bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Comparison of a radioallergosorbent (RAST) inhibition method and a monoclonal enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for aeroallergen measurement
Authors: RENSTRÖM A. , GORDON S. , LARSSON P. H. , TEE R. D. , TAYLOR A. J. NEWMAN , MALMBERG P.
Published: April 2006

Background
Mouse and rat urinary proteins are potent occupational allergens for exposed personnel. Methods of measuring airborne allergens differ greatly, and reported levels of allergens vary considerably between laboratories.

Objectives
To compare the values obtained using two different methods of allergen detection.

Methods
Air samples were collected in rat rooms in Sweden and the United Kingdom at 2 L/min on to polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) filters and extracted in buffer containing 0.5% v/v Tween 20. Airborne rat urinary allergen (RUA) was measured in all samples by both RAST inhibition using a polyclonal human serum pool (UK) and a two monoclonal antibody sandwich ELISA employing antibodies specific for Rat n 1.02 (α2u‐globulin) (Sweden).

Results
The two methods gave values which were correlated (r2 log values = 0.72, P < 0.0001), but differed by several orders of magnitude (median [range] ratio of RAST inhibition/ELISA = 316 [7‐2680]. There was a systematic bias; as the absolute values increased, the difference in the measurements increased. The rat urine standards used were antigenically similar.

Conclusions
A large contrast in RUA values obtained from the two assays was observed in this study. This may be primarily due to methodological differences, but variations in antibody specificities or composition of allergenic epitopes in the air samples may contribute. The results demonstrate that standardization of methods and antibodies is necessary before interlaboratory comparisons can be made.
Association between inflammation and epithelial damage‐restitution processes in allergic airways in vivo
Authors: ERJEFÄLT J. S. , KORSGREN M. , NILSSON M. C. , SUNDLER F. , PERSSON C. G. A.
Published: April 2006

Background
Associations between allergen challenge‐induced sites of epithelial damage and the distribution of leucocytes and extravasated plasma remain unexplored.

Objective
To study neutrophils, eosinophils, and fibrinogen at allergen challenge‐induced patchy epithelial damage‐restitution sites in guinea‐pig trachea.

Methods
After local challenge tracheal tissue (cryo sections and whole‐mounts) and lumen (selective tracheal lavage) were examined at 1, 5, and 24 h. Eosinophils, neutrophils and fibrinogen were identified by histochemistry.

Results
Neutrophils increased markedly in tracheal lavage fluids and in tissue and were strongly associated with the challenge‐induced epithelial craters of damage‐restitution. At 1 and 24 h eosinophils were increased in the tracheal lumen whereas the surrounding tissue displayed a reversed pattern. Gels rich in fibrinogen, neutrophils, and eosinophils were present in epithelial crater areas, protruding into the lumen. Clusters of free eosinophil granules, Cfegs, released through lysis of eosinophils, and neutrophils with long cytoplasmatic protrusions abounded in these crater areas.

Conclusions
The present findings provide important new insights into allergic airways where sites of epithelial damage‐restitution processes emerge as the major loci for eosinophil, neutrophil, and plasma protein activities, the latter likely causing leukocyte adhesion and activation in vivo. The disttibution of eosinophils in this study suggests roles of these cells both in airway mucosa and in regional lymph nodes. Based on the present study we also propose that lysis of eosinophils and Cfegs generation are a major paradigm for activation of these cells in vivo.
Photoreceptors for biosynthesis, energy storage and vision
Authors: PRESTI D. , DELBRÜCK M.
Published: April 2006

Abstract Living organisms use light as a source of energy and as a means of obtaining information about their environment. Photoreactivating enzyme, provitamins D, retinal (rhodopsins and bacteriorhodopsin), porphyrins (chlorophyll, protochlorophyll and heme), photosynthetic accessory pigments (carotenoids and bilins), phytochrome and riboflavin: these are the molecules which life has settled upon to play the role of light receptor. For some of these photoreceptor molecules a great deal is now known about the chemistry which they perform upon absorbing light; for others virtually nothing is known. Riboflavin, the molecule believed to be functioning in a variety of organisms as the receptor for physiological responses to blue light, is an especially interesting case. Its widespread occurrence in cellular roles other than photoreception make it difficult to separate out the particular flavin which functions as the photoreceptor. It represents a case of a photoreceptor which is at once ubiquitous and elusive.