The combination of cockroach allergy and exposure to high levels of this allergen may help explain the frequency of asthma-related health problems in inner-city children.

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Mice that are unresponsive to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) (strain C3H/HeJ) can be rendered LPS-sensitive by the adoptive transfer of bone marrow cells from LPS-sensitive mice (strain C3H/HeN). This model of adoptive transfer was used to evaluate the contribution of lymphoreticular cells to five effects of endotoxin on the host: immunogenicity, adjuvanticity, lethality, induction of interferon, and induction of colony-stimulated factor. C3H//HeJ mice became sensitive to each of these effects after adoptive transfer of bone marrow cells from C3H/HeN mice. The efficacy of transfer was directly proportional to the dose of X-irradiation and inversely proportional to the number of surviving host stem cells. The most effective dose of radiation was 850 rad, and C3H/HeN leads to C3H/HeJx chimeras prepared at this dose were as sensitive to LPS for each parameter tested as were the C3H/HeN donors except for a threefold greater resistance to lethality than LPS-responsive C3H/HeN mice. C3H/HeN mice could also be rendered unresponsive to LPS by the adoptive transfer of C3H/HeJ bone marrow cells. C3H/HeN chimeras were resistant to all of the effects of LPS studied except for the induction of colony-stimulating factor. These results demonstrate that lymphocytes and/or macrophages play a primary role in mediating a number of diverse and seemingly unrelated host responses to endotoxin.

The urine of febrile patients has been found to contain high concentrations of an inhibitor of interleukin 1 (IL-1)-induced thymocyte proliferation. The inhibitor is specific for IL-1 and does not block the effects of interleukin 2 (IL-2) or phytohemagglutin (PHA) on thymocytes, and it is not nonspecifically toxic for these cells. IL-1 inhibitor can be found in the urine of normal individuals and afebrile patients, but is present in increased concentrations in the urine of patients with fever of diverse etiologies. Preliminary physicochemical characterization indicates that the inhibitor is a 20-40-kdalton protein.

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