<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Epicutaneous (e.c.) allergen exposure is an important route of sensitization toward allergic diseases in the atopic march. Allergen sources such as house dust mites contain proteases that involve pathogenesis allergy. Prostanoids produced via pathways downstream cyclooxygenases (COXs) regulate immune responses. Here, we demonstrate effects COX...

Aquaporin-9 (AQP9), a water/glycerol channel protein, is expressed in several immune cells including neutrophils; however, its role in immune response remains unknown. Here we show the involvement of AQP9 in hapten-induced contact hypersensitivity (CHS), as a murine model of skin allergic contact dermatitis, using AQP9 knockout (AQP9(-/-)) mice. First, the CHS response to hapten dinitrofluorobe...

The interaction between matricellular proteins such as tenascin-C (TN-C) and osteopontin (OPN) and integrins has been implicated in the pathology of rheumatoid arthritis in which Th17 cells are recognized as primary pathogenic cells. The differentiation of Th17 cells is tightly regulated by cytokines derived from APCs, receiving various signals including TLR stimuli. In this study, we used a co...

Malaria infection begins when a female Anopheles mosquito injects Plasmodium sporozoites into the skin of its host during blood feeding. Skin-deposited sporozoites may enter the bloodstream and infect the liver, reside and develop in the skin, or migrate to the draining lymph nodes (DLNs). Importantly, the DLN is where protective CD8(+) T cell responses against malaria liver stages are induced ...

Dendritic cells (DCs) are important for initiating immune responses, in part through their ability to acquire and shuttle antigen to the draining lymph node (DLN). The mobilization of DCs to the DLN is complex and remains to be fully elucidated during infection. Herein described is the use of an innovative, simple assay that relies on the fluorochrome 5- and 6-carboxyfluorescein diacetate succi...

Abstract Herpes Simplex Virus 2 (HSV-2) is the primary cause of genital herpes, affecting 500 million people worldwide which approximately 64% are women. Despite this disproportionately high burden, female reproductive tract and its unique mucosal immune environment surprisingly understudied. Tregs necessary for CD4 +T cell priming in draining lymph node (dLN), though their role shaping tissue-...

This report evaluates the role of interaction between glucocorticoid-induced tumor necrosis factor receptor (GITR) and GITR ligand (GITR-L) in the immuno-inflammatory response to infection with herpes simplex virus (HSV). Both GITR and GITR-L were transiently upregulated after ocular HSV infection, on antigen-specific T cells and antigen-presenting cells, respectively, in the draining lymph nod...

So far, studies of Leishmania persistence in mice have used injections of parasites administered either intravenously in the tail vein or subcutaneously in the footpad. These routes poorly reflect the natural conditions when the sandfly delivers metacyclic promastigotes intradermally. In this study B10D2 and BALB/c mice were inoculated within the ear dermis with 10(4) Leishmania major metacycli...

Murine CD11c CD8 – and CD11c CD8 dendritic cells (DCs) differentially regulate T cell responses. Although specific chemokines that recruit immature (i) or mature (m) CD8 – DCs have been identified, little is known about the influence of chemokines on CD8 DCs. iDCs and mDCs isolated from spleens of fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand-treated B10 mice were compared directly for migratory responses ...