Castleman's disease is a syndrome consisting of giant lymph node hyperplasia with plasma cell infiltration, fever, anemia, hypergammaglobulinemia, and an increase in the plasma level of acute phase proteins. It has been reported that clinical abnormalities disappear after the resection of the affected lymph nodes, suggesting that products of lymph nodes may cause such clinical abnormalities. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a cytokine inducing B-cell differentiation to immunoglobulin-producing cells and regulating biosynthesis of acute phase proteins. This report demonstrates that the germinal centers of hyperplastic lymph nodes of patients with Castleman's disease produce large quantities of IL-6 without any significant production of other cytokines. In a patient with a solitary hyperplastic lymph node, clinical improvement and decrease in serum IL-6 were observed following surgical removal of the involved lymph node. There was a correlation between serum IL-6 level, lymph node hyperplasia, hypergammaglobulinemia, increased level of acute phase proteins, and clinical abnormalities. The findings in this report indicate that the generation of IL-6 by B cells in germinal centers of hyperplastic lymph nodes of Castleman's disease may be the key element responsible for the variety of clinical symptoms in this disease.
We showed the dose-dependent growth inhibition by alltrans retinoic acid (ATRA) of myeloma cells freshly isolated from patients. ATRA downregulated the cell surface expression of interleukin-6 receptor (IL- 6R) and/or glycoprotein (gp) 130. The growth-inhibitory activity of ATRA was well correlated with that of anti-gp 130 antibody in every sample. Furthermore, ATRA inhibited the production of IL-6 from both myeloma cells and marrow stromal cells, and recombinant IL-6 (rIL-6) could partially recover the myeloma cell growth that had been inhibited by ATRA. These data suggest that ATRA may inhibit the proliferation of myeloma cells both by the downregulation of IL-6R and gp130 expression on myeloma cells and by the inhibition of IL-6 production from myeloma and stromal cells. Prednisolone (PSL) and interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) also inhibited the myeloma growth, while their effects were different from those of ATRA on IL-6 R and gp130 expression, IL-6 production, and morphological change. The inhibitory effect of ATRA on myeloma cell proliferation was observed in 10 of 14 samples obtained from eight patients, which suggests that ATRA may be a potent new therapeutic agent for some myeloma patients.
A systematic study has been made on the relationship between plasma deposition condition and electronic properties of a-Si: H film by employing the cross field plasma deposition technique. Three important processes of deposition mechanism, i.e. i) plasma decomposition, ii) transport of ionized and neutral radicals and iii) compiling of decomposed species were separately identified by this technique. Remarkable improvements in the film quality have been obtained, that is, AM 1 photoconductivity of more than 5×10-4 mho/cm with the optical gap of 1.73 eV in the undoped film deposited at the optimum bias voltage of -50 V and the substrate temperature of 350°C. Another noticeable result is an enhancement of boron doping efficiency realized by applying an appropriate positive bias voltage of + 100 V. These improved films have been utilized to construct p-i-n heteroface solar cells.
Amorphous Si:H films prepared by plasma deposition have been extensively studied for the purpose of practical applications to low cost solar cel-t" 1). Especially, a conversion efficiency more than 5% has recently come to be most commonly attained in a-Si:H solar cel1s2). However, for a further improvement of
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