Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0038362 (stomatitis)
 8,852 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Cytokines are autocrine, paracrine and endocrine glycoproteins that interact with specific cell receptors and have pleiotropic effects. Increasing evidence indicates that cytokines, immune interferon (IFN-gamma) and interleukin 6 (IL-6) among others, modulate hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function. Corticostatins/defensins are a family of cationic peptides recently isolated from phagocytic cells of myeloid lineage. Four peptides have been isolated from human neutrophils: HP-1, 2, 3 and 4. As defensins they participate in immunosurveillance against viruses, bacteria and fungi. Some members of the family are also able to inhibit ACTH-induced steroidogenesis. Among human peptides, only HP-4 is corticostatic. We previously demonstrated that HP-1 and HP-4 inhibit in vitro the spontaneous and cytokine-inducible natural killer activity of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and potentiate cortisol-dependent inhibition. The present work was carried out to determine whether two human corticostatins/defensins, HP-1 and HP-4, were able to modulate in vitro IFN-gamma and IL-6 production by human PBMC stimulated with phytohemagglutinin or Concanavalin A. IFN-gamma was titrated using biological assay with WISH cells as indicators and vesicular stomatitis virus as the challenge virus. IL-6 was measured by means of enzyme amplified sensitivity immunoassay. Both HP-1 and HP-4 significantly reduced cytokine production. Our data indicate that HP-1 and HP-4 are novel modulators of lymphocyte functions in vitro. Their depressing properties on ACTH-induced steroidogenesis and on cytokine production add complexity to neuroendocrine-immune circuits involving hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal function.
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PMID:[In vitro effects of peptides of the corticostatin/defensin family on production of mitogen-induced cytokines]. 761 50