Shigeki Nagashima

Interleukin 5 activity in sera from patients with eosinophilia

Summary. Sera from 10 patients with eosinophilia contained eosinophil colony stimulating factor (Eo‐CSF) activity. Using anti murine (m) interleukin‐5 (IL‐5) antibody, we demonstrated that this activity was mainly derived from IL‐5. Administration of prednisolone to patients decreased both Eo‐CSF activity in sera and the number of eosinophils in blood. These results extend our recent study demonstrating that T cells from eosinophilic patients produce IL‐5 with IL‐2 stimulation and may support the speculation that IL‐5 is an important factor which induces eosinophilia.

Effect of human recombinant interleukin 5 and G-CSF on eosinophil colony formation

Human recombinant (r) IL-5 was shown to have the activity to stimulate eosinophil (Eo) colony formation from human non-T, non-adherent bone marrow cells. The majority of these colonies were found to contain a small number of basophils, macrophages or neutrophils. Human rG-CSF, which alone did not stimulate Eo colony formation, showed an enhancing effect on Eo colony formation when added with IL-5. IL-5 seems to stimulate the proliferation and differentiation of CFU-Eo, while G-CSF acts on the early stage of eosinophilopoiesis.

Regulation of interleukin-5 production by interleukin-4, interferon-alpha, transforming growth factor-beta and interleukin-6.

Normal lymphocytes produce IL-5 with PHA and PMA stimulation. In this system, IL-5 production was enhanced by IL-4 and was inhibited by IFN alpha, TGF beta and IL-6.

Secretion of TNF‐α from macrophages following induction with a lignin derivative.

Macrophages derived from rat bone marrow were treated with macrophage colony stimulating factor (M‐CSF) to obtain a sufficient number of cells for the tumor necrosis factor (TNF‐α) assay. The present study has been designed to investigate whether the production of TNF‐α, which induces multinucleated giant cell formation, is regulated by polyanions such as lignin derivatives. ELISA for TNF‐α showed that the polyanion induced TNF‐α production by macrophages. The secretion of TNF‐α from the cells reached a maximum at 3‐6 h, and then showed a slight decline. Northern blotting of TNF‐α mRNA showed that the amount of TNF‐α reached a maximum within 1 h of macrophage culture in the presence of a lignin derivative. On the other hand, TNF‐α mRNA was undetectable in the control cells. It was concluded that stimuli such as that provided by lignin derivatives increases the amount of TNF‐α mRNA, which is then followed by translation of TNF‐α.

GM-CSF and Eosinophil Chemotactic Factors in an Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Patient with Eosinophilia

We describe a patient with common acute lymphoblastic leukemia associated with blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) eosinophilia. Serum obtained at onset and conditioned medium prepared from T cells obtained at remission stimulated with interleukin-2 contained eosinophil colony stimulating activity (Eo-CSA), which was confirmed to be predominantly GM-CSF. Leukemic cell conditioned medium and serum obtained at remission contained no Eo-CSA. The CSF contained increased eosinophil chemotactic activity, however, this factor was not identified.

A congenital afibrinogenemic patient with severe hypersensitivity to fibrinogen administration successfully treated for subdural hematoma after fresh frozen plasma infusions and anti-allergic therapies.

A 20 year-old male with congenital afibrinogenemia was admitted to our hospital because of chronic subdural hematoma of the right temporal area. He had had several episodes of hypersensitivity reactions to fibrinogen administration, including hypotension, bronchospasm and cutaneous rash. An intradermal test for fibrinogen was positive without precipitating antifibrinogen antibodies.Because subdural hemorrhage progressed despite of cerebral decompression by medication, fresh frozen plasma was administered usng a method of rapid desensitization after pretreatment with adrenocorticosteroid, bronchodilator, antiallergic drug and H1-antihistamine, resulting in arise of a plasma fibrinogen level to 100mg/dl without occurrence of any hypersensitivity reactions. Immediately after this procedure he received surgical therapy for the hematoma. Fresh frozen plasma could be uneventfully administered without pretreatment or rapid desensitization to maintain a plasma fibrinogen level more than 50mg/dl during 2 weeks after the operation. He is in good condition 9 months after this episode.