BACKGROUND: Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) has been widely used in the management of patients with various autoimmune neurological diseases, however, its action mechanisms have not fully been elucidated yet. This study focused on the effects of IVIg on the production of interleukin-6 (IL-6), one of major proinflammatory cytokine, using a human skeletal muscle cell line (HM4). METHODS: After HM4 cells were cultured in Dulbecco's modified eagle's medium (DMEM) containing 5% fetal bovine serum for 24 h, the culture medium was changed with serum-free media. TNF-alpha (tumor necrosis factor-alpha, 100 ng/mL) and IVIg (5 mg/mL) were treated alone or in combination and cultured for various time. RT-PCR and ELISA kit were employed for mRNA expression and secretion of IL-6, respectively. RESULTS: Treatment with TNF-alpha or/and IVIg significantly induced IL-6 mRNA expression (p<0.001). Although IL-6 production was markedly increased by TNF-alpha (p<0.001), IVIg treatment alone or in combination with TNF-alpha had no effect on the production of IL-6 except at 6 h after the treatment. CONCLUSIONS: IVIg seems not to have a significant effect on IL-6 production as an action mechanism of its immunomodulatory capabilities, at least in the HM4 cell line.
Cell Line* ; Culture Media, Serum-Free ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay ; Humans* ; Immunoglobulins ; Immunoglobulins, Intravenous ; Interleukin-6* ; Muscle, Skeletal* ; Necrosis ; RNA, Messenger ; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha

In this study, we developed the protopype of QA phantom for image QA including an additional component for image based radiation treatment system. The new phantom considered two main parts: Image quality and fusion accuracy. Image quality part included for daily CT number linearity and spatial resolution, and fusion accuracy part designed to simulate a simple translation-rotation setting. The CT scans of the phantom obtained from conventional CT, MVCT of Tomotherapy unit, and both image sets were satisfied the recommendation of spatial resolution. This phantom was simple and efficient for daily imaging QA, and it is important to provide a new concept of verification of image registration.