Gammaherpesviruses, including Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), establish latency in B cells. We hypothesized that the KSHV latency-associated nuclear antigen (LANA/orf73) provides a selective advantage to infected B cells by driving proliferation in response to antigen. To test this, we used LANA B-cell transgenic mice. Eight days after immunization with antigen without adjuvant, L...

CD40, a member of the TNF receptor family, is expressed on all mature B cells and on most B-cell lymphomas. Recently, we have shown that constitutive activation of CD40 signaling in B cells induced by a fusion protein consisting of the transmembrane part of the Epstein–Barr viral latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) and the cytoplasmic part of CD40 (LMP1/CD40) drives B-cell lymphoma development in ...

AIM To evaluate alterations of memory B cell subpopulations during a 48-wk period in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) patients. METHODS Forty-one antiretroviral naïve and 41 treated HIV-1 patients matched for age and duration of HIV infection were recruited. All clinical, epidemiological and laboratory data were recorded or measured. The different B cell subsets were characterized ...

Low-level expression of multiple lineage-specific genes is a hallmark of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). HSCs predominantly express genes specific for the myeloid or megakaryocytic-erythroid lineages, whereas the transcription of lymphoid specific genes appears to begin after lymphoid specification. It has been demonstrated for a number of genes that epigenetic priming occurs before gene expre...

INTRODUCTION Bone marrow (BM) is an immunologically privileged site where activated autoantibody-producing B cells may survive for prolonged periods. We investigated the effect of rituximab (anti-CD20 mAb) in peripheral blood (PB) and BM B-cell and T-cell populations in active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. METHODS Active RA patients received rituximab (1,000 mg) on days 1 and 15. PB (n ...

Low-level expression of multiple lineagespecific genes is a hallmark of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). HSCs predominantly express genes specific for the myeloid or megakaryocytic-erythroid lineages, whereas the transcription of lymphoid specific genes appears to begin after lymphoid specification. It has been demonstrated for a number of genes that epigenetic priming occurs before gene expres...

BACKGROUND Circulating lymphocyte subsets reflect the immunological status and might therefore be a prognostic indicator in cancer patients. Our aim was to evaluate the clinical significance of circulating lymphocyte subset in gastric cancer (GC) cases. METHODS A retrospective study on a prevalent cohort of 846 GC patients hospitalized at Hospital from Aug 2006 to Jul 2010 was conducted. We c...

PURPOSE T cells engineered with chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) recognizing CD19 can induce complete remission of B-cell malignancies in clinical trials; however, in some disease settings, CAR therapy confers only modest clinical benefit due to attenuated persistence of CAR T cells. The purpose of this study was to enhance persistence and augment the antitumor activity of adoptively transferre...

The expression levels of the peripheral blood mononuclear cells surface Toll-like receptors (TLR2, TLR4), the quantity of B lymphocyte subgroups, and the number of apoptosis lymphocyte in peripheral blood were detected to investigate their implication in the occurrence and development of ankylosing spondylitis and propose a new system for monitoring patients and therapeutic strategies. We analy...