In a previous report (Y. Ohmori, S. Hanazawa, S. Amano, T. Miyoshi, K. Hirose, and S. Kitano, infect. Immun. 55:947-954, 1987), we showed that human gingival fibroblasts spontaneously produce thymocyte-activating factor (FTAF), which stimulates mitogen-induced thymocyte proliferation. In the present study, we examined the effect of Bacteroides gingivalis fimbriae on FTAF production by the cells...

Anti-thymocyte globulin is strongly reactive with platelets as measured by flow cytometric analysis. This reactivity appears to be independent of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) phenotype, is dose-dependent with saturation of platelet binding sites readily achieved with concentrations of horse anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) at 0.25 mg per ml, and cannot be blocked with human anti-PLA1 antibody nor...

Lymphocyte development is initiated from hematopoietic stem cells and can be divided into multiple phenotypically distinct stages. Transcription factors play important roles in programming the developmental process of lymphocytes. Recent studies have identified key roles of several orphan nuclear receptors in T lymphocyte development. The orphan nuclear receptor RORgamma has been shown to promo...

Preleukemic bone marrow and spleen cells of irradiated C57BL/6 mice that were inoculated with the radiation-induced leukemia virus variant D-RadLV differ from autonomous end-stage leukemia cells in the expression of the receptor for peanut agglutinin. As a result, the preleukemic cells are agglutinated by peanut agglutinin and the end-stage cells are not. This observation provides further evide...

Aberrant activation of cell cycle molecules has been postulated to play a role in apoptosis ("catastrophic cell cycle"). Here we show that in noncycling developing thymocytes, the cyclin- dependent kinase Cdk2 is activated in response to all specific and nonspecific apoptotic stimuli tested, including peptide-specific thymocyte apoptosis. Cdk2 was found to function upstream of the tumor suppres...

Background: There is accumulating evidence that a polyphenol present in olive oil, oleuropein, has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic effects. This study aimed at determining the anti-apoptotic effect of Oleuropein (Ole) on dexamethasone-induced apoptosis of mouse thymocytes. Method: Mice ...

The development pathway from embryonic thymus-stem cell to peripheral thymus-derived lymphocyte has been demonstrated using the alloantigens theta (theta) and TL as surface markers of cell differentiation. On the basis of cytotoxicity tests carried out on CBA.H or A embryo thymus cultured in diffusion chambers and on CBA.H embryo thymus grafts and peripheral lymphocytes derived from them in AKR...