Specific Induction of Double Negative B Cells During Protective and Pathogenic Immune Responses

Trachoma: Protective and Pathogenic Ocular Immune Responses to Chlamydia trachomatis

Trachoma, caused by Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct), is the leading infectious blinding disease worldwide. Chronic conjunctival inflammation develops in childhood and leads to eyelid scarring and blindness in adulthood. The immune response to Ct provides only partial protection against re-infection, which can be frequent. Moreover, the immune response is central to the development of scarring pathol...

Mitogenic Activation of B Cells Results in Specific Immune Responses

We have suggested before that thymus-independent immune responses to certain antigens are caused by special properties of the antigens concerned, namely that they are B-cell mitogens (1). Actually all thymus-independent antigens (TI) 1 we have tested so far were found to be competent to activate DNA and polyclonal antibody synthesis in nonprimed B cells cultured in vitro (2). Since the TI antig...

Cell-Mediated Immune Responses and Nonprotective Anticryptococcal Dendritic Cells in the Induction of Protective

Dendritic cells in the induction of protective and nonprotective anticryptococcal cell-mediated immune responses.

Dendritic cells (DC) can be divided into three subsets, Langerhans cells, myeloid DC (MDC), and lymphoid DC (LDC), based upon phenotypic and functional differences. We hypothesized that different DC subsets are associated with the development of protective vs nonprotective cell-mediated immune (CMI) responses against the fungal pathogen, Cryptococcus neoformans. To test this, mice were immunize...

B cells enhance early innate immune responses during bacterial sepsis

Microbes activate pattern recognition receptors to initiate adaptive immunity. T cells affect early innate inflammatory responses to viral infection, but both activation and suppression have been demonstrated. We identify a novel role for B cells in the early innate immune response during bacterial sepsis. We demonstrate that Rag1(-/-) mice display deficient early inflammatory responses and red...