Several lines of evidence suggest that antioxidant processes and (or) endogenous antioxidants inhibit proatherogenic events in the blood vessel wall. Heme oxygenase (HO), which catabolizes heme to biliverdin, carbon monoxide, and catalytic iron, has been shown to have such antioxidative properties. The HO-1 isoform of heme oxygenase is ubiquitous and can be increased several fold by stimuli that induce cellular oxidative stress. Products of the HO reaction have important effects: carbon monoxide is a potent vasodilator, which is thought to play a role in modulation of vascular tone; biliverdin and its by-product bilirubin are potent antioxidants. Although HO induction results in an increase in catalytic free iron release, the enhancement of intracellular ferritin protein through HO-1 has been reported to decrease the cytotoxic effects of iron. Oxidized LDL has been shown to increase HO-1 expression in endothelial and smooth muscle cell cultures, and during atherogenesis. Further evidence of HO-1 expression associated with atherogenesis has been demonstrated in human, murine and rabbit atherosclerotic lesions. Moreover, genetic models of HO deficiency suggest that the actions of HO-1 are important in modulating the severity of atherosclerosis. Recent experiments in gene therapy using the HO gene suggest that interventions aimed at HO in the vessel wall could provide a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment or prevention of atherosclerotic disease.

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) have been shown to provide information on the biological impact of environmental stress to organisms, yet none have investigated the HSP response to stress in birds. Japanese quail were exposed to seven different stressors (mild restraint, loud noise, inescapable irritation, cold temperature, isolation in darkness, and two stressful social situations) and expression of HSP30, 60, 70, and 90 in heart, liver, lung, kidney and gonads was examined. Tonic Immobility (TI) tests were also conducted to assess whether the stressors increased fear response. Increased expression of HSP70 was found in the myocardial tissue of birds exposed to loud noise, inescapable irritation, cold temperature, and isolation in darkness. Increased expression of other HSPs was not apparent in the heart or any of the other all tissues examined. Longer TI was observed only in birds exposed to the noise stress. Evidence is presented that a fairly wide range of stressors caused increased expression of HSP70 in the Japanese quail myocardial tissue and that HSPs may provide useful biomarkers for the study of environmental stress in birds.

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We describe a patient with fever and borreliosis in the Northwestern Washington State, USA. The patient exhibited a classic Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction of tachycardia, hypotension, and thrombocytopenia following antimicrobial therapy, and she also developed an elevated serum cardiac troponin during therapy.

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