Expression of serotonergic receptors in psoriatic skin.

Psoriasis appears to be influenced by stress, which causes release of adrenal hormones. Serotonin, or hormonal actions on serotonin and serotonin receptors, may have a role in psoriasis. Distribution of serotonin receptors was studied in involved and noninvolved skin in patients with psoriasis and compared to normal skin, by using immunohistochemistry and antibodies to 5-HT1A, 5-HT2A and 5-HT3 receptors (R). There was a decreased (P<0.001) number of 5-HT1AR positive cells, the majority being tryptase positive, in involved and noninvolved psoriatic papillary dermis, compared to normal skin. 5-HTlAR expression was also found in the upper part of the epidermis, on vessel walls and on melanocytes. 5-HT2AR expressing papillary mononuclear cells, CD3 positive, were increased (P<0.001 and P<0.01, respectively) in involved and noninvolved psoriatic skin, compared to normal skin, an increase (P<0.01) also being found in the involved compared to noninvolved skin. Expression of 5-HT3R could be found in the basal epidermal layer of noninvolved but not in the involved skin of psoriasis, where it was only found in the acrosyringium. The present findings are compatible with the 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptors having antagonistic functions, and raise the possibility of using receptor specific drugs in the treatment of psoriasis.

Improved properties of the non-covalent coating with N,N-didodecyl-N, N-dimethylammonium bromide for the separation of basic proteins by capillary electrophoresis with acidic buffers in 25 microm capillaries.

Capillaries (25microm I.D.) treated with the double-alkyl-chain cationic surfactant N,N-didodecyl-N, N-dimethylammonium bromide (DDAB) in an improved coating procedure were used for separation of four basic proteins in volatile buffers (ammonium acetate and ammonium hydroxyacetate) as well as in a non-volatile buffer (sodium phosphate) at pH 4. The DDAB coating was stable enough to, without recoating, permit consecutive separations of the proteins up to 9h with good precisions in peak areas (RSD=1.1%) and migration times and with high apparent efficiencies (over 1 million theoretical plates/m) in the presence of a strong anodic electroosmosis. Adsorption of the proteins onto the capillary surface, which in previous studies was found to give a certain contribution to zone broadening, was eliminated with the new modified coating method. Complex formation between the proteins and phosphate buffer was studied and confirmed, and it is proposed that slow protein-buffer component interactions are the main contributions to zone broadening in protein separations by CE.

Influence of ignored and well-known zone distortions on the separation performance of proteins in capillary free zone electrophoresis with special reference to analysis in polyacrylamide-coated fused silica capillaries in various buffers. I. Theoretical studies.

Distortion of the starting zone upon its electrophoretic migration toward the detection window gives rise to both symmetrical zones caused by diffusion, sedimentation in the horizontal section of the capillary and the curvature of the capillary, and asymmetrical zones having their origin in Joule heating, sedimentation in the vertical section of the capillary, pH and conductivity differences between the sample zone and the surrounding buffer, solute adsorption onto the capillary wall, and association-dissociation of complexes between the analyte and a buffer constituent or between analytes. Interestingly and importantly a theoretical study shows that moderate pH and conductivity differences as well as adsorption and all of the above interactions when they are characterized by a fast on/off kinetics do not increase the zone broadening (or only slightly), because the sharpening of one boundary of the zone is about the same as the broadening of the other boundary. In addition the peak symmetry caused by a conductivity difference is in most experiments counteracted by a pH difference. The experimentally determined plate numbers in the absence of electroosmosis exceeded one million per meter in some experiments (Part II). These plate numbers are among the highest reported [Z. Zhao, A. Malik, M.L. Lee, Anal. Chem. 65 (1993) 2747; M. Gilges, K. Kleemiss, G. Schomburg, Anal. Chem. 66 (1994) 2038; H. Wan, M. Ohman, L.G. Blomberg, J. Chromatogr. A 924 (2001) 591 (plate numbers determined in the presence of electroosmosis may be higher, although the width of the zone in the capillary may be larger) [p. 680 in S. Hjertén, Electrophoresis 11 (1990) 665]). Capillary free zone electrophoresis is perhaps the only separation method, which, under optimum conditions, gives a plate number not far from the theoretical limit. A prerequisite for this high performance is that the polyacrylamide-coated capillary is washed with 2 M HCl between the runs and stored in water over night (Part II). The difference between the experimentally determined total variance and the sum of the calculated variances originating from the width of the starting zone, longitudinal diffusion, Joule heating, sedimentation in the vertical section of the capillary, curvature of the capillary (i.e., the sum of all other variances) was in our most successful experiments about 28% of the variance of diffusion. The zone broadening, 2sigma, caused by diffusion was estimated at 0.77 mm. The total zone width (2sigma) calculated from the experimentally determined plate number was as small as 1 mm when the migration distance was 40 cm. Accordingly, the only efficient way to reduce drastically the total zone width is to decrease the analysis time and, thereby, the diffusional broadening. An important finding was that the variance originating from the loops of the capillary is not always negligible in high-performance runs. Therefore, one should employ straight capillaries and avoid CE apparatus with cartridges that require a strong curvature of the capillary, common in most commercial instruments. Mathematical formulas have been derived for the sedimentation of the solute zone, the enrichment factor, and the migration time in experiments where the solute is dissolved in a dilute running buffer. This zone sharpening method gave very narrow starting zones (0.04-0.4 mm). However, upon high dilution of the buffer the enrichment becomes so strong that part of the sample zone probably sediments out of the capillary; the almost inevitable change in pH may decrease the mobility of the proteins and, thus, cause the enrichment factor to become still lower than expected. Diffusion of the protein in the very narrow starting zone (located close to the tip of the capillary) and sometimes the thermal expansion of the buffer in the capillary contributes to additional loss of protein in the enrichment step. In some buffers, the interaction between the protein and the buffer constituents is so slow that the peaks become broad. Therefore, different types of buffers should be tested when high resolution is required. The relation sigma2 (the variance of the interaction between a protein and the buffer constituents) = constant x u (the mobility) seems to be valid for all proteins in the applied sample, at least when they have similar molecular masses. To facilitate the understanding of the progress of a free zone electrophoresis experiment, we have discussed in simple terms how the concentrations of the background electrolytes become rearranged during a run and why the difference between the mobilities of the proteins and the mobilities of the background electrolyte determines whether a peak exhibits fronting or tailing. A theoretical analysis of zone broadening in capillary zone electrophoresis, chromatography, and electrochromatography indicates that electrochromatography in homogeneous gels might be the only chromatographic technique which can compete in performance with free electrophoresis. Using an equation, valid not only for electrophoresis, but also for chromatography and centrifugation, the mobility of a concentration boundary has been calculated for the first time and was, as expected, low. Equations based on the Kohlrausch regulating function do not permit such calculations. Another regulating function (the H function) and some of its characteristics are briefly discussed. The theoretical discussions in this paper and the experimental studies in Part II show that high-performance electrophoresis deserves its prefix when the runs are designed to give minimum zone broadening. Some guidelines are given to facilitate this optimization. The plate numbers are so high that the resolution cannot be increased by more than 30% even if they approach the theoretically maximum values.

