Early increase in TNF-alpha-containing mast cells in skin lesions

Abstract

We have evaluated the numbers and immunohistochemical positivity for tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha of the mast cells in (a) 40 skin samples collected at autopsy from subjects who had survived for a few seconds to 1 h, (b) 10 samples of post-mortem skin lesions and (c) 10 surgical biopsies of healthy skin. Sections were treated with fluoresceinated avidin, to tag mast cell granules, followed by indirect immunohistochemistry for TNF-alpha with polyclonal primary and rhodaminated secondary antibodies. We could confirm a progressive increase in mast cell numbers, which became significant 1 h after trauma. More important, the fraction of mast cells positive for TNF-alpha increased progressively in the same time period and became significantly higher than controls in specimens collected more than 15 min after trauma. Samples from post-mortem lesions had significantly fewer mast cells and fewer TNF-alpha-positive cells than any other group of samples. The results suggest that mast cells are quickly recruited to an injured site in response to trauma and upregulate their TNF-alpha content, which can play an early role in directing tissue response to injury. The forensic pathologist can take advantage from this behavior of mast cells for the evaluation of the timing of early vital lesions.

An immunohistochemical study in a fatality due to ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome

“…The knowledge of macroscopic and histological findings should be of special interest for all those who perform autopsies in these victims [22]. The exact pathogenesis of OHSS remains a mystery, so in the diagnostic suspicion of OHSS, the forensic pathologist must use all the modern laboratory armament to validate the diagnosis in the extremely rare fatal cases due to this syndrome [23][24][25][26].…”

Time-dependent appearance of intrathrombus neutrophils and macrophages in a stasis-induced deep vein thrombosis model and its application to thrombus age determination

“…The molecular and cellular pathophysiology of the wound healing process is applied for wound age determination. Recently, the immunohistochemical detection and RNA analyses of several molecules (e.g., extracellular matrix components, growth factors, cytokines, and adhesion molecules) has become a powerful method for forensic practices such as wound age determination or postmortem diagnosis [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. To the best of our knowledge, there have been only two forensic studies on thrombus age estimation Fig.…”

Gene Expression Profiles in Peripheral Lymphocytes by Arsenic Exposure and Skin Lesion Status in a Bangladeshi Population

“…In this study, we have observed down-regulated TNF expression among individuals with arsenical skin lesions and down-regulated expression of CCL20, providing credence to the suppression of a chemokine response pathway in arsenic toxicity. There is evidence to indicate that TNF is released early in response to skin wounds or inflammation (69), which may suggest that the downregulated expression of TNF observed in arsenical skin lesion cases is also indicative of deficient wound healing.…”