balb/c mice are highly susceptible to infection with the protozoan parasite leishmania major. this susceptibility has been attributed in part to the expansion of th2 cells and production of their cytokines, il-4 and il-10 and down-regulation of th1 cytokine, inf-γ. the inability of susceptible hosts to mount the immune response necessary to activate macrophage and destroy the parasites can be d...

conclusions based on our study, in vivo prepared e/sa may be considered as a good candidate for animal immunization. results our results showed that the serum levels of anti-e/sa immunoglobulins significantly increased in all of the immunized groups. the differences of the serum levels of tgf-β between the groups were statistically significant at days 28 and 56 after immunization with e/sa. bac...

Identification of cis-regulatory elements and their binding proteins constitutes an important part of understanding gene function and regulation. It is well accepted that co-expressed genes tend to share transcriptional elements. However, recent findings indicate that co-expression data show poor correlation with co-regulation data even in unicellular yeast. This motivates us to experimentally ...

BACKGROUND: Toxocara canis is the most prevalent intestinal roundworm of canid species. OBJECTIVES: This study aims to evaluate the effects of Toxocara canis excretory-secretory antigens (TcES Ag) on modulating the immune system in Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis (EAE) model. METHODS: Adult worms of T.canis were collected from dogs to obtain excretory-secretory antigens. Female C57BL/6m...

The role of renal ischemia in the pathogenesis of the renal failure produced by hemoglobin injection in the rat is evaluated. The data indicate that in the initial hours of this lesion renal blood flow is consistently reduced and that during its subsequent evolution blood flow rises towards normal levels, in some animals, while inulin clearance remains severely depressed. Volume expansion durin...

Lymphangiectasia (dilation of the lymphatic vessel (LV)) is pathognomonic for lymphatic filariasis. In both infected humans and animal models of infection, lymphangiectasia is not restricted to the site of the worm nest, but is found along the infected vessel. These observations argue that soluble products secreted by the worm could be mediating this effect by activating the lymphatic endotheli...

Streptococcus faecalis strains harboring the conjugative plasmid pAD1 excrete a small peptide, iAD1, which inhibits the sex pheromone cAD1. Studies making use of the host strain Streptococcus faecium 9790, which normally does not excrete peptide pheromones, suggest that iAD1 may be determined directly by pAD1.

Nuclear receptors of the Hepatocyte Nuclear Factor-4 (HNF4) subtype have been linked to a host of developmental and metabolic functions in animals ranging from worms to humans; however, the full spectrum of physiological activities carried out by this nuclear receptor subfamily is far from established. We have found that the Caenorhabditis elegans nuclear receptor NHR-31, a homolog of mammalian...