Expression of individual Ia specificities on T and B cells. I. Studies with mitogen-induced blast cells.

Ia specificities 1-10 were detected on LPS-stimulated splenic lymphocytes and on Con A-stimulated spleen, lymph node, and thymus blasts by direct cytotoxic tests. Since Ia antigens are not readily detectable on resting thymocytes, our results suggest that T cells require some signal before they exhibit full expression of Ia specificities. Absorption-elution studies indicated that most of the Ia specificities detected on T and B cells may be identical. Ia antigens detected by homologous antisera gave much stronger reactions than those detected by cross-reacting antisera.

Induction of an antibody response in cultures of human peripheral blood lymphocytes.

A culture system is descirbed which provides adequate conditions for in vitro immunization of humand peripheral blood lymphocytes to heterologous erythrocytes. Making use of this method we could obtain, with a number of different donors, an antibody response which peaked at about day 8 of culture with 30-300 plaque-forming cells (PFC) per 10(6) input lymphocytes. However, in a number of experiments poor or negative results were obtained, even with donors that had previously given good response. This variability in the results was shown not to be due to a too low number of precursor cells present in the blood and could be overcome by treating the cells, before initiation of the culture, with a factor produced by mouse T cells educated to sheep erythrocytes (SRBC). Under these conditions a PFC responce was obtained which peaked at about day 8 and which in some experiments could be as high as 20,000 PFC per 10(6) input lymphocytes. Paralleling the increase in PFC was an increase in cell number. The cells recovered from the treated cultures were at all times more numerous than in the nontreated cultures. The height of both the proliferative and antibody-producing responses varied from experiment to experiment, a higher proliferative response, accompanying a higher PFC response. Although the mechanisms that are at the basis of the antibody response in vitro described in this paper still need to be clarified, this system may become a useful tool in studying the immune response in man.

Direct demonstration of an HLA-DR allotypic determinant on the low molecular weight (beta) subunit using a mouse monoclonal antibody specific for DR3.

A murine monoclonal antibody directed against a human B cell surface antigen with the characteristics of HLA-DR is described. The antigen detected is tightly linked to HLA and is correlated with the alloantigen HLA-Dw/DR3. Reactivity with a fraction of Dw/DRw6 cells is also observed. The determinant recognized by this antibody has been shown to be present on the smaller molecular weight beta subunit of the HLA-DR antigen.

Glyoxalase I polymorphism in the mouse: a new genetic marker linked to H-2.

Two electrophoretically distinct variants of glyoxalase I (Glo-I) are present in mouse (Mus musculus). The two forms are controlled by two codominant alleles Glo-1a (common) and Glo-1b (rare) at an autosomal locus. A linkage study showed that Glo-1 maps at approximately 3 centimorgans from the Ss locus of the H-2 histocompatibility region. A similar linkage relationship exists in man between GLO and HLA, the human homolog of the H-2 gene complex. Thus, the chromosomal segment evolutionarily preserved in the two species is longer than previously suspected, and it includes genes with no obvious functional relation to the other components of the major histocompatibility complex. Several features of the Glo-1 polymorphism in the mouse recommend it as a marker of choice for the H-2 region.

A previously undetected MHC gene with an unusual periodic structure.

The major histocompatibility complex is a chromosomal segment embodying several gene clusters among which those with immune functions are the best characterized. This region is suspected to host other as yet undetected genes whose characterization may shed light on the population genetics and evolution of the whole gene complex and thus on its unexplained character of marker locus for a number of diseases of nonimmune or unknown pathogenesis. A novel gene was identified that is transcribed in all tissues tested and is located in mouse and man between the CA and Bf genes of the H-2 and HLA complexes, respectively. From the nucleotide sequence, derived from liver complementary DNA clones, it is predicted that this novel single-copy gene encodes a 42-kilodalton polypeptide that bears no recognizable relation to the protein families known so far, but it displays striking hallmarks of natural selection.

Crucial residues in the carboxy-terminal end of C1 inhibitor revealed by pathogenic mutants impaired in secretion or function.

