Cement Substance Research Articles

Cryopreservation of mouse embryos by direct plunging into liquid nitrogen

Normal human skin was maintained in organ cultures for several days in Ham's F-10 medium with good preservation of the epidermal cells. When the partially purified IgG fraction from the pooled sera of patients with pemphigus vulgaris or pemphigus foliaceous was added to this culture system, after 24 hr some evidence of epidermal acantholysis was seen. By 72 hr, extensive suprabasilar epidermal acantholysis had occurred in which the acantholytic cells were indistinguishable histologically from the acantholytic cells in biopsies from skin lesions of patients with pemphigus vulgaris. In the control cultures (i.e., F-10 medium or F-10 medium + normal human serum IgG), none of these changes was seen. Direct immunofluorescent staining of these explants using fluorescein-labeled goat antihuman IgG showed that by 6 hr binding of the pemphigus IgG had occurred in the intercellular cement substance of the epidermis. The staining intensity was maximal by 18 to 20 hr. When the pemphigus serum was fractionated by DEAE-cellulose column chromatography, three major IgG-containing peaks (presumably IgG subclasses) were eluted which bound to the epidermal intercellular substance and caused acantholysis in culture. The complement system did not play a role in the antibody-induced acantholysis since complement was not included in this system and heating the reconstituted F-10 + pemphigus IgG for 1 hr at 58°C did not destroy the acantholytic activity. Autoradiographic experiments showed that after about 2 days in culture the rates of incorporation of RNA and protein precursors in the suprabasilar cells in the presence of pemphigus IgG were reduced to less than 10% of the normal IgG controls, whereas these synthetic activities of the basal cells were only slightly affected. These observations lead to the proposal that it is the interaction of the pemphigus autoantibody(s) with the suprabasilar epidermal cell which initiates and possibly sustains the process(es) of acantholysis.

Electron microscopy, histochemistry, and microbiology of bacterial adhesion in trichomycosis axillaris

Study of a case of trichomycosis axillaris by electron microscopy revealed a specific encapsulated Corynebacterium adhering to but not penetrating the hair shaft. External to this were two other biochemically distinctive pleomorphic Corynebacteria shown to be incapable of direct adherence to the hair. All three types were entrapped in a virtually insoluble cement substance, which they elaborate and which is responsible for the grossly visible colonization that is so characteristic of this disease.

Scanning electron microscopy of the scabies burrow and its contents, with special reference to the Sarcoptes scabiei egg

An entire burrow of a female Sarcoptes scabiei (var. hominis) mite was examined by scanning electron microscopy during serial transverse sectioning. The elevated roof and the wall were composed of compacted corneocytes. The floor had a smooth surface except at the anterior end. Here it was made up of nucleated stratum granulosum cells, etched in appearance, presumably having been chewed by the mite. The female mite, the larvae, scybala, and eggs were also examined. The ultrastructure of the eggshell surface revealed it to have a distinctive geometric patterning. Cross-sectioning showed this shell or chorion to be composed of an outer layer of minute, closely packed penta-and hexahedrons resting on a thin inner homogenous layer. The polyhedric surface pattern was exactly replicated in the cement substance which attached the egg to the burrow floor. Observations were made on the embryonic positioning which permitted the larvae to emerge from the eggshells in a uniform manner.

Cause of primary vaginal hydrocele and ascites in advanced liver cirrhosis

Primary hydrocele occurs due to a great reduction in protein outflow from the tunica vaginalis cavity and is not due to obstruction of fluid outflow because fluid continues to flow at a nearly normal rate. Fluid collects because of the increased osmotic pressure due to retained proteins and cholesterol. In other words, the fluid is captured from within the sac. Increased capillary permeability is secondary to the increased amount of hydrocele fluid. In idiopathic hydrocele, the hinderance of protein is due to the obstruction of the pores in the intercellular cement substance of the seroendothelial membrane. In acquired hydrocele, the hinderance of protein is due to lymphatic obstruction. The same mechanism may be applied to the occurrence of ascites in advanced liver cirrhosis. If we are able to recognize the substance that occludes the intercellular pores and dissolve it so the occluded pores are reopened, thus allowing the passage of hindered proteins, operation can be avoided and the problem of ascites can be solved.

