Hoffmann, R. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nature Genetics (2008)

Editor

Personal info

View

About

Terms

Javascript disabled

Please enable Javascript support in your browser to use this application.

Instructions on how to enable JavaScript on different browsers can be found here: http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=23852.

[edit this page]

Gruner, S. et al.

Cis-urocanic acid as a mediator of ultraviolet-light-induced immunosuppression.

Treatment of an organism with UVB light or PUVA (8-methoxypsoralen + UVA light) not only leads to alterations in the irradiated skin but also to systemic immunomodulation, due to the release of several chemical mediators of immunosuppression like prostaglandins, acute-phase proteins, IL-1 inhibitor, alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone, propiomelanocorticotropin or other cytokines. A recently described mediator is urocanic acid, which is transformed by UV light in the skin from the trans- to the cis-isomer and that exerts a systemic immunomodulatory effect. In our experiments, treatment with PUVA or with cis-urocanic acid prevents the rejection of rat heart allografts in 50% and 40% of cases, respectively. Control grafts are rejected in fewer than 10 days. PUVA treatment of donor leukocytes before transfusion into the prospective recipient inhibits only their sensitizing, not their graft-protecting, effect on subsequent skin grafts in mice. PUVA treatment also prevents acute lethal GVH disease in mice after irradiation with a sublethal dose of x-rays and transfusion of semiallogeneic spleen cells. Treatment of recipient mice with cis-urocanic acid has the same effect. The humoral immune response to sheep erythrocytes is not influenced by cis-urocanic acid. These results demonstrate that PUVA treatment or its chemical mediator, cis-urocanic acid, may be used in transplantation and hematology as naturally occurring immunosuppressive agents, especially for the control and manipulation of GVH leukemia reaction.[1]

References

Cis-urocanic acid as a mediator of ultraviolet-light-induced immunosuppression. Gruner, S., Oesterwitz, H., Stoppe, H., Henke, W., Eckert, R., Sönnichsen, N. Semin. Hematol. (1992) [Pubmed]

Annotations and hyperlinks in this abstract are from individual authors of WikiGenes or automatically generated by the WikiGenes Data Mining Engine. The abstract is from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.About WikiGenes Open Access Licence Privacy Policy Terms of Use apsburg

The world's first wiki where authorship really matters (Nature Genetics, 2008). Due credit and reputation for authors. Imagine a global collaborative knowledge base for original thoughts. Search thousands of articles and collaborate with scientists around the globe.