Mice lacking functional IL-7 or IL-7R alpha genes are severely deficient in developing thymocytes, T cells, and B cells. IL-7 and IL-7 receptor functions are believed to result in lymphoid cell proliferation and cell maturation, implying signal transduction pathways directly involved in mitogenesis and elaboration of developmentally specific new gene programs. Here, we show that enforced expres...

INTRODUCTIION: Interlukin-7 (IL-7) is expressed in osteoarthritis fibroblast-like synoviocytes (hTERT-OA 13A FLS) 8 fold higher than that in rheumatoid FLS (hTERT-RA 516 FLS) (1). Major histocompatibility complex class II protein DP alpha 1 (HLA-DPA1) is also highly expressed in hTERT-OA 13A FLS. Recently, it has been found that IL-7 and its receptor IL-7R are expressed in OA articular chondroc...

The interleukin-7 (IL-7) signaling pathway plays an essential role in the development, proliferation and homeostasis of T and B cells in cell-mediated immunity. Understimulation and overstimulation of the IL-7 signaling pathway leads to severe combined immunodeficiency, autoimmune reactions, heart disease and cancers. Stimulation of the IL-7 pathway begins with IL-7 binding to its alpha-recepto...

Allelic exclusion prevents pre-B cells from generating more than one functional H chain, thereby ensuring the formation of a unique pre-BCR. The signaling processes underlying allelic exclusion are not clearly understood. IL-7R-dependent signals have been clearly shown to regulate the accessibility of the Ig H chain locus. More recent work has suggested that pre-BCR-dependent attenuation of IL-...

IL-7 is a key homeostatic cytokine that provides signals for T cell survival and proliferation in vivo. In this article, we provide evidence that IL-7 utilization is enhanced by a novel mechanism of cytokine "recycling" during which T cells treated with rIL-7 are rapidly induced to express p-STAT5 and are subsequently able to recycle biologically active cytokine for release to neighboring cells...

Effector CD8 T cells are believed to be terminally differentiated cells having cytotoxic activity and the ability to produce effector cytokines such as INFand TNF. We investigated the difference between CXCR1 and CXCR1 subsets of human effector CD27 CD28 CD8 T cells. The subsets expressed cytolytic molecules similarly and exerted substantial cytolytic activity, whereas only the CXCR1 subset had...

In vivo analyses of thymopoiesis in mice defective in signaling through Kit and gammac or Kit and IL-7Ralpha demonstrate synergy and partial complementation of gammac or IL-7-mediated signaling by the Kit signaling pathway. Our molecular analysis in T-lymphoid cells as well as in nonhematopoietic cells shows that Kit and IL-7R signaling pathways directly interact. KL-mediated activation of Kit ...

Two types of T cells, alphabeta and gammadelta, develop in vertebrates. How these two T cell lineages arise from a common thymic T progenitor is poorly understood. Differentiation of alphabeta lineage T cells requires the surrogate alpha chain (pTalpha), which associates with the T cell receptor (TCR) beta chain to form the pre-TCR. gammadelta lineage development does not appear to involve an o...

BACKGROUND Interleukin (IL)-7 levels are increased in patients with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-associated lymphopenia; however, the effects of this on IL-7 receptor (IL-7R) expression, disease progression, and immune reconstitution remain unclear. METHODS Plasma IL-7 levels were measured, by enzyme-linked immunoassay, in patients with primary, chronic, or long-term nonprogres...

We examined the effects of curcumin and of its isoxazole analogue MR 39 in the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line and in its multidrug-resistant (MDR) variant MCF-7R. In comparison with MCF-7, MCF-7R lacks estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) and overexpressess P-glycoprotein (P-gp), different IAPs (inhibitory of apoptosis proteins) and COX-2. Through analyses of the effects on cell proliferation, cycl...