Brazilian pemphigus foliaceus

Fogo Selvagem (Wildfire) is a cutaneous disease characterized by a specific epidemiology, generalized distribution of bullae followed by an exfoliative erythroderma, and frequently, a grave prognosis, if untreated. Its etiology is unknown and the pathogenesis only partly understood. The histopathologic hallmark is the presence of acantholysis in the superficial layers of the epidermis. The acantholysis is due to the binding of immunoglobulin to the intercellular cement substance of the epidermis.

History of pemphigus

The modern concept of pemphigus divides it into variants: pemphigus vulgaris, pemphigus vegetans, pemphigus foliaceus, pemphigus erythematosus (Senear-Usher syndrome), and pemphigus herpetiformis. These conditions are all related by the fact that they are all bullous diseases at some time during their clinical course and are histologically characterized by acantholysis. In pemphigus vulgaris and pemphigus vegetans, acantholysis is generally above the basilar cell layer (suprabasilar) or in the lower half of stratum spinosum. In pemphigus foliaceus, pemphigus herpetiformis and pemphigus erythematosus, acantholysis occurs in the granular cell layer or upper stratum spinosum. Autoantibodies to the intercellular cement substance of the epidermis are present in all the variants. The changes in the concept of pemphigus over time has been reviewed. 1,2 The term “pemphigus,” itself, was first proposed by Boissier de Sauvages in his classification of skin diseases. 3 He described pemphigus maior as an acute, febrile, blistering disease lasting only two weeks. Today, the diagnosis would probably be erythema multiforme. Wichmann 4,5 was the first to describe pemphigus as a chronic bullous disease; he used the term, febris bullosa, to describe bullous eruptions of short duration. Unfortunately, few authors agreed with Wichmann's more restricted concept, and continental dermatologists continued to use the term pemphigus for a wide range of vesicular or bullous diseases. For example, Gilibert, 6 in his monograph on pemphigus, included almost every disease with bullae in his classification. His “chronic pemphigus” most closely corresponds to the modern concept of pemphigus. Von Martius 7 had an equally liberal definition of pemphigus, dividing it into 97 types. Willan had a much more restricted view of the disease. In his classification of skin diseases, pemphigus vulgaris was a febrile, bullous eruption of short duration. 8 He applied the term “pompholyx duitinus” to a chronic, bullous eruption, without inflammation and fever, similar to the modern concept of pemphigus vulgaris.

Detection of anti-intercellular cement substance and anti-basement membrane zone antibodies by radioimmunoassay using SCaBER tumour cell line as substrate.

IgG autoantibodies present in the serum of pemphigus vulgaris and bullous pemphigoid patients were detected by a solid phase radioimmunoassay, using a squamous cell tumour line, SCaBER, as substrate. This preliminary study shows that the SCaBER cell line displays both pemphigus and bullous pemphigoid antigens. This source of antigens should allow the development of a sensitive assay to measure anti-ICS and anti-BMZ antibodies. Such an assay may have clinical applications and may provide an important tool for studying the mechanisms of autoantibody production in pemphigus and pemphigoid.

