The urotensin II (UII)/UII receptor (UT) system is closely related to immune inflammation. In acute liver failure (ALF), the UII/UT system can promote the production and release of proinflammatory cytokines, inducing an inflammatory injury response in liver tissue. However, the mechanism by which the hepatic UII/UT system promotes proinflammatory cytokine production and release is not clear. To...

The complement fragment-3a (C3a) acts via a G protein-coupled C3aR and is of importance in allergic and inflammatory diseases. Recent studies suggest the presence of complement proteins in the epidermal compartment and synthesis of some of these proteins (C3, factor B, and factor H) by human primary keratinocytes (KCs) during inflammation. However, expression of C3aR and its role in human KCs i...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether an association between keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) and meibomian gland lipids exists in patients with chronic blepharitis. METHODS Meibomian gland lipids were collected from normal patients and those with chronic blepharitis. Some of the chronic blepharitis patients had an ocular surface abnormality with apparent aqueous deficiency similar to KCS. Lipids we...

PURPOSE To compare the clinical presentation of 231 patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) with 89 patients with aqueous-deficient dry eye (keratoconjunctivitis sicca; KCS), to determine those procedures that best differentiate these groups in the eye care clinic. METHODS The records of all patients seen at the University Health Network Sjögren's Syndrome Clinic from October 1992 to J...

Abstract Background Health utilities and health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) have not been adequately examined in patients with basal squamous cell carcinomas (or keratinocyte skin cancers KCs) repeatedly treated for multiple who require ongoing medical surveillance. Objectives Our aim was to assess whether health HRQoL an Australian population‐based sample recently KCs were poorer compared ...

Introduction Liver injury commonly appears in a zonated fashion within the liver acinus. Thus many hepatotoxins primarily damage the perivenous (centrilobular, PV) region [1]. It is now well established that Kupffer cells (KCs) play a crucial role as initiators and mediators of the inflammatory process in the liver through the release of inflammatory and immunomodulatory mediators. However, the...

Recent studies, using unbiased sampling of neuronal activity in vivo, indicate the existence of sparse codes in the brain. These codes are characterized by highly specific, associative (i.e., dependent on combinations of features) and often invariant neuronal responses. Sparse representations present many advantages for memory storage and are, thus, of wide interest in sensory physiology. Here,...

The immune system surveys the skin for keratinocytes (KCs) infected by viruses or with acquired genetic damage. The mechanism by which T cells mediate KC elimination is however undefined. In this study we show that antigen-specific CD8 T cells can eliminate antigen-bearing KCs in vivo and inhibit their clonogenic potential in vitro, independently of the effector molecules perforin and Fas-ligan...

In insect brains, the mushroom bodies (MBs, a higher center) comprise intrinsic neurons, termed Kenyon cells (KCs). We previously showed that the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) MBs comprise four types of KCs, in addition to the previously known three types of KCs: class I large-type KCs (lKCs), class I small-type KCs (sKCs) and class II KCs, novel class I 'middle-type' KCs (mKCs), which are chara...

Tagging educational content with knowledge components (KC) is key to providing useable reports to teachers and for use by assessment algorithms to determine knowledge component mastery. With many systems using fine-grained KC models that range from dozens to hundreds of KCs, the task of tagging new content with KCs can be a laborious and time consuming one. This can often result in content bein...