Arthur S. Colsky

Lectins and antibodies as tools for studying cellular interactions

Specific interactions between multiple cell types are critical for a variety of processes central to the development, homeostasis and immune defense of multicellular organisms. Studies designed to elucidate how cells communicate through physical encounters have exploited exogenously supplied factors to bypass intrinsic recognition mechanisms and facilitate cellular conjugation. In this review, we compare the relatively nonspecific agglutinating properties of lectins and the selective cell targeting capabilities of antibodies and bispecific antibody constructs for studying cell-cell interactions in immunobiology. In addition, we discuss a novel system for inducing cellular interactions which closely resembles native receptor-mediated conjugation. In this system, surrogate receptors promote specific cell-cell interactions without hindering endogenous receptor-ligand interactions at the cell-cell interface which may be important in mediating physiologic cellular responses.

Sodium pyruvate inhibits the spontaneous release of 51Cr from RBC in chromium release assays

This report describes the utility of sodium pyruvate for markedly decreasing the spontaneous release of chromium-51 from RBC in long term chromium release assays. This method can be used to increase the sensitivity and duration of cytotoxicity assays which use chromium-51-labeled RBC as targets.

An unusual presentation of scabies infestation in a patient with Darier's disease. The use of ivermectin as an adjunctive scabicide

Dariers disease is an inherited condition of defective keratinization in which patients are predisposed to the development of severe viral infections and have an increased susceptibility to bacterial and mycotic infections. We describe a patient with Dariers disease who had a severe form of scabies infestation which responded to treatment with permethrin in combination with ivermectin. The tendency of patients with Dariers disease to develop severe forms of cutaneous infections and infestations may reflect a common underlying mechanism, and their management may require more aggressive therapeutic approaches.