Production of pemphigus antibodyin vitro and analysis of T-cell subsets

T cells from nine patients in the active stage of pemphigus vulgaris and five in the inactive stage of the disease were studied with Leu-1, Leu-2, and Leu-3 monoclonal antibodies. No significant differences were observed in the proportions of total T cells or T cells expressing either helper or suppressor phenotype in peripheral blood leukocytes of patients compared to normal subjects. Immunoregulatory mechanisms were functionally studied using an assay measuring total IgG synthesizedin vitro. Peripheral blood leukocytes were separated into T- and B-cell fractions and cultured in various combinations. In nine experiments, the T cells were irradiated prior to culturing with B cells to remove their suppressor function. No statistically significant differences were observed in the total IgG synthesized by B cells obtained from patients and normal subjects when cultured with untreated T cells or irradiated T cells obtained from patients or normal controls. These results indicated that there was no loss of suppressor-cell function or increased helper-cell function when assessed by measuring the total IgG synthesized. The addition of serum from pemphigus patients to peripheral blood leukocyte cultures of pemphigus patients and normal controls had no statistically significant effect on the synthesis of total protein or on the amount of Ig synthesized and secreted. Peripheral blood leukocytes from six untreated patients with pemphigus vulgaris were stimulatedin vitro with pokeweed mitogen (PWM) to produce immunoglobulin. The IgG produced selectively bound to the intercellular cement substance of the epidermis of patients' perilesional skin, normal human skin, and monkey esophagus. The IgG was biosynthetically labeled by culturing the leukocytes in medium supplemented with [3H]leucine, and the binding of the radiolabeled IgG was visualized by autoradiography. The IgG nature of the protein was demonstrated by precipitation withStaphylococcus protein A and removal with rabbit anti-human IgG antisera. Peripheral blood leukocytes obtained from normal volunteers and control patients did not produce this antibody. Our studies indicate that there was no general functional or phenotypic alteration of suppressor or helper T cells in the peripheral blood. The peripheral blood leukocytes of pemphigus patients under PWM stimulation can produce an anti-intercellular cement substance antibodyin vitro. These results indicate that the abnormality of immunoregulation which resulted in the production of a pathogenetic autoantibody in pemphigus is highly specific.

Chronic tinea pedis: presence of high serum IgE levels, anti-ICS antibody, and ANA

Summary Forty-five patients with chronic recalcitrant tinea pedis of several years duration were studied. Serum IgG levels were within normal limits in all patients. Serum IgE levels were elevated beyond too units/ml in 33% of the patients, range 5–2438 units/ml (mean 227). An atopic history was present in only 20% of the patients. Eighteen per cent of the patients had an anti–intercellular cement substance antibody of the IgM class, and 33% of the patients had a homogeneous anti-nuclear antibody (ANA) of the IgM class. None of the patients clinically developed any auto-immune disease. These auto-antibodies may be produced due to a non-specific polyclonal mitogenic effect of fungal antigen in the skin and may play a role in the persistence and chronicity of the infection.

The physiological significance of the endoendothelial fibrin lining (EEFL) as the critical interface in the ‘vessel-blood organ’ and the importance of in vivo ‘fibrinogenin formation’ in health and disease

The author's theory of the endoendothelial fibrin lining (EEFL), first advanced in 1953 and developed by him ever since, localizes the homeostasis between steady fibrin formation and deposition, or ‘fibrination’, and continuous fibrinolysis in the more or less immobile portion of the plasmatic zone next to the vessel wall. In 1971, the author advanced, in relation to the EEFL, the theory of fibrinogen gel clotting without thrombin action or ‘fibrinogenin’ formation in vivo. Considerable direct and indirect experimental evidence, secured by the author and by several other investigators, advanced markedly the knowledge of the normal physiology and the pathophysiology of various disease processes involving the vessel wall and blood circulation. The information presented is an extension to that given in the author's recent overview (Clin. Hemorheology 1 , 9–72, 1981). It deals both with new data by several investigators including those by the author, as well as with older data from the literature. The author maintained already in 1960 that the blood together with the blood vessels, in which it circulates, constitute ‘an entity’. In 1981 he postulated this entity to be a very special organ, named conveniently ‘vessel-blood organ’, which is ubiquitous and penetrates all other organs and adjacent tissues. The EEFL of the vessel-blood organ is considered by the author as the crucial critical interface between the blood and the vessel wall. It is the primary barrier, followed by the endothelium (comprising the endothelial cells and the interendothelial cement substance which contains or is identical with ‘cement fibrin’) and the basement membrane for the exchanges between the blood, the vessel wall and its surrounding tissues and spaces. The EEFL acts as anticoagulant, is antithrombogenic, maintains vascular patency and aids cardiac action by decreasing significantly the apparent viscosity of blood, referred to in the literature as the ‘Copley-Scott Blair phenomenon’. A new concept of leukocyte emigration traversing the capillary wall is presented, affecting focal fibrinolysis of the EEFL and of fibrin contained in the interendothelial cement substance and in the basement membrane. The physical property of capillary (or vascular) permeability is related to the existence of the EEFL, since, as found by Copley et al, both fibrinopeptides, liberated in the transition of fibrinogen to fibrin, and plasminopeptides, freed in the conversion of plasminogen to plasmin, enhance capillary permeability. Capillary fragility, which is antagonistic to capillary permeability, is in great part due to fibrinolytic action on fibrin as a constituent of the basement membrane. Pseudohemorrhages occur as minute microaneurysms in augmented capillary permeability, when the basement membrane remains intact and blood escapes through the interendothelial junctions into the exoendothelial space between the endothelium and the basement membrane. The occurrence of petechiae can be either due to focal lesions in the basement membrane leading to extravasation of blood or due to these pseudohemorrhages. Thus, petechiae are not necessarily identical with capillary hemorrhages. New surface hemorheological findings, obtained by Chien, King and Copley with a modified Weissenberg rheogoniometer, are presented. We found Ca 2+ to increase markedly the viscous and elastic moduli of fibrinogen surface layers. Other studies concern marked decreases of these surface rheological moduli by the addition to fibrinogen solution of the following substances: heparins of low molecular weights of 4400, 5300, and 5900; chondroitin A, B and C; dextran MW 20,000; dextran sulfate MW 17,000; and sodium hyaluronate. The author considers these findings of inhibition of fibrinogenin formation to mirror antithrombogenic actions of these different agents, which are expected to prevent thrombogenesis. The pathogenesis of different disease processes, such as thrombosis, hyperthermia therapy of cancer, (non-thrombocytopenic) vascular purpura, and atherogenesis is briefly discussed. The author relates these disease processes to the theories of the EEFL and of in vivo fibrinogenin formation. In this conclusions he suggests a number of studies to be made towards the advancement of knowledge pertaining to these theories involving health and disease.

