We have compared state-dependent transmission through oligosynaptic (minimally disynaptic) reflex pathways from low-threshold cutaneous and muscle afferents to some flexor and extensor lumbosacral motoneurons during fictive locomotion and scratching in decerebrate unanesthetized cats. As reported in earlier work, oligosynaptic cutaneous excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) in flexor digit...

facultative heterofermentative lactobacilli (fhl) are responsible for enhancing unique flavour properties in traditional dairy products such as lighvan cheese through biochemical mechanisms. in addition to saving domestic genetic resources, industrial production of semi-traditional dairy products is one of the major objectives of non starter microflora identification in indigenous dairy product...

The three genospecies Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia garinii, and Borrelia afzelii, all causative agents of Lyme disease, differ in their susceptibilities to human complement-mediated lysis. We recently reported that serum resistance of borrelias correlates largely with their ability to bind the human complement regulators FHL-1/reconectin and factor H. To date, two complement regulator-acquiri...

Familial haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (FHL) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder of immune dysregulation associated with uncontrolled T cell and macrophage activation and hypercytokinaemia. The incidence of FHL is 0·12/100·000 children born per year, with a male to female ratio of 1:1. The disease is classified into six different types based on genetic linkage analysis and chromosomal ...

Dear Sir, I read with interest a recent article by Antonodimitrakis and colleagues in your journal presenting a case of acquired hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) in a 60-year-old woman suffering from diabetes mellitus type 2 (1). The reported patient developed a life-threatening HLH associated with a reactivation of an Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) infection and was successfully treated by m...

BBA68 (BbCRASP-1) of the Lyme disease spirochetes binds human factor H (FH) and FH-like protein 1 (FHL-1). Here we assess transcription of the BBA68 gene and production of BBA68 in infected mice and humans using real-time reverse transcriptase PCR and immunoblotting. The species specificity of FH binding to BBA68 was also tested. The data suggest that BBA68 does not play an important role in im...

Perforin gene (PRF1) mutations have been reported in 20-30% of patients with familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (FHL), an immune disorder of infancy and early childhood. Cytotoxic T and natural killer (NK) cell activities are remarkably reduced or ab-sent in FHL patients. We report the first cases of familial hemophagocytic lymphohistiocy-tosis in an Iranian family with two siblings. E...