Response Of Human Beings Research Articles

Detection of specific IgE-secreting cells with an enzyme-linked immunospot assay

Background: An in vitro assay system for monitoring the induction of human allergen-specific IgE synthesis with an enzyme-linked immunospot assay is described. Methods: IgE-secreting cells, responding specifically to short ragweed pollen allergens. Amb a V and Amb a VI, were directly enumerated after the coculture of high-density, resting B cells with either autologous T cells or allergen-specific T-cell clones from the peripheral blood of two ragweed-allergic individuals. Both T-cell clones were type 2-like T helper cells (T H2) as determined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. The IgE-producing cells were detected on a nitrocellulose-based paper disc coated with antigen after treatment with biotinylated, anti-human IgE and avidin-peroxidase conjugate. Results: We demonstrated the induction of Amb a V- or Amb a VI-specific IgE synthesis from either peripheral blood B cells or purified resting B cells. Specific IgE-secreting B cells could be detected only when T cells were present in the culture, providing that they were not separated by a membrane. The addition of interleukin-4 had an enhancing effect on the overall numbers of IgE-secreting cells and allergen-specific T cells and a synergistic effect in the coculture of B cells and an autoreactive T-cell line. Conclusions: These results suggest that cognate interaction T and B cells is required for the de novo induction of IgE responses. This in vitro system could thus provide a useful model for analysis of the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate the allergen-specific IgE responses in human beings.

Antibody response of pregnant women to two different adsorbed tetanus toxoids

The antibody response in pregnant women vaccinated with either of two different adsorbed tetanus toxoids has been studied. One vaccine (A), prepared by toxoiding purified tetanus toxin followed by its adsorption onto calcium phosphate, exhibited a low titre expressed as international immunizing units, 69 IIU/0.5 ml. The other vaccine (B), prepared by purifying formalinized crude tetanus toxin and adsorbing it onto aluminium phosphate showed a high titre, 212 IIU/0.5 ml. No significant differences between titres of circulating antibodies were obtained after the first injection of either vaccine, but titres after the second injection were much higher for vaccine A as compared with those obtained using vaccine B. The results showed that the immune response in human beings is not correlated to titres expressed in IIU. These results confirm that other methods should be adopted for evaluating the potency of vaccines. A simplified technique based on the comparison of circulating antitoxin levels after vaccination of mice has recently been proposed.

A coded summation method to measure evoked responses of human beings.

Human Beings have several kinds of responses evoked by different kinds of stimuli. Examples include auditory evoked responses, visual evoked responses, and etc. Evoked responses appear in electroencephalograms (EEGs) and are measured by an EEG. These evoked responses have a smaller amplitude wave and an averaged summation method (ASM) is widely used to measure this phenomenon. The ASM, however, is not entirely suitable to measure a signal hidden behind nonstationary data with a high ratio. Because the number of average summation cycles has to increase in order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, increased time is required to measure a signal. The nonstationarity of data also increases the danger that a measured signal has several distortions caused by nonstationarity. These facts indicate the necessity for a short period measurement to obtain an evoked response. At the same time, the short period measurement realizes a reduction of load for measured person. In this paper, a process called a coded summation method (CSM) is proposed. This method has the ability to measure an evoked response within 1/4, approximately 1/12 of the time that is required by the usual ASM. The CSM transforms the original data into codes and then follows with a summation and an averaging for the coded data. The CSM is applied to two kinds of actual cases; the measurement of auditory slow vertex responses and visual evoked responses. Through the trials and discussions about the results in these two cases, an algorithm is derived to determine several CSM parameters the effectiveness of CSM is evaluated by being compared with the traditional ASM technique.

Tumor necrosis factor and endotoxin induce similar metabolic responses in human beings: Michie HR, Spriggs DR, Manogue KR, et al. Surgery 104:280, 1988

After injury, infection, or major operations a number of predictable metabolic responses occur. It has been proposed that the cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF)/cachectin is a primary mediator of these host responses. To test this hypothesis, we studied 16 tumor-bearing humans with normal renal and hepatic function, who received 24-hour continuous intravenous infusions of escalating doses of recombinant TNF (4 to 636/micrograms/m2/24 h). Serial measurements were made of vital signs and plasma concentrations of TNF, interleukin-1, adrenocorticotropic hormone, cortisol, iron, glucose, and C-reactive protein. Low doses of TNF had minimal metabolic effects, but infusions of greater than or equal to 545 micrograms/m2/24 hr (n = 8) resulted in fever, pituitary, and stress hormone release and acute phase changes. These alterations were compared with the changes that occurred in healthy humans (n = 13) receiving intravenous bolus injections of Escherichia coli endotoxin (4 ng/kg). TNF infusion in doses greater than or equal to 545 micrograms/m2/24 hr produced peak plasma TNF concentrations and metabolic responses that were similar to those after endotoxin injection. Interleukin-1 concentrations remained basal after TNF or endotoxin administration. TNF may represent the primary afferent signal that initiates many of the metabolic responses associated with sepsis and endotoxemia.

