A hidden cost of migration? Innate immune function versus antioxidant defense

A hidden cost of migration? Innate immune function versus antioxidant defense

Migration is energetically demanding and physiologically challenging. Migrating birds, for example, need to boost their antioxidant defenses to defeat the pro-oxidants produced during high energetic activity. The enhanced antioxidant defense possibly withdraws limited resources (e.g., energy or micronutrients) from other physiological functions, such as immune defense. Such a trade-off might no...

Airway epithelial versus immune cell Stat1 function for innate defense against respiratory viral infection.

The epithelial surface is often proposed to actively participate in host defense, but evidence that this is the case remains circumstantial. Similarly, respiratory paramyxoviral infections are a leading cause of serious respiratory disease, but the basis for host defense against severe illness is uncertain. Here we use a common mouse paramyxovirus (Sendai virus) to show that a prominent early e...

Nod2 and the Innate Immune Defense

Innate Immune Pathways in Host Defense

The innate immune system is a critical component of host defense against invading microbial pathogens. It is responsible for mounting proper inflammatory and repair responses that contribute to the elimination of the invading pathogen and for instructing the adaptive immune system to develop a prolonged immunity against microbial pathogens. This is accomplished through the regulation of transcr...

Significance of zinc in innate immune defense against Streptococcus pyogenes.

When we think about trace elements and bacterial virulence, iron is usually the first metal that comes up. Zinc, although often forgotten, is the second most abundant trace element, after iron, in humans. Plasma concentrations of zinc range between 12 and 16 μM, and practically all zinc is bound to albumin or other proteins [1]. Zinc is found at low levels on mucosal surfaces; in sputum and bro...