BACKGROUND Leprosy is characterized by polar clinical, histologic and immunological presentations. Previous immunologic studies of leprosy polarity were limited by the repertoire of cytokines known at the time. METHODOLOGY We used a candidate gene approach to measure mRNA levels in skin biopsies from leprosy lesions. mRNA from 24 chemokines and cytokines, and 6 immune cell type markers were m...

CC chemokine ligand 18 (CCL18) was originally discovered as pulmonary and activation-regulated chemokine (PARC), dendritic cell (DC)-chemokine 1 (DC-CK1), alternative macrophage activation-associated CC chemokine-1 (AMAC-1), and macrophage inflammatory protein-4 (MIP-4). CCL18 primarily targets lymphocytes and immature DC, although its agonistic receptor remains unknown so far. CCL18 is mainly ...

A CC chemokine, CCL18, has been previously reported to stimulate collagen production in pulmonary fibroblasts. This study focused on the role of protein kinase C (PKC) in the profibrotic signaling activated by CCL18 in pulmonary fibroblasts. Of the three PKC isoforms that are predominantly expressed in fibroblasts (PKC , PKC , and PKC ), two isoforms (PKC and PKC ) have been implicated in profi...

Gaucher disease is characterized by storage of glucosylceramide in lysosomes of tissue macrophages as the result of an autosomal recessively inherited deficiency in glucocerebrosidase. Progressive accumulation of these glycolipid-laden Gaucher cells causes a variety of debilitating symptoms. The disease can be effectively treated by costly intravenous infusions with recombinant glucocerebrosida...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the nonchemotactic function of CCL18 on human dendritic cells (DCs). In different protocols of DC differentiation, CCL18 was highly produced, suggesting that it may constitute a mandatory mediator of the differentiation process. Differentiation of monocytes from healthy subjects in the presence of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and CCL18 l...

Cytokines play an important role in ischemic injury and repair. However, little is known about their prognostic value in cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic importance of chemokines CCL3/MIP-1α, CCL5/RANTES and CCL18/PARC for the risk of future cardiovascular events in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Baseline levels of CCL3/MIP-1α, CCL5/...

IgG4-RD, IgG4-related disease; IL-2, interleukin-2. Figure 1 Serum CC-chemokine ligand 18 (CCL18) levels were elevated and correlated with disease activity in IgG4-RD. Serum CCL18 levels (A); correlation between serum CCL18 levels and disease activity (B) and allergic condition (C); correlation between serum CCL18 levels and atopic history (D); and longitudinal analysis of serum CCL18 levels af...

RATIONALE Recently, models of macrophage activation have been revised. Macrophages stimulated with Th2 cytokines have been classified as alternatively activated. OBJECTIVES This article examines the expression and regulation of CC chemokine ligand 18 (CCL18), a marker of alternative activation, by human alveolar macrophages (AMs). METHODS AM were obtained from bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) f...

BACKGROUND In this study, we further investigated the association of two biomarkers, CCL18 and A1AT, with bladder cancer (BCa) and evaluated the influence of potentially confounding factors in an experimental model. METHODS In a cohort of 308 subjects (102 with BCa), urinary concentrations of CCL18 and A1AT were assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In an experimental model, ...

A growing body of laboratory research has shown that pro-inflammatory cytokines can facilitate tumor growth and metastasis. Our goal was to quantify the expression of CCL18 and IL-6 in patients with breast cancer compared with benign breast tumors patients and healthy women, in order to evaluate if these cytokines could serve for breast cancer diagnosis and evaluation. We also correlated the cy...