Instrumental conditioning of autonomically mediated responses in human beings.

Instrumental conditioning of autonomically mediated responses in human beings.

Instrumental conditioning of autonomically mediated responses in human beings.

Instrumental conditioning of autonomically mediated responses in human beings.

Frost's Poetry of Fear

DOTH AS PRIVATE EXPERIENCE and as an intruder on marriage, JL)fear is a recurring theme in the poetry of Robert Frost. Since it is alien to love, it can threaten marriage through an outside person like the Stranger in Love and a Question, but his identity varies from poem to poem. Fear is also a private, singly-experienced thing, as in Old Man's Winter Night, a poem that sees fear as related to nature. Nature itself is not fear, nor does it know fear (unless, as with the Old Man, it is shocked at him), but fear can grow out of man's relationship with it. variant is the awe/fear response of human beings in the presence of nature as divinity (Going for Water), or it may be the threat of nature to reclaim human institutions-in various Frost poems nature fills in vacated cellar holes and abandoned roads. But in these matters human neglect is at fault, and the resulting fear is an unrealized expression of that fault. A Brook in the City is about urban neuroses, but we shall consider fear that relates to Frost's country things. This may be as it is experienced by persons together, or alone. An example of the former, Going for Water, tells the love-shared experience of nature as deity. On a cool autumn evening, a couple whose well has gone dry seek a brook in their woods. They run to meet the moonlight coming up out of the trees, but then pause within the shadow: And in the hush we joined to make/We heard, we knew we heard the brook.' poem depicts a shared awe in the presence of the stream nymph. couple were playing with the moon until they entered the darkness, which makes them listen for the brook before they look for it. They do so reverently, the mood in which one should meet nature. Failing in the proper encounter unbalances the awe and turns it into fear. Something close to such fear is experienced alone in The

Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium: Homocytotropic reagin-like antibodies in infections of man and experimental animals

The immunological response of human beings, chimpanzees, rhesus and cercopithecus monkeys, rabbits, guinea pigs, and mice to infection with Schistosoma mansoni or S. haematobium was studied. Antibodies detected by fluorescent and flocculating techniques were heat stable, not sensitive to 2-mercaptoethanol, and were eluted from Sephadex G-200 in the IgG fraction. Antibodies detected by anaphylactic reactions were destroyed by heating, were inactivated by reduction and alkylation, had a faster electrophoretic mobility than IgG, and were eluted from Sephadex G-200 after IgM and before IgG. Differences in passive cutaneous anaphylactic (PCA) antibody reactions among animals of a given species could not be attributed to differences in worm burdens, organ involvement, or egg excretion. Conversely, the percentage of animals in each species producing PCA antibodies correlated directly with the degree of resistance to the various species studied as determined by the percentage of worm recovery, the general appearance of worm development, the pattern of egg excretion, and the clinical and pathological observations.

Variation in the response of human beings to vitamin K1.

Variation in the response of human beings to vitamin K1.

HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF EXCEPTIONAL RESISTANCE TO COUMARIN ANTICOAGULANT DRUGS. THE FIRST REPORTED KINDRED.

THE variability of response of human beings to many drugs is usually continuous and gives a unimodal frequency-distribution curve for the drug action measured. These unimodal distribution curves are consistent with multifactorial inheritance and are difficult to analyze for the genetic influences involved. The few drugs that have a discontinuous variation in action show a bimodal or trimodal distribution. This probably indicates a single gene system with each mode representing a phenotype1 from which the genotype may be inferred. This multimodal distribution curve of drug response is usually the result of an alteration in drug metabolism and causes increased sensitivity . . .

Tumor-specific antigens and the homograft reaction

True tumor antigenicity has now been demonstrated in several different systems in experimental animals. The immunity produced is similar to that found in the homograft reaction, and much of the information related to homografts has applicability to tumor-immunity systems. Extreme care is necessary in experimental work to distinguish between the two types of immunity. Thus far the tumor antigens appear to be peculiar to the particular tumor or type of tumor; there is no evidence, in the work cited, of a universal cancer antigen. The animal findings probably have human counterparts and tumor antigenicity may help explain some of the paradoxical behavior of human neoplasms. The possibility of antitumor immune responses in human beings might well be considered when therapies which might damage the immune response are contemplated. The probable existence of tumor-specific antigens in human neoplasms may also help explain the unexpectedly low incidence of metastases in some instances of human cancer in which numerous circulating tumor cells are found. The recent work on specific-tumor antigens in mouse cancers appears to justify cautious optimism concerning the ultimate role of immunologic studies in the control of the human disease.

