A woman is riding an elevator when her fellow passengers start to sneeze. As she wonders what sort of sickness the other riders might be spreading, her immune system swings into action. If the bug being dispersed by the contagious sneezers is one the woman has met before, a battalion of trained immune cells—the foot soldiers of the so-called adaptive immune system—will remember the specifi c in...

INTRODUCTION The spectrum of hereditary retinal disease in the dog is well defi ned and closely related to the intensive breeding patterns which are used in some breeds. Many retinopathies are often detected as the result of routine screening in the absence of dramatic clinical features or noticeable disturbance of sight for, while our clients may notice the painful or discoloured eye, few reco...

characterized by both the presence of autoantibodies (either rheumatoid factor or those against citrullinated protein/peptide) and the chronic infi ltration of leukocytes into synovial tissue and fl uid. Th e latter is thought to be driven by interactions between chemokines and their G-protein-coupled receptors. Chemokines are known to play important roles in angiogenesis and lymphoid organizat...

A polipoprotein E (apoE) has effects on lipoprotein metabolism and the vasculature that have long been considered to be anti-atherogenic [1]. In the plasma, apoE is found on the surface of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins, such as very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) and remnant particles. ApoE is also found on high density lipoproteins (HDL) and as such may serve distinct functions depending on ...

Th e hypothesis that type I interferon plays a central role in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has gained growing support in recent years [1-4]. Th e early data from the 1970s demonstrating increased functional interferon activity in lupus patient sera have been confi rmed and extended using current technologies that permit detection of the broad gene expression program i...

uenza in humans is characterized by massive virus replication in respiratory epithelial cells, infl ammation and an abrupt onset. Th e novel infl uenza A (H1N1) 2009 caused an epidemic of critical illness and some patients rapidly developed severe acute respiratory distress syndrome [1,2]. Van Reeth [3] reviewed growing evidence that the so-called early cytokines produced at the site of infecti...

Kobie and colleagues from the University of Rochester provide a detailed analysis of the infl uence of infl am ma-tion and TNF blockade on the humoral immune response to seasonal trivalent infl uenza vaccines [1]. Th eir manuscript sheds light on the role of TNF in B and plasma cell function, and gives a partial answer to the important clinical questions of how to handle vaccinations of patient...

Address to: Dr. José Roberto Lambertucci. Depto Clínica Médica/Serviço de Doenças Infecciosas e Parasitárias/UFMG. Av. Alfredo Balena 190, 30130-100 Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil. Phone: 55 31 3337-7781; Fax: 55 31 3409-9820 e-mail: [email protected] Received 4 January 2014 Accepted 22 January 2014 A 22-year-old man was referred to our clinic with a history of recurrent fever, arthalgia, and swell...

Th17 cells, a recently described subtype of CD4+ eff ector lymphocytes, have been linked to cell-mediated autoimmune and infl ammatory diseases as well as to cardiovascular diseases. However, the participation of IL-17A in myocardial ischemic injury has not been clearly defi ned. We therefore conducted the present study to evaluate IL-17A and Th17-related cytokine levels in a rat model of myoca...

background: rheumatoid arthritis (ra) is the most prevalent chronic infl ammatory disease of the joints. it is correlated with periodontal disease due to similar factors that exist in both diseases. the present study assessed the relationship of periodontal disease with ra and juvenile idiopathic arthritis (jia). materials and methods: in this case-control study, 30 ra and 30 jia patients along...