PROBLEM Several pregnancy complications have disparities based on the sex of the fetus. It is unknown whether the sex of the fetus differentially alters the maternal immune milieu, potentially contributing to the observed differences. METHOD OF STUDY Using maternal plasma collected during 38 uncomplicated pregnancies (19 males, 19 females), we compared levels of cytokines, sex hormones, and a...

IL-27 was originally thought to play a pro-inflammatory role in immunity, however it is now clear that IL-27 also exerts potent anti-inflammatory effects. Here, we discuss some of the key studies that have elucidated the diverse and apparently paradoxical roles of IL-27. While IL-27 can promote early Th1 development there is evidence of suppressive effects in later phases of Th1 responses. IL-2...

This study aimed to investigate the influence of acute (a single 15 min) and chronic (15 min daily for 21 days) exposure to forced swim (FS) test on nerve growth factor (NGF)/c-Fos cells in hypothalamic paraventricular (PV) and supraoptic (SO) nuclei, the central (CeA) and medial (MeA) amygdaloid nuclei and CA3-hippocampus in juvenile (P28) and aged (P360) rats. The double-immunofluorescence (-...

An elusive goal of cellular immune vaccines is the generation of large numbers of antigen-specific T cells in response to subunit immunization. A broad spectrum of cytokines and cell-surface costimulatory molecules are known to shape the programming, magnitude, and repertoire of T cells responding to vaccination. We show here that the majority of innate immune receptor agonist-based vaccine adj...

IL-27 is a recently defined family member of the long-chain four-helix bundle cytokines, which consists of EBI3, an IL-12p40-related protein, and p28, an IL-12p35-related polypeptide. The role of IL-27 in the regulation of inflammatory autoimmune diseases has never been studied. The current study uses the DNA vaccination technology, and highly specific Abs to the p28 subunit of IL-27 that were ...

The satellite tobacco necrosis virus RNA is uncapped and requires a 3' translational enhancer domain (TED) for translation. Both in the wheat germ extract and in tobacco, TED stimulates in cis translation of heterologous, uncapped RNAs. In this study we investigated to what extent translation stimulation by TED depends on binding to wheat germ factors. We show that in vitro TED binds at least s...