BACKGROUND Sarcoidosis is a granulomatous inflammatory disease, possibly of infectious aetiology. We aimed to investigate whether the degree of functional polarization of alveolar macrophages (AMs), or Toll-like receptor (TLR) expression, is associated with sarcoidosis or with distinct clinical manifestations of this disease. METHODS Total BAL cells (cultured four or 24 h in medium, or stimul...

Macrophages (MΦ), well-known to play an important role in immune response, also respond to environmental toxic chemicals such as diesel exhaust particles (DEP). Potential effects of DEPs towards MΦ polarization, a key hall-mark of MΦ physiology, remain however poorly documented. This study was therefore designed to evaluate the effects of a reference DEP extract (DEPe) on human MΦ polarization....

BACKGROUND Diabetic nephropathy is the leading cause of end stage kidney disease worldwide. The pathogenesis of this disease remains elusive and multiple factors have been implicated. These include the effects of hyperglycaemia, haemodynamic and metabolic factors, and an inflammatory process that stimulates cellular signalling pathways leading to disease progression and severe fibrosis. Fibrone...

B ackground: The T cell attracting chemokine CCL18 is produced by antigen presenting cells and a role for CCLI8 has been suggested in the pathogenesis of a variety of diseases. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of these conditions, in which abundant CCL18 production is present. Although Th2 cytokines and IL-10 are known to have an effect on CCLI8 production, there are several gaps in our knowled...

BACKGROUND Analyses of circulating chemokines offer novel tools to investigate the T helper (Th)1/Th2 imbalance in allergic disease in vivo. OBJECTIVE To relate circulating Th1- and Th2-associated chemokines in infancy to allergic disease, sensitization and probiotic supplementation. METHODS Circulating levels of Th1-associated CXC-chemokine ligand (CXCL)9, CXCL10 and CXCL11 and Th2-associa...