Metallothionein (MT) is a cysteine-rich protein that binds to and is inducible by heavy metals such as cadmium and zinc. However, the precise mechanism of MT induction by other metals remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated the mechanism of MT induction by manganese, focusing on the involvement of cytokine production. Administration of MnCl(2) to mice resulted in the induction of...

In atopic dermatitis (AD), skin infiltrating leukocytes are mainly Type 2 lymphocytes that produce IL-4 and IL-13, thus AD is classified as a disease; however, in the actual inflammation, 1 3 cells, well lymphocytes, intermingle inflamed lesions. Here, using mouse model of which caspase-1 was specifically amplified under keratin 14 induction, we analyzed sequential changes 1, 2, inflammatory cy...

Elevated mucosal interleukin-1 (IL-1) levels are frequently seen during acute and chronic intestinal inflammation, and IL-1 neutralization lessens the severity of inflammation. One major effect of IL-1 is the increased release of eicosanoid mediators via induction of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). One site of COX-2-derived prostaglandin synthesis during acute and chronic intestinal inflammation is t...

Costimulation (signal 2) has been proposed to inhibit the induction of T cell clonal anergy by either directly antagonizing negative signals arising from TCR engagement (signal 1) or by synergizing with signal 1 to produce IL-2, which in turn leads to proliferation and dilution of negative regulatory factors. To better define the cellular events that lead to the induction of anergy, we used the...

Interleukin-7 (IL-7) is an important survival factor for T cells. We report here for the first time that it has another important role, facilitating T-cell clonal unresponsiveness, or anergy. The anergy was induced by a 20-day coculture of activated-human CD4(+) T-cell clones with IL-7 and irradiated peripheral blood mononuclear cells without antigenic stimuli. T-cell survival, but not T-cell a...

Interleukin 10 (IL-10) is released during the induction phase of contact sensitivity and was shown in prior functional studies to convert epidermal Langerhans cells (LC) from potent inducers of primary immune responses to specifically tolerizing cells in vitro. To investigate whether IL-10 also subserves the function of a tolerizing agent in vivo ears of BALB/c or C3H mice were injected intrade...

We investigated the role of T cell cytotoxicity inducing factor 1 (TCF1) in the induction of a cytotoxic T cell response. We found that help-deficient thymocyte cultures supplied with saturating amounts of purified IL 2 did not develop CTL in a 5-day culture. The expression of cytotoxicity was dependent on the addition of TCF1 derived from the T cell hybridoma K15. TCF1 also induced proliferati...

Links between immune responses to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), age and atopic sensitisation are poorly understood. This study investigated the induction of target organ type-1, type-2 and proinflammatory cytokine responses to RSV and/or phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) in tonsillar mononuclear cells from children, in relation to age and atopic status. In comparison with the control medium, RSV i...

Nuclear factor-90 (NF-90) has been described as a regulatory subunit of a complex containing DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK), Ku, and NF-45, which are capable of binding the interleukin-2 (IL-2) enhancer region and stimulating IL-2 gene expression. Vaccinia virus (VV) infection of Jurkat cells induced a nuclear factor that bound specifically to the IL-2 promoter sequence and led to the ex...