brozek, MD, PhD – Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada Jean Bousquet, MD, PhD – Service des Maladies Respiratoires, Hopital Arnaud de Villeneuve, Montpellier, France, INSERM, CESP U1018, Respiratory and Environmental Epidemiology Team, France, and WHO Collaborating Center for Rhinitis and Asthma Carlos E. Baena-Cagnani, MD – Faculty of Medicine, Catholic University of Cordoba, Cordoba, Argentina Sergio Bonini, MD – Institute of Neurobiology and Molecular Medicine – CNR, Rome, Italy and Department of Medicine, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy G. Walter Canonica, MD – Allergy & Respiratory Diseases, DIMI, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy Thomas B. Casale, MD – Division of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Medicine, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA Roy Gerth van Wijk, MD, PhD – Section of Allergology, Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands Ken Ohta, MD, PhD – Division of Respiratory Medicine and Allergology, Department of Medicine, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan Torsten Zuberbier, MD – Department of Dermatology and Allergy, Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany Holger J. Schunemann, MD, PhD, MSc – Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

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Allergic Rhinitis and Its Impact on Asthma

/pdf/purification-and-characterization-2y44lhntkf.pdf

Purification and Characterization

The heparan sulfate on the surface of all adherent cells modulates the actions of a large number of extracellular ligands. Members of both cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycan families, the transmembrane syndecans and the glycosylphosphoinositide-linked glypicans, bind these ligands and enhance formation of their receptor-signaling complexes. These heparan sulfate proteoglycans also immobilize and regulate the turnover of ligands that act at the cell surface. The extracellular domains of these proteoglycans can be shed from the cell surface, generating soluble heparan sulfate proteoglycans that can inhibit interactions at the cell surface. Recent analyses of genetic defects in Drosophila melanogaster, mice, and humans confirm most of these activities in vivo and identify additional processes that involve cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans. This chapter focuses on the mechanisms underlying these activities and on the cellular functions that they regulate.

Functions of Cell Surface Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans

Acute wounds normally heal in a very orderly and efficient manner characterized by four distinct, but overlapping phases: hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation and remodeling. Specific biological markers characterize healing of acute wounds. Likewise, unique biologic markers also characterize pathologic responses resulting in fibrosis and chronic non-healing ulcers. This review describes the major biological processes associated with both normal and pathologic healing. The normal healing response begins the moment the tissue is injured. As the blood components spill into the site of injury, the platelets come into contact with exposed collagen and other elements of the extracellular matrix. This contact triggers the platelets to release clotting factors as well as essential growth factors and cytokines such as platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta). Following hemostasis, the neutrophils then enter the wound site and begin the critical task of phagocytosis to remove foreign materials, bacteria and damaged tissue. As part of this inflammatory phase, the macrophages appear and continue the process of phagocytosis as well as releasing more PDGF and TGF beta. Once the wound site is cleaned out, fibroblasts migrate in to begin the proliferative phase and deposit new extracellular matrix. The new collagen matrix then becomes cross-linked and organized during the final remodeling phase. In order for this efficient and highly controlled repair process to take place, there are numerous cell-signaling events that are required. In pathologic conditions such as non-healing pressure ulcers, this efficient and orderly process is lost and the ulcers are locked into a state of chronic inflammation characterized by abundant neutrophil infiltration with associated reactive oxygen species and destructive enzymes. Healing proceeds only after the inflammation is controlled. On the opposite end of the spectrum, fibrosis is characterized by excessive matrix deposition and reduced remodeling. Often fibrotic lesions are associated with increased densities of mast cells. By understanding the functional relationships of these biological processes of normal compared to abnormal wound healing, hopefully new strategies can be designed to treat the pathological conditions.

/pdf/wound-healing-an-overview-of-acute-fibrotic-and-delayed-38oyuk15ke.pdf

Wound healing: an overview of acute, fibrotic and delayed healing.

Two human mast cell types were identified by immunohistochemical techniques in skin, lung, and small intestine. One type contains the neutral proteases, tryptase and chymotryptic proteinase, and is termed the TC mast cell. The second type contains only tryptase and is termed the T mast cell. Both types are fixed better by Carnoy's fluid than by formalin. The percentage of mast cells accounted for by the T type was 12 in skin; 98 in mucosa and 13 in submucosa of small intestine; and 77 in bronchial/bronchiolar subepithelium, about 97 in bronchial/bronchiolar epithelium, and 93 in alveoli of lung. Dispersed lung cells contained 90% T mast cells. The mean area of TC mast cells (76 micron2) was slightly larger than that of T mast cells (66 micron2); however, there was such extensive overlap that individual mast cells belonging to different types could not be distinguished on the basis of size. The recognition of human mast cell types with distinct protease compositions suggests a higher level of complexity of human mast cell-mediated reactions than heretofore appreciated.

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/83/12/4464.full.pdf

Two types of human mast cells that have distinct neutral protease compositions.

