the importance of the role played by bacteria in the pathogenesis of pulpal and apical disease has been established. one of the characteristics of apical periodontitis is apical bone resorption, which is due to apical immune response to bacterial infection. recently, novel bacterial complex lipid called phosphorylated dihydroceramides has been discovered to be of inflammatory activators. the ba...

background and purpose: chronic granulomatous disease (cgd) is an inherited disorder of the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (nadph) oxidase complex. this disorder results in recurrent life-threatening bacterial and fungal infections. aspergillus species are the most common fungal infections in these patients. case report: herein, we present a case of fungal infection in a girl with ...

The impact of the gut microbiota on immune homeostasis within the gut and, importantly, also at systemic sites has gained tremendous research interest over the last few years. The intestinal microbiota is an integral component of a fascinating ecosystem that interacts with and benefits its host on several complex levels to achieve a mutualistic relationship. Host-microbial homeostasis involves ...

Since the rise of modern pharmaceuti­ cal research and industry in the 1950s, drugs have been used to treat an increasingly wide range of diseases. From antibiotics for treating infections, to anti­ virals to treat HIV/AIDS, to drugs for hyper­ tension and cancer, drug­based therapies have had enormous effects in curing or con­ verting often fatal diseases into manageable conditions. Even patho...

MHC class II tetramers have emerged as an important tool for characterization of the specificity and phenotype of CD4 T cell immune responses, useful in a large variety of disease and vaccine studies. Issues of specific T cell frequency, biodistribution, and avidity, coupled with the large genetic diversity of potential class II restriction elements, require targeted experimental design. Transl...

We report that immune complexes of IgM (ICIgM) antibodies and ovalbumin in the form of a precipitate from the equivalence zone induce the generation of reactive oxygen species by rabbit blood polymorphonuclear leucocytes (PMN), as measured by the chemiluminescence (CL) production in the presence of luminol. The kinetics of CL generation induced by ICIgM is quite different from that induced by p...

Affinity (KR) of antibody to human serum transferrin in New Zealand mice was measured by a globulin precipitation technique. KR was low in mice immunized early in life, increased with age of immunization up to 16-26 weeks, and then fell to low levels. KR in young and old NZB mice was increased by immunization with antigen in Freund's complete adjuvant. The correlation between low affinity antib...

BACKGROUND It is now emerging that for vaccines against a range of diseases including influenza, malaria and HIV, the induction of a humoral response is insufficient and a substantial complementary cell-mediated immune response is necessary for adequate protection. Furthermore, for some diseases such as tuberculosis, a cellular response seems to be the sole effector mechanism required for prote...

We describe a simple test for direct or indrect detection of antineutrophil antibodies. Sensitized leukocytes adherent to glass slides and fixed with paraformaldehyde can be stored in buffer for at least 3 wk. Killed Cowan I staphylococci, containing protein A, bind to sensitized but not control cells, and binding is ascertainable by light microscopy. Indirect tests were positive for 39/41 pati...