Background: Despite advances toward an improved understanding of the evasive mechanisms leading to the establishment of cystic echinococcosis, the discovery of specific immunosuppressive mechanisms and related factors are of great interest in the development of an immunotherapeutic approach. Objective: To elucidate immunosuppressive effects of bioactive factors contained in chromatographic frac...

Impaired glucose tolerance, assessed by a raised glycated haemoglobin (HbA1) concentration, was found in 24 (39%) out of 61 patients with cystic fibrosis with an age range of 1-23 years. No correlation between age and HbA1 concentration was found indicating that factors other than progressive pancreatic fibrosis may be important in the aetiology. HLA typing, islet cell antibodies, and autoantib...

BACKGROUND Arthritis is a well recognised complication of cystic fibrosis. The cause of this arthritis is not yet clear but it is likely to be an immunological reaction to one of the many bacterial antigens to which the lungs are exposed. One such group, the heat shock proteins, (hsp), was investigated. These are immunodominant antigens of a wide variety of infectious microorganisms and have va...

During a ten-year study period, we evaluated 100 histologically-proven sarcoid patients for the development of aspergillomas. Serum precipitins against Aspergillus antigens were used to screen all patients regardless of sarcoid stage. Twelve patients had serum precipitins and were further investigated with tomography and serial serum precipitins testing. Ten of these 12 patients had aspergillom...

Serum IgG antibodies to Pseudomonas aeruginosa cell surface antigens were determined by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. Titres in patients without cystic fibrosis were low (140-235). Those in patients with cystic fibrosis who were chronically infected by P. aeruginosa were very high (1100-20,500), while patients who grew the organism intermittently had lower titres (160-4400). Longitudinal s...

A 56-year-old Japanese woman underwent partial hepatectomy for intrahepatic cystic masses. Before operation, the patient had been diagnosed as liver abscess due to Ascaris infection serologically. The excised hepatic lesions consisted of encapsulated old abscesses, with a few calcified parasitic ova and numerous Charcot-Leiden's crystals microscopically seen in necrotic exudate. However, no par...

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a cosmopolitan zoonosis caused by the larval cystic stage of the dog tapeworm Echinococcus granulosus. This complex multicellular pathogen produces various antigens which modulate the host immune response and promote parasite survival and development. The recent application of modern molecular and immunological approaches has revealed novel insights on the nature o...

Biliary obstruction by viscid mucus, although important, may not be the only factor for the development of liver disease in some patients with cystic fibrosis. In the present study the relationship between immune responses to liver antigens and the presence of liver damage was investigated using the leucocyte migration test and lymphocyte cytotoxicity to isolated rabbit hepatocytes. Inhibition ...

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to investigate HLA-DRB1*and DQB1* allelic polymorphisms in Iranian patients with hydatidose. This is the first survey dealing with the correlation between HLA-DRB1* and DQB1* alleles and cystic echinococcosis in Iranian patients. METHODS The study was carried out on 56 patients with confirmed cystic echinococcosis and 30 apparently healthy individual...