The incidence of allergic diseases is steadily increasing an urgent need to clarify the immunologic processes which occur early in life and signal an increased risk of possible future allergy development. The ratio and maturation state of DCs together with the cytokine environment are important in directing and modulating immune responses. The maturation state (presence of CD83) of cord blood m...

PURPOSE To study the role of caspase-like proteases, especially roles of more extensively characterized caspase-1 and caspase-2, in apoptotic photoreceptor cell degeneration in Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) rats. METHODS Both RCS and Sprague-Dawley rats were used. Cryosections of the retinas at various postnatal times were immunostained with antibodies against caspase-1 (interleukin-1beta-c...

In rat barrel cortex, layer 4 has a transiently high density of zinc-positive terminations from postnatal day (P)9 to P12 [P.W. Land & L. Shamalla-Hannah (2002)J. Comp. Neurol., 447, 43-56]. These terminations have been proposed to originate from cortico-cortical connections, but their exact origin is unknown. To determine their sources, we injected sodium selenite into the barrel cortex of two...

A type of stress stimulation and age are claimed to affect the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and its receptor - tyrosine kinase B (TrkB) in the hippocampal regions differentially. This study aimed to explore the influence of chronic (15 min daily for 21 days) forced swim stress (FS) exposure on the BDNF and TrkB containing neurons in the hippocampal CA1, CA3 pyramidal c...

Leptomeningeal glioneuronal heterotopia (LGH) is a developmental anomaly sometimes observed at the surface of human brains with severe malformations. We experimentally induced LGH in brains of rat pups by transplacental exposure to methylmercury. Histopathological profiles of the induced LGH, including the spatio-temporal predominance of the manifestation, suggest some aspects of the histogenes...

The genome of Sapovirus (SaV), a causative agent of gastroenteritis in humans and swine, contains either two or three open reading frames (ORFs). Functional motifs characteristic to the 2C-like NTPase (NTPase), VPg, 3C-like protease (Pro), 3D-like RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (Pol), and capsid protein (VP1) are encoded in the ORF1 polyprotein, which is afterwards cleaved into the nonstructural ...