title: Reduced expression of activin A in focal lymphoid agglomerates within nasal polyps.
abstract: It has been previously reported that activin A, a homodimer of the betaA inhibin subunit, is secreted by stromal cells from mouse bone marrow and causes apoptotic death of mouse plasmacytoma tumor cells. Recent in vitro studies have also implicated this cytokine in the suppression of normal B-cell lymphopoiesis. In this study we examined the occurrence of activin A in nasal polyp tissues that present a combination of epithelium, mesenchyme, and vascular endothelium, with frequent massive hemopoietic infiltration. Anti-betaA-chain antibodies strongly stained epithelial mucous glands and some endothelial cells, and diffusely stained the polyp stroma. Normal adult conchae were similarly stained, whereas activin A was not detected prenatally by immunostaining of nasal tissues. Staining specificity was substantiated by ligand competition assays. Detailed examination of the inflammatory polyp infiltrate showed that activin A staining was reduced in sites of focal infiltration of B-lymphoid cells. It is therefore implied that local accumulation of a large number of B-cells is associated with relatively low activin A expression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Cell Biology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shoham
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yaniv
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Koren
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gal
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Parameswaran
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kravitz
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Geron
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Markovitz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lantzki
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zipori
mesh_terms: D028341:Activins; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007265:Inhibins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009298:Nasal Polyps / Q000378:metabolism*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger; D028341:Activins; D007265:Inhibins