An important area of genetic research is the identification of functional mechanisms in polymorphisms associated with diseases. A highly relevant functional mechanism is the influence of polymorphisms on gene expression levels (differential allelic expression, DAE). The coding single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) CSF2(rs25882) and IL13(rs20541) have been associated with asthma. In this work, ...

PURPOSE IL13-PE38, a targeted cytotoxin comprised of interleukin 13 (IL-13) and a mutated form of Pseudomonas exotoxin, induces specific killing of tumor cells expressing abundant levels of the IL-13Ralpha2 chain. We hypothesized that tumor cells killed by the cytotoxin may release antigens and/or apoptotic bodies when cells are dying, which then induce adoptive immunity, and that the PE38 port...

BACKGROUND IL13-1112C/T and +2044A/G polymorphisms have been reported to be correlated with pediatric asthma susceptibility, but study results were still debatable. Thus, a meta-analysis was conducted. MATERIAL/METHODS PubMed and EMBASE databases were searched. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to calculate the strength of association in the random-effects model ...

Th2 cells and mast cells are major sources of IL4, IL5 and IL13, cytokines that mediate immunity against parasites and are also central players in the pathophysiology of asthma, allergy and atopic disease. We asked whether Th2 cells and mast cells, which belong to the lymphoid and myeloid lineages, respectively, use different cis-acting regulatory regions to transcribe the cytokine genes. Compa...

BACKGROUND Susceptibility to atopy originates from effects of the environment on genes. Birth order has been identified as a risk factor for atopy and evidence for some candidate genes has been accumulated; however no study has yet assessed a birth order-gene interaction. OBJECTIVE To investigate the interaction of IL13 polymorphisms with birth order on allergic sensitization at ages 4, 10 an...

Immediate medical intervention is required after pelvic tumor radiotherapy to protect the radiosensitive intestine and also to mitigate tumor growth. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) have been shown to promote tissue repair processes. Here, we analyzed the effect observed upon combining the TLR2 agonist, peptidoglycan (PGN), with radiation therapy on tumors as well as intestinal tissue, both in vitro...

Recent observations of unexpected ERP responses to grammatically well-formed role-reversed sentences (the "Semantic P600" phenomenon) have been taken to bear directly on questions about the architecture of the language processing system. This paper evaluates two central pieces of evidence for accounts that propose a syntax-independent semantic composition mechanism, namely the presence of P600 ...

Previous behavioural studies in Spanish have found a significant preference for attaching relative clauses preceded by a complex NP (N1 of N2 RC) to the first noun phrase. In the present study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to help identify the nature of these processes by directly comparing ERPs to temporary ambiguous sentences containing relative clauses that were finally consistent...

Animacy is known to play an important role in language processing and production, but debate remains as to how it exerts its effects: 1) through links to syntactic ordering, 2) through inherent differences between animate and inanimate entities in their salience/lexico-semantic accessibility, 3) through links to specific thematic roles. We contrasted these three accounts in two event related po...

In the present study we made use of Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) to examine raising and subject control constructions in German. Our most salient result is that the ERPs elicited at the empty subject position of a raising construction are clearly different from those elicited at the corresponding position of an otherwise identical subject control construction, the former producing a stronger...