Root coverage with subepithelial connective tissue graft was negatively affected by smoking, which limited and jeopardized treatment results.

No abstract

Recent studies have shown that, in mast cells, membrane microdomains rich in cholesterol and glycosphingolipids called lipid rafts play an important role in Fc∊RI signaling. The present study demonstrates that, in RBL-2H3 cells following stimulation, the mast cell-specific gangliosides associated with Fc∊RI are internalized from lipid rafts along with the receptor. When the cells are labeled with iodinated antibodies against the gangliosides or against Fc∊RI and the cell components are then fractionated on Percoll density gradients, in stimulated cells the gangliosides are internalized with the same kinetics as Fc∊RI and at 3 hr are present in the dense lysosome fraction. Using transmission electron microscopy, with antibody against the gangliosides conjugated to horseradish peroxidase and antibody against Fc∊RI conjugated to colloidal gold, it was possible to demonstrate that the gangliosides and Fc∊RI are internalized in the same coated vesicles. At 5 min, the gangliosides and Fc∊RI can be identified in early endosomes and at 3 hr are found together in acid phosphatase-positive lysosomes. This study demonstrates that the mast cell-specific gangliosides are internalized from lipid rafts in the same vesicles and traffic intracellularly with the same kinetics as Fc∊RI. This study contains online supplemental material at http://www.jhc.org . Please visit this article online to view these materials.