Recruitment of activated neutrophils correlates with disease severity in adult Crohn's disease

Neutrophils are detected in inflamed colon in Crohn's disease (CD). However, whether the frequency and/or activation of circulating or gut tissue neutrophils correlate with endoscopic severity remains to be investigated. A cohort of 73 CD patients was prospectively enrolled according to endoscopic severity and treatment history. Individuals with active disease were stratified using the Montreal classification. Harvey-Bradshaw Index (HBI) and Simple Endoscopic Score for Crohn's Disease (SES-CD) were performed at the time of ileocolonoscopy. Frequency of neutrophils and their expression of CD66b and CD64 were assessed in paired blood and colonic biopsies using flow cytometry. The percentage of neutrophils increased in inflamed colon and correlated with SES-CD in the entire cohort of patients examined, as well as in the subgroup with inflammatory (B1) active disease. SES-CD further correlated with neutrophil CD66b expression in mucosa but not blood and, conversely, with neutrophil CD64 expression in blood but not mucosa. However, the evaluation of neutrophil activation in mucosa when compared to blood reflected disease activity more clearly. Finally, a neutrophil activation power index (CD66b in mucosa X CD64 in blood) that correlated with SES-CD discriminated between patients with mild and severe disease. In conclusion, the frequency and activation of colonic neutrophils correlated with SES-CD, highlighting that mucosal neutrophils are associated with disease severity in CD.

Sperm counts and reproductive tract lesions in male Syrian hamsters exposed in utero to diethylstilbestrol

Pregnant hamsters were administered diethylstilbestrol (DES) orally on day 14 of gestation. Sperm counts from F1 adult males were lower than controls. Significant and consistent lesions were confined to the epididymides of DES exposed males, in which epididymal granulomas were the most common lesion. Epididymal granulomas of the tail have been associated with a bacterial etiology while granulomas of the head may be related to blind ductules or a lack of ductule connection.

Investigations of the vertebrate hosts of eastern equine encephalitis during an epizootic in Michigan, 1980

A study was undertaken to investigate an increase in reported cases of clinical encephalitis due to eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus in horses and to determine the natural vertebrate hosts of that virus. Horses, birds, and small mammals were sampled at sites in a contiguous area in St. Joseph and Kalamazoo counties, Michigan, from 25 August to 5 September 1980. Serum samples from four horses acutely ill with encephalitis and 16 of 39 pasture mates of ill horses had neutralizing (N) antibody against EEE virus (46.5%); no viruses were isolated from these 43 sera. None of 24 draft horses from a site in St. Joseph County 12 km southeast of the affected sites had EEE antibody. A strain of Cache Valley virus was isolated from the blood of one of the 24 draft horses. No viruses were isolated, and no antibodies to EEE virus were detected in 28 blood samples from small mammals captured at sites where equine cases of encephalitis were occurring. Six strains of EEE virus, five of Highlands J virus, and one of Flanders virus were isolated from the blood of 401 wild birds belonging to 42 species captured at eight sites in both counties. A total of 29.9% of the wild birds had EEE antibody. Five species of domestic birds, mostly chickens and ring-necked pheasants, were sampled in both counties. Six strains of EEE virus were isolated from 152 ring-necked pheasants; these included three isolates from the brains of dead birds. About 13% of 51 pheasants tested from two small flocks in backyard pens in Kalamazoo County and 9% of 103 pheasants tested from a large game farm in St. Joseph County had antibody to EEE virus. The source of the EEE virus and the factors responsible for this epizootic are unknown; however, the epizootic probably represented an explosive expansion of an enzootic level of virus transmission.