BACKGROUND Bacterial flagellin triggers inflammation in mammalian cells via Toll-like receptor (TLR) 5. Release of the chemokine IL-8 in response to flagellin involves NF-κB, p38 MAP kinase, and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K). However, PI3K has been reported to be either pro- or anti-inflammatory in different model systems. We hypothesized that this could be due to different activities of...

background: infections due to pseudomonas aeruginosa are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in patients who suffer from impaired immune responses and chronic diseases such as cystic fibrosis. at present, aggressive antibiotic therapy is the only choice for management of p. aeruginosa infections, but emergence of highly resistant strains necessitated the development of novel alt...

Methanococcus voltae possesses four flagellin genes, two of which (flaB1 and flaB2) have previously been reported to encode major components of the flagellar filament. The remaining two flagellin genes, flaA and flaB3, are transcribed at lower levels, and the corresponding proteins remained undetected prior to this work. Electron microscopy examination of flagella isolated by detergent extracti...

Airway serous secretion is essential for the maintenance of mucociliary transport in airway mucosa, which is responsible for the upregulation of mucosal immunity. Although there are many articles concerning the importance of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) in airway immune systems, the direct relationship between TLRs and airway serous secretion has not been well investigated. Here, we focused on wh...

Epidermal keratinocytes (KCs) express antimicrobial peptides as a part of the innate immune response. It has recently been shown that the culture supernatant of Escherichia coli induces the expression of S100A7c (psoriasin) in KCs and that S100A7c efficiently kills E. coli. Here we have investigated which of the microbial components triggers the up-regulation of S100A7c expression. Exposure of ...

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients treated with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Posttransplant immunosuppressive drugs incompletely control GVHD and increase susceptibility to opportunistic infections. In this study, we used flagellin, a TLR5 agonist protein (∼50 kDa) extracted from bacterial flagella, as a novel e...

OBJECTIVES Pseudomonas aeruginosa exoproducts are potent triggers of immune responses in eukaryotic cells. Clarithromycin initially decreases, then increases and finally produces a sustained suppression of interleukin (IL)-8 secretion from normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells through inhibition and activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). This polyphasic immune respo...

Flagellin (mol.wt. 40,000) from S. adelaide organisms and a series of acetoacetyl derivatives of flagellin were tested for their ability to induce humoral and cell-mediated immunity in adult rats. It was found that unmodified flagellin was an excellent inducer of antibody formation but a poor inducer of delayed-type hypersensitivity. In contrast, increasing acetoacetylation steadily destroyed t...

Borrelia burgdorferi isolates obtained from numerous locations and from different hosts in North Carolina, were compared to previously characterized strains of the Lyme disease spirochete and other Borrelia spp. The spirochete isolates were confirmed to be B. burgdorferi sensu stricto based on immunofluorescence (IFA) using a monoclonal antibody to outer surface protein A (Osp A [H5332]) and po...

Flagella are crucial for bacterial motility and pathogenesis. The flagellar capping protein (FliD) regulates filament assembly by chaperoning and sorting flagellin (FliC) proteins after they traverse the hollow filament and exit the growing flagellum tip. In the absence of FliD, flagella are not formed, resulting in impaired motility and infectivity. Here, we report the 2.2 Å resolution X-ray c...