A clue to hives
Chronic urticaria patients' leukocytes defectively release chemotactic factor which attracts eosinophils to immune reaction sites, Johns Hopkins University researchers report.This may reduce any modulating effect on allergic reactions, partly explaining persistent symptoms of hives (nettle rash).Working with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases grants, the investigators studied 15 hives patients, 16 normal volunteers, and 12 ragweed allergic individuals.
Attention to aging
Research on aging must be approached in interdisciplinary fashion, a Duke University investigator suggested at a recent University of Maryland conference. There are indications that this increasingly is happening.Researchers at the Baltimore concontinued
Cystic fibrosis studies
When cystic fibrosis patients experience mucus in choking quantities, a California Institute of Technology (Pasadena) physiologist reports, it is not a failure of the cilia but because the accumulation becomes so viscous that it cannot be moved.Using a high-speed, microscopic movie technique, Anthony