Germinal centers (GCs) are the sites of antigen-driven V(D)J gene hypermutation and selection necessary for the generation of high affinity memory B lymphocytes. Despite the antigen dependence of this reaction, injection of soluble antigen during an established primary immune response induces massive apoptotic death in GC B cells, but not in clonally related populations of nonfollicular B lymph...

IL-1beta converting enzyme (ICE) family cysteine proteases are subdivided into three groups; ICE-, CPP32-, and Ich-1-like proteases. In Fas-induced apoptosis, activation of ICE-like proteases is followed by activation of CPP32-like proteases which is thought to be essential for execution of the cell death. It was recently reported that two subfamily members of the mitogen-activated protein kina...

Protective immunity against intracellular pathogen Mycobacterium leprae is dependent on the activation of T cells. Repeated stimulation of T cells by M. leprae antigens MLCwA (M. leprae total cell wall antigen) and ManLAM (mannose capped lipoarabinomannan) may lead to apoptosis in leprosy patients. In the present study, inhibition of the Fas-induced apoptosis of peripheral blood mononuclear cel...

Polyclonal CD4(+) T cell activation is characteristic of spontaneous lupus. As a potential explanation for this phenotype, we hypothesized that T cells from lupus-prone mice are intrinsically hyperresponsive to stimulation with antigen, particularly to those peptide ligands having a low affinity for the T cell receptor (TCR). To test this hypothesis, we backcrossed the alpha and beta chain gene...

Although serum-free media have been used to expand lymphokine-activated killer cells, antigen-specific CD8 T cell cytotoxicity does not develop in vitro in the absence of serum. The immunodominant Vbeta17 response to an influenza A matrix protein epitope restricted by HLA A2.1 was used to study the serum requirement for CTL activation. Serum acts directly on T cells and not indirectly by activa...

background: human cornea expresses functional fas-ligand capable of killing fas+ activated lymphocytes. fas expression is partly regulated by -670 a/g polymorphism in the promoter region of fas gene. objective: the aim of the present study is to determine the association between fas-670a/g polymorphism and survival of corneal transplantation. methods: in 276 graft recipients who mainly underwen...

Memory CD8 T cells (TMem) have the capacity to provide lifelong host protection against intracellular pathogens and cancer. Despite phenotypic and functional heterogeneity among TMem, the expression of Fas — a tumor necrosis family receptor (TNFR) superfamily member conventionally known as a death receptor — is held in common among all TMem subsets across multiple species. As Fas has been shown...

objectives thus, the present study aimed to determine if fas and fasl promoter polymorphisms are associated with the clinical outcome of hbv infection. patients and methods dna samples were obtained from the infected individuals including chronic carrier (n = 50), chronic hepatitis (n = 50), cirrhosis (n = 25), naturally recovered (n = 26) and compared with those of their matched healthy contro...