The last exon of the C1-1NH gene was screened for point mutations in 36 unrelated hereditary angioedema patients. Mutations were found in eight patients, predicting changes in the short COOH-terminal region which anchors the reactive site loop on its COOH-terminal side. The effects of each of these mutations were examined in transiently transfected Cos-7 cells. Complete intracellular retention or degradation was observed with substitutions in the COOH-terminal strands 4B or 5B: Leu459-->Pro, Leu459-->Arg, and Pro467-->Arg were all blocked at early stages of intracellular transport, but differences in the immunofluorescence patterns indicated that a significant fraction of the Leu459-->Pro and of the Pro467-->Arg proteins reached a compartment distinct from the endoplasmic reticulum. In line with previous findings with alpha 1-antitrypsin, chain termination within strand 5B resulted in rapid degradation. Mutant Val451-->Met, in strand 1C, and mutant Pro476-->Ser, replacing the invariant proline near the COOH terminus, yielded reduced secretion, but these extracellular proteins were unable to bind the target protease C1s. Presence of low levels of both dysfunctional proteins in patient plasmas defies the conventional classification of C1 inhibitor deficiencies as type I or type II. These data point to a key role of certain residues in the conserved COOH-terminal region of serpins in determining the protein foldings compatible with transport and proper exposure of the reactive site loop.

Role of Ia-like products of the main histocompatibility complex in conditioning skin allograft survival in man.

This report correlates the survival time of 93 intrafamilial skin allografts performed under conditions of main histocompatibility complex (HLA) haploidentity with donor-recipient compatibility for products of the HLA-A, -B, -C, and -DR, as well as C3 proactivator, Glyoxalase I, and P loci located on the human 6th chromosome. Incompatibilities for HLA-A and -B (and to a lesser extent for HLA-C) and(or) for HLA-DR products exerted a strong influence upon the fate of skin allografts. When HLA-A and -B were considered alone, the most compatible group of grafts had a mean survival time of 15.8 d, as compared with 11.3 d for the most incompatible transplants. HLA-DR compatibility alone was associated with a mean survival time of 15.3 d, whereas HLA-DR-incompatible grafts had a mean survival time of 11.5 d. Incompatibilities for C3 proactivator, Glyoxalase I, and P did not have a significant effect upon graft survival. There was no evidence of an association between donor-recipient incompatibility at HLA-A, -B, or -C or at HLA-DR; such incompatibilities occurred independently of each other, in spite of the state of linkage disequilibrium known to exist between HLA-B and -DR. Incompatibilities for HLA-A, -B, and for HLA-DR exerted a potent additive effect upon graft survival. Skin grafts bearing one, two, or three incompatibilities had a mean survival time of 16.2, 13.7, and 10.7 d, respectively (P <0.0005).The results point to the important role played by the Ia-like products of the HLA complex (HLA-DR) in conditioning skin allograft survival in man. This consideration may be of direct relevance to the potential clinical usefulness of in vitro serological techniques for the detection of donor-recipient compatibility for HLA-DR.

Complement genes C1r and C1s feature an intronless serine protease domain closely related to haptoglobin.

The exon-intron structure of the human complement C1s gene displays a striking similarity with that of the gene encoding haptoglobin, a peculiar transport protein distantly related to the serine proteases. While the protease regions of the serine zymogens are typically encoded by multiple exons, the protease domains of C1s and of its genetically linked and functionally interacting homolog C1r are encoded as intronless domains, not unlike a region of haptoglobin, which in fact is devoid of proteolytic activity. The close similarity of the C1s gene with haptoglobin includes the precise conservation of exon-intron junctions and it extends to upstream exons encoding the short repeats typical of several complement components, but found also in other functionally unrelated proteins. Additional evidence of the common ancestry of C1r, C1s and haptoglobin is the presence, within the protease domain, of a set of sequence markers that distinguish these three proteins from all known serine proteases. The finding of vertebrate serine protease genes with an uninterrupted protease-encoding exon supports the definition of a novel evolutionary branch of this gene family and rules out the hypothesis that regards this unusual exon as an irrelevant byproduct of the extravagant functional divergence of haptoglobin.