Immune complexes in pemphigus and bullous pemphigoid.

28 serum and 10 blister fluid specimens obtained from 28 pemphigus vulgaris (PV) patients were assayed for immune complexes using the polyethylene glycol (PEG)assay. 11% of sera and 30% of the blister fluids have elevated levels of immune complexes. Anti-intercellular cement substance (ICS) antibody could not be detected in PEG precipitates, but was present in the supernatants from the serum. However, anti-ICS antibody was found in 70 of the precipitated complexes from the blister fluid. 18 serum and 31 blister fluid specimens obtained from 18 bullous pemphigoid (BP) patients were assayed for immune complexes using the PEG assay. 17% of sera and 31% of the blister fluids have elevated levels of immune complexes. Antibasement membrane zone (BMZ) antibody could not be detected in the PEG precipitates, but was present in the supernatants obtained from the sera. Anti-BMZ antibody was found in 57% of the precipitated complexes from the blister fluids. This data further supports the hypothesis that the majority of the complexes in PV and BP are formed in situ.

Morphology of the reproductive system of maleMoniliformis dubius(Acanthocephala)

SUMMARYThe histology of the reproductive system of maleMoniliformis dubiushas been studied by a variety of microscopical techniques. The system includes 2 testes from each of which arises a vas efferens. Products from the testis enter the vas efferens through openings present in the wall of the vas efferens. The testes are contained in a ligament sac and each testis is enveloped separately by an outgrowth of the ligament sac wall. There are 8 unicellular cement glands. The cement substance contains spherical electron-dense droplets presumed to be lipids. Saefftigen's pouch appears to be a hydraulic mechanism to regulate the turgidity of the wall of the bursal cap to effect successful copulation with female worms. The muscles attaching the genital sheath and bursa to the body wall are likely to be concerned with bursal eversion and inversion. Stimuli receptors connected to the genital nervous system are located in the penis and bursa.

Antibody-induced proteinase activation: a proposed mechanism for pemphigus.

The current state of understanding of pemphigus includes the following: 1. Pemphigus is an autoimmune disease. In all variants a circulating autoantibody is found which binds to epidermal cells. In vivo antibody may be found deposited in the epidermis of patients. 2. The autoantibody levels generally correlate with disease activity indicating a relationship between antibody and clinical disease. 3. Although complement components are found in lesional skin, complement does not appear to be necessary for dissolution of the epidermal cement substance. 4. The treatment of pemphigus with corticosteroids has drastically reduced mortality rates. 5. Three different groups have presented results in two different experimental systems which indicate that subsequent to binding of pemphigus antibody to epidermal cells a proteinase is activated. This proteinase(s) degrades the intercellular cement substance of epidermis which results in loss of cellular adhesion and acantholysis. There are numerous questions still remaining. What is the nature of the proteinase(s) and the surface protein(s) it cleaves? Does the binding of pemphigus antibody to the cell surface induce enzyme synthesis, specific enzyme activation, or generalized lysosomal secretion? The answers to these questions will have broad biologic relevance since they may elucidate the role of anticell surface antibodies in disease states.

