Adaptive Immune Responses During Pregnancy

Killer Cell Immunoglobulin-Like Receptors Influence the Innate and Adaptive Immune Responses

Natural killer (NK) cells are a subset of lymphocytes which play a crucial role in early innate immune response against infection and tumor transformation. Furthermore, they secrete interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) prompting adaptive immu-nity. NK cells distinguish the unhealthy cells from the healthy ones through an array of cell-surface receptors. Human NK cells use inhibi...

Endocrine Factors Modulating Immune Responses in Pregnancy

How the semi-allogeneic fetus is tolerated by the maternal immune system remains a fascinating phenomenon. Despite extensive research activity in this field, the mechanisms underlying fetal tolerance are still not well understood. However, there are growing evidences that immune-immune interactions as well as immune-endocrine interactions build up a complex network of immune regulation that ens...

Innate Immune Responses during Sepsis

Why do adaptive immune responses cross-react?

Antigen specificity of adaptive immune responses is often in the host's best interests, but with important and as yet unpredictable exceptions. For example, antibodies that bind to multiple flaviviral or malarial species can provide hosts with simultaneous protection against many parasite genotypes. Vaccinology often aims to harness such imprecision, because cross-reactive antibodies might prov...

Adaptive Immune Responses in Primary Cutaneous Sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis is a multisystemic inflammatory disorder with cutaneous lesions present in about one-quarter of the patients. Cutaneous lesions have been classified as specific and nonspecific, depending on the presence of nonnecrotizing epithelial cell granulomas on histologic studies. The development and progression of specific cutaneous sarcoidosis involves a complex interaction between cells of...