[Allergic contact dermatitis from colophony and turpentine in resins of untreated pine wood]. / Allergische Kontaktdermatitis durch Kolophonium und Terpentin in Harzen unbehandelter Kiefernholzmöbel.

Pine wood is one of the most used raw products in furniture manufacturing in Europe. High concentrations of colophony and turpentine can be extracted from pine resins. A 45-year-old woman developed a contact dermatitis of the face and hands due to a sensitization to colophony and turpentine after she had bought untreated pine chairs. The increased use of untreated pine in the furniture industry might result in an increase of colophony and turpentine-induced contact allergies. Therefore, the slogan "untreated=harmless" should be considered critically in such cases.

Highly phagocytic, CD4hi, CD14hi and CD16hi antigen-presenting cells modulated by tumour-conditioned media retain the capacity to mature and induce TH1 T-cell proliferation.

The tumour microenvironment down-modulates antigen-presentation by dendritic cells (DC), presumably due to inhibition of DC maturation. Here, we sought to examine (1) whether monocyte-derived cells cultivated with tumour-conditioned media under conditions that are conducive to DC generation (APCTCM) resemble immature DC (iDC), IL-10-induced regulatory DC (DCIL10) or display other distinctive features; (2) whether APCTCM are convertible to immunostimulatory DC (DCims) upon proper activation and (3) whether APCTCM and activated APCTCM are functionally defective. Four tumour cell lines expressing different cytokines were used to mimic different tumour microenvironments. As compared to iDC, DCims or DCIL10, APCTCM exhibited the highest levels of expression for CD14, CD16 and CD4. These markers and a high phagocytic capacity were unique features of these cells. When APCTCM were activated by a maturation cocktail, CD83, CD86, HLA-DR and CD25 were up-regulated to levels considerably higher than in DCIL10 and comparable to DCims while CD14, CD16, CD4 and dextran-uptake were down-modulated. Activated APCTCM induced 50-60% of the proliferative response of DCims in the allogeneic T-cell proliferation assay while DCIL10 mounted a 20-30% response (iDC elicited approximately 10%). Activated APCTCM induced secretion of almost equal amounts of IFN-gamma, TNF-alpha and IL-2 as DCims indicating induction of Th1 differentiation. When mature DCims were exposed to TCM, their immunostimulatory function was not significantly altered. However, when TCM were added to the co-cultures of DCims and CD4 T-cells the proliferative outcome was dependent on the TCM. In summary, APCTCM display special features but can mature into DCims-like cells.

Functional eicosanoid test and typing (FET) in acetylsalicylic acid intolerant patients with urticaria.

One of the common side effects of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) is the induction of pseudoallergic reactions that range from urticarial wheals to anaphylactic shock. At present there is no reliable detection method available for the diagnosis of ASA-hypersensitivity and its relation to clinical symptoms. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the functional eicosanoid typing (FET) score taking into account several parameters of the equilibrium between prostaglandins (PG) and peptido-leukotriens (pLT). A total eicosanoid pattern score (TEP) ranging from 0.0 to 3.0, was defined that exhibited significant differences (p

The receptor for interleukin-17E is induced by Th2 cytokines in antigen-presenting cells.

Interleukin-17E (IL-17E) (IL-25) is a recently identified cytokine capable to induce Th2-associated cytokine production (IL-5 and IL-13) and T helper 2 (Th2)-type pathologies in animal models. The IL-17E-responsive cell population in vivo was described to be a further uncharacterized non-T-, non-B-splenic accessory cell. Despite the identification of IL-17BR as the receptor for IL-17E, the cell population expressing IL-17BR has hitherto not been identified. Here, we show that human monocyte-derived Th2-skewed antigen-presenting cells (APC2) express membrane-bound and soluble forms of IL-17BR on the mRNA and protein level upon stimulation with IL-4, IL-10, IL-13 or transforming growth factor-betain vitro. These results indicate that IL-17BR-expressing APC2s may mediate the development of the IL-17E-mediated immunological reaction patterns observed in vivo.

Spatial arrangement of pig MHC class I sequences.

Bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones were assigned within the pig major histocompatibility complex (Mhc) by polymerase chain reaction-screening and Southern blot hybridization using sequence-tagged site (STS) markers and BAC end-rescued sequences. In all, 35 BAC clones were discovered containing 12 anchor genes of the SLA class I region and two genes of the SLA class III region. Twenty of these 35 clones comprised two distinct class I gene clusters, each spanning about 100 kilobases. One cluster enclosed three class I related genes (SLA-6 to -8) and two genes (MIC-1 and MIC-2) more distantly related to class I. The other cluster enclosed typical class I genes, of which three (SLA-1, -2, and -3) were transcribed by fibroblasts homozygous for the H01 haplotype which we used to construct a pig BAC library. Ordered clones are certainly helpful in isolating agronomically, biologically, and medically important genes. They would also be useful for inducing genetic modifications in pig cell lines.