Levels of histamine, chymase, and tryptase were assessed in preparations of dispersed human TC (tryptase+, chymase+) mast cells obtained from foreskin and of dispersed human T (tryptase+, chymase-) mast cells obtained from lung. Consistent with previous immunohistochemical results, extracts of T mast cells, the predominant mast cell type in lung (93% T and 7% TC mast cells), were deficient in human chymase (less than 0.3 microgram and 0.04 U/10(6) mast cells) but not tryptase (10.8 micrograms and 0.3 U/10(6) mast cells) by corresponding immunologic and enzymatic (suc-L-ala-ala-pro-phe-p-nitroanilide in the presence of aprotinin and tosyl-L-gly-pro-lys-p-nitroanilide in the presence of soybean trypsin inhibitor, respectively) assays. The minor presence of chymase activity in lung could be accounted for by the minor presence of lung TC mast cells. Extracts of TC mast cells, the predominant mast cell type (1% T and 99% TC mast cells) in foreskin, contained both proteases. However, TC mast cells from adult foreskin contained eightfold to 10-fold higher levels of chymase (4.5 micrograms and 1.01 U/10(6) mast cells) and twofold to threefold higher levels of tryptase (11.5 micrograms and 0.27 U/10(6) mast cells) than did TC mast cells from newborn foreskin (less than 0.6 microgram and 0.09 U of chymase and 35 micrograms and 0.62 U of tryptase/10(6) mast cells). In contrast, histamine levels were not significantly different in adult foreskin TC (1.9 microgram/10(6) mast cells), newborn foreskin TC (1.6 microgram/10(6) mast cells), and adult lung T (1.5 microgram/10(6) mast cells) mast cells. The relative ratio of each mediator in newborn foreskin mast cells to that in adult foreskin mast cells is highest for histamine, followed by tryptase and then chymase. Tryptase from TC and T mast cells had identical subunit compositions by Western blot analysis and similar apparent specific activities. This study extends the previously reported immunohistochemical distinction between human T and TC mast cells in tissue sections by direct quantitation of chymase and tryptase in dispersed preparations of T and TC mast cells.

Quantitation of histamine, tryptase, and chymase in dispersed human T and TC mast cells.

We developed an improved immunohistochemical technique for distinguishing human mast cells of the MCT (tryptase-positive, chymase-negative) and MCTC (tryptase-positive, chymase-positive) types utilizing a biotinylated murine anti-chymase monoclonal antibody (MAb), termed B7, and an alkaline phosphatase-conjugated murine anti-tryptase MAb, termed G3. The B7 MAb also was used to show the selective presence of chymase in mast cells. The distribution of MCT and MCTC cells in Carnoy's fluid-fixed tissue sections of human lung, skin, small intestine, and tonsils was analyzed by the new technique and the results compared to those obtained with the older method using a rabbit polyclonal antichymase antibody and a mouse anti-tryptase MAb in indirect immunoperoxidase and indirect immunoalkaline phosphatase protocols, respectively. In tissues known to contain predominantly mature mast cells, there were no quantitative differences between the two techniques, although the staining intensity achieved with the anti-chymase MAb was greater and without development of high background, compared to results achieved with the polyclonal antibody. MCT cells were the predominant type seen in the alveoli of the lung (93%) and in the small intestinal mucosa (81%). MCTC cells predominanted in the skin (99%) and in the small intestinal submucosa (77%) and, to a lesser degree, in tonsils (60%). However, in newborn foreskin tissue which contains predominantly immature forms of mast cells, 75% of all mast cells were stained uniformly and intensely with B7, whereas only 43% were stained with the polyclonal anti-chymase antibody. Therefore, the use of MAb provides for better standardization of reagents and more accurate assessment of the distribution of human MCT and MCTC cells in tissues than previously available methods.

Detection of MCT and MCTC types of human mast cells by immunohistochemistry using new monoclonal anti-tryptase and anti-chymase antibodies.

Reduction of Clofazimine by Mycobacterial Type 2 NADH:Quinone Oxidoreductase A PATHWAY FOR THE GENERATION OF BACTERICIDAL LEVELS OF REACTIVE OXYGEN SPECIES

https://www.jbc.org/content/272/3/1849.full.pdf

Norman M. Schechter

Papers

Two types of human mast cells that have distinct neutral protease compositions.

Quantitation of histamine, tryptase, and chymase in dispersed human T and TC mast cells.

Detection of MCT and MCTC types of human mast cells by immunohistochemistry using new monoclonal anti-tryptase and anti-chymase antibodies.

Reduction of Clofazimine by Mycobacterial Type 2 NADH:Quinone Oxidoreductase A PATHWAY FOR THE GENERATION OF BACTERICIDAL LEVELS OF REACTIVE OXYGEN SPECIES

Squamous Cell Carcinoma Antigen 2 Is a Novel Serpin That Inhibits the Chymotrypsin-like Proteinases Cathepsin G and Mast Cell Chymase