It was reported that the aluminosilicate material mica activated macrophages and showed its immunostimulating effects. However, the mechanisms by which it exerts these effects are unclear. To address this, we evaluated the effects of mica fine particles (MFP, 804.1 ± 0.02 nm) on the murine macrophage cell line, RAW 264.7. Specifically, RAW 264.7 cells were treated with 100 and 500 μg/mL MFP and...

Nowadays polymer nanocomposites have introduced as a new class of food packaging materials due to their enhanced mechanical, thermal, and barrier properties. In this study PET nano composites were prepared by melt blending of poly (ethylene terephthalate) pellets and mica nanoparticles. The morphology of PET/mica nanocomposites was characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron mi...

The production of IgG HLA antibodies after lung transplantation (LTx) is considered to be a major risk factor for the development of chronic rejection, represented by the bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS). It has recently been observed that elevated levels of IgM HLA antibodies also correlates with the development of chronic rejection in heart and kidney transplantation. This study invest...

Gastric cancer (GC) is the third most common cause of cancer death worldwide. Natural killer cells play an important role in the immune defense against transformed cells. They express the activating receptor NKG2D, whose ligands belong to the MIC and ULBP/RAET family. Although it is well established that these ligands are generally expressed in tumors, the association between their expression i...

Nowadays polymer nanocomposites have introduced as a new class of food packaging materials due to their enhanced mechanical, thermal, and barrier properties. In this study PET nano composites were prepared by melt blending of poly (ethylene terephthalate) pellets and mica nanoparticles. The morphology of PET/mica nanocomposites was characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron mi...

NKG2D is one of the major activating receptors of natural killer (NK) cells and binds to several ligands (NKG2DLs). NKG2DLs are expressed on malignant cells and sensitize them to early elimination by cytotoxic lymphocytes. We investigated the clinical importance of NKG2DLs and the mechanism of NKG2DL regulation in breast cancer (BC). Among the NKG2DLs MICA/B and ULBP1/2/3, the expression levels...

This study presents a new bionanocomposite coating on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) made of pullulan and synthetic mica. Mica nanolayers have a very high aspect ratio (α), at levels much greater than that of conventional exfoliated clay layers (e.g., montmorillonite). A very small amount of mica (0.02 wt %, which is ϕ ≈ 0.00008) in pullulan coatings dramatically improved the oxygen barrier...

The activation of NKG2D on innate and adaptive cytotoxic lymphocytes contributes to immune-mediated tumor destruction. Nonetheless, tumor cell shedding of NKG2D ligands, such as MHC class I chain-related protein A (MICA), results in immune suppression through down-regulation of NKG2D surface expression. Here we show that some patients who respond to antibody-blockade of cytotoxic T lymphocyte-a...

MHC class I polypeptide-related chain A (MICA) molecule is induced in response to viral infection and various types of stress. We recently reported that a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs2596542 located in the MICA promoter region was significantly associated with the risk for hepatitis C virus (HCV)-induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and also with serum levels of soluble MICA (sMICA...

Background: A possible mechanism by which hyperthermia enhances tumor immunogenicity is the induction of NKG2D ligands on tumor cells. Although the expression of MHC class I chain-related protein A and B (MICA/B) has previously been reported in different carcinomas, there is no information about MICA/B expression in liposarcomas. Objective: To investigate MICA/B induction in a human liposarcoma...