C ardiac hypertrophy and pathological remodeling are hallmarks of cardiomyopathy associated with many pathological stressors, such as mechanic overload, oxidative injury, hormonal stimulation, or viral infection. Transcriptional regulation is key to this process, involving well-established transcription factors, such as NFAT, GATA, MEF2, and NF-κB among others. 1 They function as the downstream...

Background: Opium addiction alters immune responses to stresses such as an injury due to changing the secretion of cytokines. The present study assessed the effect of opium addiction on the cytokines [tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), interleukin-4 (IL-4), and IL-10] before and after laparotomy. Methods: Male rats were randomly divided into control and opium addicted (n = 20...

The aim of this study was to investigate the immunomodulatory effects of Spirulina platensis (S.platensis) by measuring the levels of serum interleukin (IL)-4, IL-10, IL-17, tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-α and interferon (IFN)-|γ| in mice suffered from systemic candidiasis and breast cancer. Theaqueous extract of S. platensis was selected for this study. Balb/C female mice were inoculated withCand...

Heterozygosity for dominant-negative STAT1 mutations underlies autosomal dominant Mendelian susceptibility to mycobacterial diseases. Mutations conferring Mendelian susceptibility to mycobacterial diseases have been identified in the regions of the STAT1 gene encoding the tail segment, DNA-binding domain and SH2 domain. We describe here a new heterozygous mutation, Y701C, in a Japanese two-gene...