Cancer stem cells (CSCs) sustain tumor growth through their ability to self-renew and to generate differentiated progeny. These functions endow CSCs with the potential to initiate secondary tumors bearing characteristics similar to those of the parent. Recently the hair follicle stem cell marker CD34 was used to purify a CSC-like cell population from early skin tumors arising from treatment wit...

INTRODUCTION IL-10-producing B cells, Foxp3-expressing T cells (Tregs) and the IDO-expressing dendritic cells (pDC) are able to modulate inflammatory processes, to induce immunological tolerance and, in turn, to inhibit the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease. The aim of the study was to characterize and to enumerate peripheral IL-10--producing B cells, Tregs and pDCregs in primary Sjögren's Syn...

Motivated by the benefits, people have used a variety of webbased services to share health information (HI) online. Among these services, Facebook, which enjoys the largest population of active subscribers, has become a common place for sharing various types of HI. At the same time, Facebook was shown to be vulnerable to various attacks, resulting in unintended information disclosure, privacy i...

Although the roles of dendritic cells (DCs) in adaptive defense have been defined well, the contribution of DCs to T cell-independent innate defense and subsequent neuroimmunopathology in immune-privileged CNS upon infection with neurotropic viruses has not been completely defined. Notably, DC roles in regulating innate CD11b(+)Ly-6C(hi) monocyte functions during neuroinflammation have not yet ...

Objective: To evaluate the comparative diagnostic value of harmonic imaging (HI) in the assessment of patients with suspected infective endocarditis (IE). Setting: Tertiary referral centre. Design: 139 consecutive patients were evaluated with three imaging modalities: transthoracic echocardiography with fundamental imaging (FI); HI; and transoesophageal echocardiography (TOE). Image quality was...