Influence of ignored and well-known zone distortions on the separation performance of proteins in capillary free zone electrophoresis with special reference to analysis in polyacrylamide-coated fused silica capillaries in various buffers. II. Experimental studies at acidic pH with on-line enrichment.

The separation of acidic and basic model proteins was studied in capillary free zone electrophoresis in a polyacrylamide-coated, electroosmosis-free capillary at pH below their isoelectric points (pI) using various buffers at pH 2.7-4.8 with UV detection at 200 nm. The separation performance was significantly dependent on the coating quality, which may even differ within the same batch of capillaries. In addition, a washing step with 2 M HCl and the storage of the capillary in distilled water was essential for the performance. For high efficiency and resolution the choice of buffer constituents was extremely important which is discussed in quantitative terms in Part I. The most promising buffers were ammonium acetate and ammonium hydroxyacetate at pH 4 (ionic strengths: 0.12 and 0.15 M, respectively) with plate numbers up to 1,700,000 plates/m, corresponding to a zone width (2sigma) of only 1 mm in a capillary with 40 cm effective length, when the injected samples were dissolved in a 10-fold diluted background electrolyte (BGE), a zone even narrower than those obtained in polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, the characteristic feature of which is remarkably thin zones. In the experiment giving this plate number, the calculated variance for longitudinal diffusion was larger than all the other calculated variances (those for the width of the starting zone, Joule heating, sedimentation and the curvature of the capillary). Interestingly, the effect of capillary curvature was significant. In addition, the sum of all other imaginable variances (corresponding to various types of slow on/off kinetics and hyper-sharp peaks) was in the most successful experiments only 28-50% of the variance for longitudinal diffusion. One hundred- to two hundred-fold dilution of the BGE improved the detection limits and provided high precision in both migration times and peak areas with ammonium hydroxyacetate and ammonium acetate as background electrolytes. However, that high dilution increased the variance 140-400% for these buffers, respectively, at least partly due to conductivity or pH differences between the sample and buffer zones (hyper-sharp peaks). Sedimentation of the enriched sample, a factor that has not previously been treated theoretically or experimentally, was probably another reason for our finding that peak heights did not increase when the sample was dissolved in a buffer diluted more than 200-fold, although pH changes and in some cases thermal expansion in the capillary also may contribute. Loss of protein may occur at the ionic strength 0.01 and lower due to precipitation. Limits of detection were in the range 4-17 pmol of proteins with ammonium acetate as BGE. No indication of denaturation of proteins at pH 4 was observed. However, the separation performance at pH 3 was not satisfactory and loss of proteins was observed, possibly indicating such problems. The protein mobilities decreased unexpectedly from pH 4 to 3--a further indication of conformation changes.

Expression of serotonin receptors in allergic contact eczematous human skin.

The expression of the serotonin (5-HT) receptors 5-HT1AR, 5-HT2AR and 5-HT3R was investigated in allergic contact eczematous human skin by an indirect fluorescence method. 5-HT1AR expression was found in basal epidermal NK1-beteb-positive cells, which were more elongated and showed longer dendritic processes in contact eczematous skin than in control skin. Immunoreactivity for 5-HT1AR was also found in the upper part of the epidermis, with no difference between eczematous and control skin. 5-HT1AR expression was also found in 33.3+/-6.5% and 63.7+/-11.3% of papillary dermal mononuclear cells in inflamed skin and control skin, respectively ( P<0.001), as well as in vessel walls. Some of these mononuclear cells were tryptase-positive, and found in both eczematous and control skin. 5-HT2AR-positive cells were found in the upper part of the epidermis in eczematous skin, but were more evenly distributed in the epidermis of control skin. In addition, inflammatory dermal mononuclear cells and vessel walls showed immunoreactivity for this receptor. 5-HT3R expression was found in the basal epidermal layer of eczematous and control skin. These findings indicate a plasticity in the effects of serotonin, especially regarding 5-HT1AR, in allergic contact eczematous skin.