Asthma is a prevalent inflammatory disorder of the airway, characterized by immune cell infiltration, epithelial barrier defects, mucous hypersecretion, and obstruction of airflow [1]. In allergic asthma, patients are sensitized to inhaled allergens in a Th2-driven process of allergen-specific IgE production. Subsequent exposures to inhaled allergens result in inflammatory mediator release from...

The CD11b (Mol) molecule is a member of a family of surface glycoproteins that are essential for adhesion-dependent granulocyte functions. Brief exposure of granulocytes to human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in vitro increases the surface expression of CD11b and increases granulocyte adhesiveness. To assess the possible in vivo significance of these observations we ...

The clinical potential of cell-based therapies is limited by poor targeting of systemically infused cells to diseased tissues [1]. In our recent study, we have developed a multi-step screening platform to identify small molecules that boost the homing properties of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to sites of inflammation [2]. First, a medium-throughput screen was designed to identify small molecu...

OBJECTIVE To determine if DNA methylation inhibitors make T cells autoreactive by inducing lymphocyte function-associated antigen type 1 (LFA-1) (CD11a/CD18) overexpression. METHODS T cell clones were treated with 3 distinct DNA methylation inhibitors or were stably transfected with a CD18 cDNA in a mammalian expression vector, and the effects on LFA-1 expression and activation requirements w...

Background T cells play a central role in chronic inflammation in asthma. However, the roles of individual subsets of T cells in the pathology of asthma in patients remain to be better understood. Methods We investigated the potential signatures of T cell subset phenotypes in asthma using fresh whole blood from adult atopic asthma patients (n = 43) and non-asthmatic control subjects (n = 22)....