Diagnostic strategy for analytical scanning of BRCA1 gene by fluorescence-assisted mismatch analysis using large, bifluorescently labeled amplicons.

The aim of this study was to develop a protocol for reliable, sensitive, and cost-effective mutation scanning of the BRCA1 gene, based on a modification of fluorescence-assisted mismatch analysis. The main features of this method are: (a) robust PCR amplification and strandspecific labeling of 25 large amplicons using uniform conditions and universal fluorescent primers; and (b) sensitive characterization of the position of sequence changes. The diagnostic accuracy of this method was tested by scanning the large exon 11 in 12 DNA samples with reported mutations. In a blind test, specific patterns of fluorescence profiles were obtained, and all were attributed correctly, without sequencing, to each mutation or polymorphism. Seven breast/ovarian cancer families with high probability of BRCA1-related predisposition were screened. Three truncating mutations (of which one was novel and three were missense changes, including two novel ones) were detected. The three missense mutations affect the highly conserved BRCT domain. Scanning by FAMA appears to be free of biases for particular types of sequence changes-except for exon deletions/duplications, which cannot be detected by conventional PCR-based methods-and allows substantial savings in the number of sequencing reactions and in the time invested in their interpretation. Therefore, it lends itself to screening structurally complex loci in the diagnostic context and in other fields of genetic analysis.

Structure and size distribution of the androgen receptor mRNA in wild-type and Tfm/Y mutant mice.

Complementary DNA clones covering the coding region of the mouse androgen receptor (AR) were assembled by enzymatic amplification from testicular RNA and genomic DNA. The deduced amino acid sequence consists of 899 residues and departs from the rat sequence at 21 positions, 20 of which are in the amino-terminal trans-activation domain. A notable cluster of substitutions lies in the region of the long glutamine repeat at positions 174-195. The size heterogeneity of AR messengers suggested by previous blot hybridization experiments was examined by RNase protection analysis of sucrose gradient-fractionated poly(A) RNA from mouse liver. A predominant 10-kilobase long mRNA species was found to encode the AR, and a 3' noncoding portion longer than 5 kilobases was demonstrated by internal cleavage with RNase-H, followed by blot hybridization with a 3' probe. The sensitivity afforded by the use of homologous RNA probes in solution hybridizations allowed the demonstration in Tfm/Y mutant mice of an AR mRNA that covers the entire coding region, but is present at 10- to 20-fold lower levels than in normal animals. The detection of significant amounts of receptor messenger revives earlier suggestions of an AR protein in Tfm/Y mice and indicates, at variance with other conclusions, that the expression of this mutant AR is affected at a post-transcriptional level.

Molecular cloning of human C1 inhibitor: sequence homologies with alpha 1-antitrypsin and other members of the serpins superfamily.

Genetic and acquired diseases in man show that the proteolytic activity of the complement component C1 is crucially regulated by C1 inhibitor (C1-INH), a plasma protein whose suspected relatedness to other serine proteinase inhibitors (serpins) contrasts with its atypically large size and high degree of glycosylation. Indeed we have found that the C1-INH polypeptide precursor synthesized in a cell-free system is a 64-kDa protein, hence it exceeds the length of the precursor forms of typical serpins. Seeking more conclusive sequence information and a probe for the structural locus, we isolated C1-INH cDNA clones from a library representing size-enriched human liver mRNA. Nucleotide sequence analysis of a clone covering the carboxyterminal half of C1-INH conclusively documents the relatedness of this protein with the serpins, and reveals 27% amino acid identity with alpha 1-antitrypsin.

Novel variants of human IFN-alpha detected in tumor cell lines and biopsy specimens.