Beta-adrenergic receptor blocking drugs: tear lysozyme and immunological screening for adverse reaction.

Patients who had received long-term therapy with practolol and other beta-adrenergic receptor blocking drugs were examined ophthalmologically. Tear lysozyme concentration and serum autoantibodies (antinuclear antibodies, DNA-binding antibodies and intercellular cement substance antibodies) were measured. It was found that beta-adrenergic receptor blocking drugs may have a pharmacological effect on the lachrymal glands, but this was not associated with dry eyes or adverse reaction. Practolol was found to be capable of reducing tear lysozyme concentrations to very low levels, and this was initially associated with high titres of ICC antibody. No other drug tested produced these effects.

Penicillamine-induced pemphigus foliaceus

A 61-year-old man suffering from active generalized scleroderma developed pemphigus foliaceus after 9 months of D-penicillamine therapy, 900-1200 mg daily. At the same time, he developed proteinuria. Upon discontinuation of the drug, the proteinuria quickly resolved, but the bullous disease was still active one year later, with development of fresh blisters and intercellular deposits of immunoglobulin G and complement C3. The theory is proposed that D-penicillamine alters the epidermal cement substance, rendering it antigenic and thus initiating a vicious circle.

Production Of Epidermal Acantholysis In Normal Human Skin In Vitro By The Igg Fraction From Pemphigus Serum

Normal human skin was maintained in organ cultures for several days in Ham's F-10 medium with good preservation of the epidermal cells. When the partially purified IgG fraction from the pooled sera of patients with pemphigus vulgaris or pemphigus foliaceous was added to this culture system, after 24 hr some evidence of epidermal acantholysis was seen. By 72 hr, extensive suprabasilar epidermal acantholysis had occurred in which the acantholytic cells were indistinguishable histologically from the acantholytic cells in biopsies from skin lesions of patients with pemphigus vulgaris. In the control cultures (i.e., F-10 medium or F-10 medium + normal human serum IgG), none of these changes was seen. Direct immunofluorescent staining of these explants using fluorescein-labeled goat antihuman IgG showed that by 6 hr binding of the pemphigus IgG had occurred in the intercellular cement substance of the epidermis. The staining intensity was maximal by 18 to 20 hr. When the pemphigus serum was fractionated by DEAE-cellulose column chromatography, three major IgG-containing peaks (presumably IgG) were eluted which bound to the epidermoid intercellular substance and caused acantholysis in culture. The complement system did not play a role in the antibody-induced acantholysis since complement was not included in this system and heating the reconstituted F-10 + pemphigus IgG for 1 hr at 58 degrees C did not destroy the acantholytic activity. Autoradiographic experiments showed that after about 2 days in culture the rates of incorporation of RNA and protein precursors in the suprabasilar cells in the presence of pemphigus IgG were reduced to less than 10% of the normal IgG controls, whereas these synthetic activities of the basal cells were only slightly affected. These observations lead to the proposal that it is the interaction of the pemphigus autoantibody(s) with the suprabasilar epidermal cell which initiates and possibly substains the process(es) of acantholysis.

Untersuchungen über den Einfluß von Ernährungsfaktoren auf die Pansenschleimhaut

3 groups of fattening cattle (DSR breed) were fed rations of nearly identical composition for a period of 395-455 days. The rations consisted of either crushed (group I), finely ground (group II) or finely ground and pelleted material (group III). Samples of the ruminal mucosa from 26 animals were investigated macroscopically, microscopically and histologically. All samples from animals of group I were found to be normal whereas clumping of the villi, hyperkeratosis, atrophy and loss of villi over 40%-50% of the surface of the ruminal mucosa were observed in the animals from group II, and, to a larger extent in animals of group III. The main reason for the mentioned changes of that kind are the very fine foodstuff particles, less than 0.05 to 0.5 mm in length, which form extraneous deposits in the mucosa or act as cement substances between neighbouring villi. This leads to hyperkeratosis because these particles prevent desquamation of the corneal cells and at the same time produce conditions of compression; these, in turn, result in a hardening of the newly formed stratum corneum. Hypertrophy of the undamaged villi was observed in animals of group III receiving the pelleted ration (thickness of villi group III: 243 mum as compared with group I:196 mum). The unfavourable morphological state of the ruminal mucosa in animals of group III was associated with a reduced rate of daily weight gains and increased food consumption.