Response of Human Beings to a Low-Vitamin B6 Diet

Response of Human Beings to a Low-Vitamin B6 Diet

Relationship between Individual Personality Variables and Body Temperature Response Patterns in the Cold

While there is some evidence to indicate that strong and complex relationships exist between the psychological and physiological responses of human beings to stress-provoking stimuli (1, 6, 11, 12, 15, 18), much of this evidence is anecdotal or has been obtained using very small numbers of Ss. The present study was designed to provide additional information about, and substantiation of, the apparent relationships between certain psychological and physiological factors under stress, based on a large enough sample of Ss to permit adequate statistical treatment of the data. The study departs from conventional stress techniques in that it employs exposure to extreme temperature, in this case, cold, as the stress-provoking stimulus. From a qualitative analysis of some unpublished data concerning rectal temperature measurements in the cold: it is apparent that the differences between individual rates of recovery of normal rectal temperatures after removal from cold stress conditions are greater than the differences between individual rectal temperatures prior to and daring exposure to cold and that some of this variation can be accounted for by psychological factors, particularly the variability of the personality attributes of Ss. Most research involving rectal temperatures has focussed on pre-exposure and exposure periods (2, 5, 14, 17). The emphasis on the post-exposure measures of body temperature is based on the assumption that individuals, during exposure to a very stressful stimulus, differ less in their physiological responses to it than in their abilities to recover from it. In severe stress, the stimulus is apparently of sufficient magnitude to over-ride any individual differences in physiological response. Thus, for example, men placed nude in an ambient temperature of 30°F would show about the same patterns of skin cooling and internal body temperature change. Removal from exposure to the stressful stimulus should then allow individual differences in physiological structure and function to manifest themselves in different rates of recovery of thermal equilibrium. Therefore, recovery from exposure to stress appears to provide, at least on a logical basis, a better opportunity for study of the relationship of psychological variables with physiological

Experimental anxiety and a conditioned heart rate response in human beings.

Experimental anxiety and a conditioned heart rate response in human beings.

The Acute Radiation Syndrome

The radiologist has had unique preparation for appreciation of the effects of acute radiation on the human organism. In meeting the challenge of increasing civilian and military uses of atomic energy, as well as the possibilities of atomic warfare, he must be concerned with the details of the acute radiation syndrome and new information concerning it. Until recently, the major sources from which such knowledge was derived were small animal experiments, clinical radiological experience, and reports of the effects of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki explosions. Estimations of the response of human beings to whole-body radiation as obtained by extrapolation from clinical experience have proved to be entirely inadequate. The very large volume of radiobiological data from small animal experiments is not completely satisfactory as a basis for predicting human reactions. The Hiroshima and Nagasaki observations are complicated by incompleteness of data on radiation intensities, lack of objective clinical studies in the early stages, and the presence of superimposed thermal and mechanical injuries. Two recent publications have such particular interest with respect to acute radiation reactions that it seems appropriate to direct specific attention to them. The acute radiation syndrome is described in papers of Hempelmann (1) and Hempelmann, Lisco, and Hoffman (2), based on nine cases of accidental exposure at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. The second of these papers is a comprehensive monograph published as a separate part of the February 1952 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. In it, the acute radiation syndrome is defined as “the group of signs and symptoms which characterize the illness produced by exposure to ionizing radiations of the entire body or a large part of the body.” It is to the credit of the health and safety operations at the Los Alamos Laboratory that only ten such unfortunate accidents occurred. It is fortunate that these cases were so carefully studied. The radiations consisted of moderately fast neutrons and hard gamma rays from temporarily uncontrolled fission reactions. They did not produce uniform radiation patterns throughout the bodies of the exposed persons, but the patterns are carefully analyzed and the physical corrections seem adequate for comparison with homogeneous whole-body exposures. The individual cases are presented with clinical completeness, exhaustive documentation and analysis of laboratory data, and interpretation with regard to the biological basis for the clinical responses. In the ten cases from which the nine reported are drawn, two individuals died as a result of the acute radiation injury; one other showed a typical acute radiation syndrome and recovered. Four others, who received lesser exposures, showed hematological reactions. These cases are unique, they are presented with great care, and they merit the close study of all radiologists.

