Hypersensitivity pneumonitis (HP) is an immune mediated lung disease induced by the repeated inhalation of a wide variety of antigens. Bird-related hypersensitivity pneumonitis (BRHP) is one of the most common forms of HP in human and results from the inhalation of avian antigens. The findings of a recent clinical analysis suggest that in addition to Th1 factors, the levels of interleukin(IL)-1...

s accepted to national meetings: 1. Yoshida K, Campbell PL, Amin MA, Koch AE, Fox DA, Ruth JH: Citrullination of ENA78/CXCL5 changes its receptor affinity from CXCR2 to CXCR1 and induces monocyte migration. Arthritis Rheum. 65 S10:327, 2013. 2. Edhayan G, Ha CM , Ohara RA, Isozaki T, Amin MA, Arbab AS, Tsou PS, Campbell PL, Schiopu E, Khanna D, Morgan R, Friday SC, Fox DA, Ruth JH: Inflammatory...

African American (AA) women are more likely than European American (EA) women to be diagnosed with early, aggressive breast cancer. Possible differences in innate immune pathways (e.g., inflammatory responses) have received little attention as potential mechanisms underlying this disparity. We evaluated distributions of selected genetic variants in innate immune pathways in AA and EA women, and...

Biliary atresia (BA) is an infantile disease resulting from a severe cholangiopathy, which can obstruct extrahepatic bile ducts, disrupt bile flow and lead to end‑stage cirrhosis. The current study aimed to develop a genetic method to investigate the pathogenesis of BA. The gene expression profile of BA (GSE46967) was downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database and included 18 samples ...

Previous studies from our laboratory have indicated that overexpression of the epidermal growth factor receptor pathway substrate 8 (EPS8) enhances cell proliferation, migration and tumorigenicity in vivo, although the mechanisms involved remain unexplored. A microarray screen to search for potential mediators of EPS8 identified upregulation of multiple cell cycle-related targets such as the tr...

s and/or oral presentations presented at American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2010, 2011 and 2012: 1. Pickens SR, Volin MV, Mandelin II AM, Shahrara S. Local expression of IL-27 ameliorate collagen induced arthritis. Arthritis Rheum 714: S298, 2010. Oral presentation 2. Pickens SR, Volin MV, Pope RM, Mandelin II AM, Shahrara S. Characterization of CCR7 and its ligands CCL19 and CCL21 in rheum...

PURPOSE To evaluate the proinflammatory effect and molecular mechanism of IL-17 in the intestinal epithelial cell line HT-29. METHODS After culture of HT-29 cells with IL-17 and/or TNF-(α), real-time (RT) PCR and Western blot were used to measure the gene expression level of the neutrophil chemokines CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCL5, CXCL6, IL-8 and the Th-17 chemokine CCL20, the phosphorylation level of ...

BACKGROUND Transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta is an important modulator of immune functions and cellular responses, such as differentiation, proliferation, migration and apoptosis. The Smad proteins, which are intracellular TGF-beta signal transducers, mediate most actions of TGF-beta. OBJECTIVES This study examines the role of Smad3 in a murine model of contact hypersensitivity (CHS). M...

The functional role of ELR-positive CXC chemokines in host defense during acute viral-induced encephalomyelitis was determined. Inoculation of the neurotropic JHM strain of mouse hepatitis virus (JHMV) into the central nervous system (CNS) of mice resulted in the rapid mobilization of PMNs expressing the chemokine receptor CXCR2 into the blood. Migration of PMNs to the CNS coincided with increa...

BACKGROUND Aberrant expression of C-X-C motif chemokine 5 (CXCL5) contributes to the progression of various cancers. This study analyzed the clinical significance of serum CXCL5 (sCXCL5) levels of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients, with the goal of building a novel prognostic score model. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Serum samples were collected prior to treatment from 290 NPC patients for the d...