A discussion of the paper “Thaumasite formation: A cause of deterioration of portland cement and related substances in the presence of sulphates” by J. H. P. Van Aardt and S. Visser

A discussion of the paper “Thaumasite formation: A cause of deterioration of portland cement and related substances in the presence of sulphates” by J. H. P. Van Aardt and S. Visser

Rhipicephalus sanguineus: Sequential histopathology at the host-arthropod interface

The reaction beneath the mouth parts of an adult, female Rhipicephalus sanguineus attached to a dog develops progressively over 4–5 days. The cement substance is confined to the external surface of the epidermis and does not form any organized structure in the dermis. The hypostome is imbedded in the cement substance and does not penetrate the epidermis. The cheliceral shafts are at the epidermal-dermal junction and do not extend into the dermis to any degree. Thus, it is the adhesive quality of the cement for the dog's skin that holds this tick firmly attached to its host. Edema of the epidermis appears 24 hr after attachment of the tick; the dermal infiltrate becomes prominent from 24 hr after attachment onward and initially consists of polymorphonuclear leukocytes. This cell type predominates until the tick has detached. Rupture of lymphatics occurs and infiltrated cells can be found entering these open channels. Degranulation of mast cells is associated with polymorphonuclear leukocytic infiltration. A cavity develops in the dermis progressively over the period of tick attachment and feeding. This cavity appears during the first 24 hr and its full development depends upon leukocyte infiltration and the feeding activity of the tick. During the healing phase, macrophages, lymphocytes and fibroblasts gradually replace the polymorphonuclear leukocytes. The dermis is still hypercellular in the area of former attachment 2 wk after a female tick has detached fully engorged. The dog does not appear to develop resistance to the tick's engorgment even after 2 yr of intermittent exposure, nor does the host's reaction hinder the tick's engorgment. A dog never before exposed to arthropods of any kind reacted, histologically, to tick exposure with a very similar infiltration of polymorphonuclear leukocytes as seen in dogs repeatedly exposed. It is suggested that the inflammatory response by the host to the feeding tick may play an important role in the development and spread of infectious agents transmitted by this pool feeding arthropod.

The nature and origin of the "cement" substance at the site of attachment and feeding of adult Haemaphysalis spinigera (Ixodidae).

The cement substance around the mouthparts of female ixodid ticks, Haemaphysalis spinigera, attached to a host (rabbit) consists of external cement forming a cone, with a quite substantial lateral extension into the more superficial skin layers, and internal cement. The internal cement, which is a continuation of the cement cone and which extends deeper into the skin, consists of a tapering tube surrounding the mouthparts, other than the palps which are flexed laterally outside the cone. The hypostomal teeth lock with corresponding impressions on the inner surface of the tube, while the outer surface of this tube takes the form of strand-like protrusions of cement extending between fibrils of the surrounding deep dermal tissue. The overall mass of cement in the host's skin may be as much as 0.042 mm2. Males show similar features but the wing-like extension of the cone and the strands from the tube in the skin are much reduced. Histochemical study, particularly of sulphydryl groups, indicates that the cement is mainly protein and is derived from the salivary glands from precursors in the (a) cells of type II alveoli and (c) cells of type III alveoli (external cement; cone and lateral wing-like extension) and in the (d) cells of type III alveoli (internal cement tube, particularly the strand-like extensions into the dermal tissue around thc tube). The role of the cement, in promoting firm and early anchorage during the long attachment of ixodid ticks to a host is discussed. Relaxation of the dilated mouthparts on completion of engorgement would loosen the interlock of the hypostomal teeth with the corresponding indentations in the cement tube and facilitate detachment of the replete tick.