KEY POINTS Skeletal muscle size and strength decline in older age. The vastus lateralis, a large thigh muscle, undergoes extensive neuromuscular remodelling in healthy ageing, as characterized by a loss of motor neurons, enlargement of surviving motor units and instability of neuromuscular junction transmission. The loss of motor axons and changes to motor unit potential transmission precede a ...

A 46-year-old man with untreated type 2 diabetes visited our hospital. His plasma glucose and HbA 1c levels were 429 mg/dL and 11.5%, respectively. He had no renal dysfunction. Insulin therapy (18 units aspart and 22 units biphasic insulin aspart 30/70) was initiated, and the HbA 1c level improved (5.7–6.4%). One year later, he started experiencing frequent hypoglycemic attacks , which persiste...

levels fall to lower steady-state values that vary in differA great deal of progress has been made in understandent individuals and that are predictive of the rate of ing the molecular biology of HIV-1 replication (see redisease progression (Mellors et al., 1996). In untreated views by Cullen [1998], Chan and Kim [1998], and Littasymptomatic patients, the plasma HIV-1 RNA levels man [1998] in t...

The innate and the adaptive immune systems work in concert to deal with pathologies introduced by internal and external factors (e.g., viruses, bacteria, and fungi) – some of which may be associated with the development of autoimmune and cancerous cells. Mechanistically, there are internal factors that are responsible for the hypo-and hyperfunction of immune tolerance apparatus. Consequently, i...

T he secondary neuroinflammatory response has attracted increasing attention in experimental stroke research. 1 Analyses of immunologic mechanisms after acute stroke have been performed in the hope of identifying key pathomecha-nisms that contribute to secondary infarct growth and can be modulated to benefit a large proportion of patients with stroke. Among a variety of pathophysiologic mechani...

Memory T-cells respond to previously encountered antigens more rapidly and vigorously than their naive counterparts. They are divided into three subsets: central memory, effector memory, and tissue-resident memory T-cells. They are somewhat resistant to immunosuppressive treatments and are generally believed to be a threat to transplant survival. However, mounting evidence has demonstrated that...

In July 1917, when German forces first used mustard gas (sulfur mustard) as a chemical warfare agent against British troops in Ypres, Belgium, no one would have predicted that any good would come of it. The first hint came in 1919, when E.B. and H.D. Krumbhaar reported that victims of mustard gas poisoning had low white blood cell counts and atrophy of the bone marrow and lymphatic tissues. The...

T rained in research by some of the giants of immunology, Laurie Glimcher is herself a major force in that fi eld. Most of her career has fo-cused on understanding how different subsets of immune cells develop and are regulated (1). However, Glimcher is known in cell biology circles for her discovery of XBP-1 (2), a transcription factor that turned out to be important in lipogenesis (3) and in ...

T he number of people with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in Canada is increasing. In 1999, 142 individuals per million population were receiving renal replacement therapy, which is an increase from 83 per million population in 1990. 1 The leading cause of ESRD is diabetes (30%) followed by renal vascular disease, including hypertension (20%). Over the past decade, the number of older Canadians...

Autoimmune diseases are generally increasing in the United States and many other countries, for poorly understood reasons, affecting tens of millions of people. 1 Environmental factors are among the suspects behind these diseases, because genetic factors alone can't explain the significant rise in recent decades of diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Crohn disease, systemic lupus erythematosus...