Human monocytes purified by elutriation were cultured for 3 d in Teflon bags with or without human recombinant interferongamma (rIFN'y). The cells were then collected and used in suspension to determine the rate of stimulus-dependent superoxide or hydrogen peroxide formation as a measure of the NADPH-oxidase. The treatment with IFN7 increased this rate twoto threefold when phorbol myristate ace...

Adoptive transfer of antigen-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) holds significant promise in treating cancer and Th1 response cytokines are critical for their stimulation. Recently we reported that interleukin 7-(IL-7) and interferongamma-(IFNγ) autocrine/T cell gene delivery resulted in superior ex vivo CTL stimulation over paracrine/DC delivery. IL-12 is yet another important Th1 cytokine...

PURPOSE To examine the CD40 costimulatory molecule expression on normal resting or activated adult human retinal pigment epithelium (hRPE) cells and to evaluate its role as an activation molecule considering the potential antigen presentation functions of hRPE cells. METHODS Expression of HLA-DR and costimulatory (CD40, B7.1, B7.2, CD54, and CD58) molecules on hRPE cells was analyzed by flow ...

Glucocorticoids and interleukin 10 (IL-10) prevent macrophage activation. In murine lymphocytes, glucocorticoids induce expression of glucocorticoid-induced leucine zipper (GILZ), which prevents the nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB)-mediated activation of transcription. We investigated whether GILZ could account for the deactivation of macrophages by glucocorticoids and IL-10. We found that GIL...

In theory, immunodiagnosis should be able to discriminate between latent and acute TB, because the immunopathoogic nature of the disease means there must be significant differences in either the type and/or magnitude of immune response that develop. But so far we have not been able to pinpoint them. Our investigations of immune responses after infection suggest that in a substantial number of f...

Background: Bacterial and cellular genotyping is becoming increasingly important in the diagnosis of infectious diseases. However, difficulties in obtaining sufficient amount of bacterial and cellular DNA extracted from the same human biopsy specimens is often a limiting factor. In this study, total DNA (host and bacterial DNA) was isolated from minute amounts of gastric biopsy specimens and am...

F erritin is a key protein in iron metabolism. Its involvement in iron detoxification and iron storage is known, but recently, a new role in the pathogenesis of different autoimmune and autoinflammatory syndromes was hypothesized [1]. Four immune mediated conditions sharing the feature of marked hyperferritinemia have been gathered under the single term “Hyperferritinemic Syndromes” [1]. Such s...

Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) utilizing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells rendered specific for CD19 have demonstrated significant anti-tumor effects in patients with CD19+ chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In spite of the clinical promise of ACT in achieving complete responses, their efficacy remains unpredictable and new approaches are needed to address a priori define the therapeutic p...

Aerosol therapy is a vital component in the treatment of children with asthma, and inhaled -agonists are the firstline therapy for bronchospasm in acute asthma. In the emergency department, bronchodilators are commonly administered to children via small-volume jet nebulizer (SVN) or large-volume jet nebulizer (LVN). SVNs have been widely used in hospitals and emergency departments for more than...

Sirs, Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most common systemic vasculitis in individuals over the age of 50 years in Western countries (1, 2). GCA is a polygenic disease and different genes may influence the phenotype and the outcome of this condition (3). Inflammatory cytokines, such as interferongamma (IFN-γ), play a role in the pathogenesis of GCA (4). A CA repeat polymorphism in the first int...