The Response to the Intracutaneous Inoculation of BCG as an Index of Native Resistance to Tuberculosis

Summary and Conclusions The response of rabbits to the intracutaneous inoculation of BCG may serve as an index of native resistance and is useful as a method of selecting breeders of the desired resistance or susceptibility to tuberculosis. There is as yet no clear evidence that the response of human beings to the intracutaneous inoculation of BCG can serve as an index of their native resistance. The nodule at the site of intracutaneous injection in resistant rabbits grows rapidly, reaches its peak quickly, tends to ulcerate and heals soon. In the susceptible rabbit, this nodule grows slowly, reaches its peak tardily, does not usually ulcerate and heals much later. The BCG multiplies in the skin of the resistant rabbit for a shorter time and is subsequently more rapidly destroyed than in the susceptible rabbit. The associated histological host responses are accelerated in the resistant animal. Consequently, the development of allergic sensitivity to tuberculin and antibodies are enhanced in the resistant animal. As a result of the increased rate of development of allergic sensitivity in the resistant animal, its BCG nodule is at first larger than in the susceptible rabbit. Variations in native resistance are essentially variations in the rate of development of an increased capacity by the phagocytes to destroy tubercle bacilli. The degree of heightened resistance conferred by a given BCG inoculation is superimposed on, and determined by, the innate resistance of the individual vaccinated, so that the resistance to the genesis of primary pulmonary tubercles in the natively resistant rabbit may be increased several fold while that of the highly susceptible rabbit is hardly affected.

Conditioned heart rate response in human beings during experimental anxiety.

Conditioned heart rate response in human beings during experimental anxiety.

Studies on the Prevention of Mumps

Summary Studies have been reported on the serological response of human beings to subcutaneous vaccination with inactivated mumps virus, as measured by complement fixation and hemagglutination inhibition tests. Emphasis has been placed upon the results obtained in individuals judged susceptible to mumps by negative histories and serological tests prior to vaccination. Maximal complement-fixing antibody response was obtained 2–3 weeks after vaccination. A single injection of vaccine resulted in antibody responses indistinguishable from those recorded after 2 injections 2 weeks apart. The frequency of response, as well as the height of titers attained, depended upon the amount of vaccine injected. Only with 4 ml of vaccine, representing approximately a 20-fold concentrate of virus from allantoic fluid, did all susceptible individuals show some antibody response. A correlation between the serum titers obtained by the complement-fixation test with the virus antigen, and by the hemagglutination-inhibition reaction, indicated that the two technics very likely measure different antibodies. Although, in general, a high titer by one test was matched by a high antibody level in the other, the ratios of hemagglutination-inhibition to complement-fixation titers varied over a range far greater than could be ascribed to the variations inherent in the technics. An epidemic of mumps occurred 9–12 months after vaccination. The incidence of infection among the controls (63 cases in 193 individuals) was almost twice that encountered in the immunized group (46 cases in 250 individuals). This result gained in significance when the antibody levels attained 4–5 weeks after vaccination were correlated to the incidence of mumps. The incidence was highest in those who failed to respond with measurable antibodies to vaccination, and decreased markedly with the increase in the antibody level attained after immunization. Although there were discrepancies between the clinical diagnosis and serological tests performed after the epidemic had subsided, the general interpretation is not altered by inclusion of the doubtful cases. No serologically confirmed case was noted in the 33 individuals who had reached a complement-fixing titer of 1:16 or greater after vaccination. The data indicate that transitory immunity may be induced by subcutaneous vaccination with inactivated mumps virus and that its duration appears to be related to the height of antibody levels attained.

Studies on the Prevention of Mumps

Summary Experiments have been reported on the response of human beings to oral spraying of attenuated active mumps virus. Among 410 children judged susceptible by negative histories and serological tests, 6 developed mild signs of infection. Up to 93% of the children in the individual groups responded with antibodies as measured by complement fixation technic. The frequency of response depended on the concentration of virus used. The preparations contained originally between 107.5 to 108.9 ID50 for chick embryos. When diluted 10- or 100-fold before spraying, the incidence of response fell to about 50% and less than 10%, respectively. Antibodies to the soluble antigen, as a rule, exceeded those against the virus antigen. Hemagglutination-inhibition tests in a small number of cases revealed formation of antibodies in 60%. In most instances the serological tests were negative one year after the spraying. However, following skin testing at that time, the antibody response was greater in these children than in comparable control subjects. Experimental exposure of 4 children to mumps virus 3 months after immunization failed to elicit the disease, whereas 4 out of 6 controls developed clinical evidence of mumps. Of the larger groups treated by this procedure only those in one institution had been definitely exposed to mumps 8 months later. Eight cases occurred among the non-immunized children, mainly new admissions to the school. Although these data permit no conclusion they justify further exploration of this method of active immunization.

The virulence and immunogenicity of strains derived from Salmonella typhosa 58 (Panama carrier).

An investigation of the immunogenicity of vaccines prepared from closely related virulent and avirulent strains of S. typhosa is reported. No evidence was obtained of any essential relationship between the virulence of the strains employed and their immunogenicity, as determined by active-immunity mouse-protection tests and by the agglutinin and mouse-protective antibody response in human beings.