Interferon-alpha constitutes a complex gene family with 14 genes clustered on the short arm of chromosome 9. More than 50 sequence variants have been described. However, an extensive genetic polymorphism has not been seen in the few population studies reported so far. As many of the sequence variants reported were derived from tumor cell lines, we have investigated whether IFN-alpha genes are unstable in tumor cells. Using fluorescence-assisted mismatch analysis (FAMA), combined with allele-specific primer extension, RFLP analysis, and direct sequencing, we detected in a panel of 14 tumor cell lines two new sequence variants of the IFNA1 and IFNA13 genes. Further two-point mutations were found in tumor samples from leukemias (n = 10) and renal cell carcinomas (n = 17) not seen in normal tissues. In the IFNA17 gene, three new sequence variants were detected, one in a tumor cell line and two in tumor biopsy specimens. Besides these individual point mutations, two new polymorphisms were found in each of the IFNA13 and IFNA17 genes. No new variants were found in the IFNA2 and IFNA10 genes. The results suggest that new sequence variants of the IFN-alpha genes occur relatively frequently in tumors or in tumor cell lines.

Allogeneic tolerance in embryo aggregation mouse chimeras studied by mixed lymphocyte culture and cell-mediated lympholysis.

Tolerance in embryo aggregation (EA) mouse chimeras was investigated using mixed lymphocyte culture (MLC) reaction and cell-mediated lympholysis (CML). In most cases, spleen or lymph node cells from EA chimeras were specifically unresponsive toward their parental cells in both MLC and CML. There was no evidence to support the involvement of "serum-blocking factors" or suppressor cells under these experimental conditions. There was, however, an exceptional chimera in which cytotoxic T cell percursors reactive against one parental cell may have been present. We argue for classical clonal elimination being the primary mechanism for tolerance in EA chimeras and discuss a role of suppressor mechanisms for self-tolerance.

Dapsone inhibits LTB4 binding and bioresponse at the cellular and physiologic levels.

Radioligand binding studies using human neutrophils exposed to 10-100 microM dapsone indicated that this anti-inflammatory compound antagonized association of LTB4 (leukotriene B4) with its specific receptor sites. Binding inhibition was manifested in reduced biologic response of the neutrophils as determined in LTB4-stimulated chemotaxis. In addition, a physiologic model of LTB4-dependent inflammation in mice was antagonized by systemic administration of dapsone. These data suggest that inhibition of LTB4 binding may represent the cellular mechanism of action responsible for the anti-inflammatory effects of dapsone.

Characteristics of a monoclonal beta-endorphin antibody recognizing the N-terminus of opioid peptides.

The properties of a mouse monoclonal antibody to beta-endorphin secreted by a clone of hybrid myelomas (3-E7) are described. The antibody displays virtually complete cross-reactivity to met-enkephalin and leu-enkephalin, but no cross-reactivity to beta-lipotropin, alpha-N-acetyl-beta-endorphin and des-Tyr1-beta-endorphin. Substantial cross-reactivity is seen with some other naturally occurring opioid peptides bearing the enkephalin sequence, such as dynorphin, alpha-neo-endorphin and BAM 22, but cross-reactivity is lacking in the case of certain synthetic enkephalin derivatives possessing a D-amino acid in position 2. The data indicate that for the binding of an antigen to the antibody the N-terminal tyrosine moiety is essential. The antibody recognizes, thus, a site which is of functional significance for the interaction of many naturally occurring opioid peptides with the opiate receptor.

Working memory interference control deficit in children referred by teachers for ADHD symptoms.

It has been hypothesised that children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) present memory problems, including working memory deficits. This research is aimed at finding clearer evidence of a working memory deficit in these children. In the first study 22 children that had been referred by teachers as having ADHD symptoms were compared with a control group. Their performance on a listening span test, drawn up by De Beni, Palladino, Pazzaglia, and Cornoldi (1998), was investigated. In this task the subjects were asked to select the names of animals in word strings and to remember the last word in each string. In a second study, 34 children with ADHD symptoms and 50 control children were presented with a visuospatial working memory task mirroring the verbal task used in Study 1. In both studies, the children with ADHD symptoms had difficulty in remembering the last item in the string and had a higher number of intrusions when memorising items that were not in the final position. The results were interpreted that children with ADHD symptoms have working memory problems because they are not capable of suppressing information that initially has to be processed, and subsequently excluded from memory. This particular difficulty can be interpreted as an inhibitory processing deficit. The implications of the results in understanding learning difficulties in children with ADHD are discussed.