Comparative Studies on Vascular Endothelium in vitro

Abstract

Recent studies have presented evidence that the processes of hypoxaemia and reperfusion are involved in several pathogenetic mechanisms of atherosclerotic lesions. The ability of hypoxaemia to activate circulating white blood cells (WBCs) and enhance WBC-endothelial cell (EC) interactions is suspected to be a major factor in deleterious processes in the blood vessel wall. Various groups have suggested that cell adhesion molecules (CAMs), such as ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and E-selectin and their leukocyte ligands are involved in intercellular activities of the relevant cell types. We studied the effects of different oxygen tensions, simulating normoxic conditions, hypoxia and hyperoxia in vitro with the help of an umbilical vein EC model in order to determine the effects of oxygenation on CAM presentation on vascular ECs with and without further cytokine and endotoxin (lipopolysaccharides; LPS) stimulation. Semi-quantitative analysis of ICAM-1, E-selectin and VCAM-1 was performed using cell enzyme immunoassay techniques. The presentation of ICAM-1, E-selectin and VCAM-1 remained on the whole unaffected by both hypoxia and hyperoxic conditioning after both 7 and 24 h. Stimulation of ICAM-1 by cytokines and LPS was only marginally influenced by the oxygen tension. Cytokine induction of E-selectin was not affected after 7 h and was even reduced under hypoxia, compared to the control culture after 24 h, while stimulation was increased by hyperoxia. VCAM-1 was reduced in both the hypoxic and hyperoxic culture, while being maximally stimulated by cytokines and LPS after 7 h. In general, an effect of hypoxia was not found without any further stimulation. Moreover, evidence is presented that reoxygenation might be the more important aspect in the mechanisms of ischaemia/reperfusion.

Hypoxia facilitates tumour cell detachment by reducing expression of surface adhesion molecules and adhesion to extracellular matrices without loss of cell viability

“…Most relevant studies in the literature have concentrated on studying the effect of hypoxia on adhesion of normal cells, such as haemopoietic and endothelial cells, with no information on neoplastic cells. It was shown that hypoxia increased adhesion of leucocytes and polymorphonuclear cells to endothelial cells (Milhoan et al, 1992;Arnould et al, 1993Arnould et al, , 1995Ginis et al, 1995;Klein et al, 1995) and that this effect was attributable to increased expression of endothelial cell adhesion molecules. In another investigation, hypoxia was shown to decrease adhesion of granulocytes to endothelial cells (Pietersma et al, 1994), suggesting that adhesive responses to this stimulus might represent a cell lineage-specific response.…”

Use of the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research in Oncology

“…cancer) has been given and the constellations dealing with somatoform disorders could determine ‘false-positive’ cases due to the presence of somatic symptom cancer itself or treatment. According to the most recent data concerning the DCPR and in contrast to the first version of the DCPR [13], we eliminated the exclusion criteria indicating that DCPR syndromes were not applicable if a patient meets the criteria for a DSM or ICD psychiatric diagnosis.…”

“…The Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research (DCPR) [13], was developed with this specific aim. Twelve operationalized syndromes dealing with the concept of abnormal illness behavior (e.g.…”

Psychosomatic Assessment of Skin Diseases in Clinical Practice

“…All patients were also assessed by means of two detailed semi-structured interviews by a mental health professional specifically trained in the use of (1) the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I (SCID-I) [23], which yields psychiatric diagnoses on DSM-IV Axis I according to established criteria, and (2) the Structured Interview for Psychological Conditions of Psychosomatic Relevance according to the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research (DCPR) [16, 24]. These criteria have been proposed by an international group of investigators to translate psychosocial variables derived from psychosomatic research into operational tools whereby individual patients could be identified.…”

“…This assessment encompassed both psychiatric syndromes, subsumed under the rubric of DSM-IV classification [14], and sub-clinical conditions of psychosomatic relevance [16] by using semi-structured research interviews. The findings were supplemented with self-rated instruments providing information about patients’ perceptions of their quality of life.…”