As a consequence of the proinflammatory environment occurring in dialytic patients, cytokine overproduction has been implicated in hemodialysis co-morbidity. However, there are discrepancies among the various studies that have analyzed TNF-alpha synthesis and the presence of peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) priming in this clinical setting. We measured bioactive cytokine by the L929 cel...

Disease-specific over-expression of 9-O-acetylated sialoglycoconjugates (9-O-AcSGs) on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL, PBMC(ALL)) has been demonstrated using a lectin, Achatinin-H, with specificity towards 9-O-AcSAalpha2-6GalNAc. This study investigated the contributory role of 9-O-AcSGs induced on PBMC(ALL). Stimulation of PBMC(ALL...

INTRODUCTION Joint fluid in patients with Lyme arthritis often contains high levels of CCL4 and CCL2, which are chemoattractants for monocytes and some T cells, and CXCL9 and CXCL10, which are chemoattractants for CD4+ and CD8+ T effector cells. These chemokines are produced primarily by cells of monocyte lineage in TH1-type immune responses. Our goal was to begin to learn how infection with Bo...

CD8(+)CD60(+) T cells (80-98% CD45RO(+); 20% CD23(+)) are significantly increased in the blood of serum IgE(+) ragweed-sensitized (RS) compared with serum IgE-nonatopic humans (p = 0.001). CD8(+)CD60(+) T cells of the RS patients produced IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, IL-12, IFN-alpha. and IFN-gamma, but not IL-6 or IL-13. When their PBMC were cultured with ragweed Ag (RA), peak IgE responses occurred on ...

Apocynin is widely used as an inhibitor of the NADPH oxidase. Since myeloperoxidase (MPO) has been considered as essential for the mechanism of action of apocynin, here we used cells with different levels of MPO and compared their sensitivity to apocynin. HL-60 cells were differentiated with DMSO or IFN γ /TNF α and compared with peripheral mononuclear (PBMC) and polymorphonuclear cells (PMN). ...

UNLABELLED Infected peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) effectively transport equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1), but not EHV-4, to endothelial cells (EC) lining the blood vessels of the pregnant uterus or central nervous system, a process that can result in abortion or myeloencephalopathy. We examined, using a dynamic in vitro model, the differences between EHV-1 and EHV-4 infection of PB...

BACKGROUND Superantigens are among the most potent T-cell mitogens known. Since T-cell activation and T-cell-derived cytokines play a role in the immune response associated with intravesical Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) application, this study was initiated to explore the fundamental aspects of a potential new immunomodulatory therapy for superficial bladder cancer. Since Superantigen-induced...

The adult liver is an organ without constitutive lymphoid components. Therefore, any intrahepatic T cell found in chronic hepatitis should have migrated to the liver after infection and inflammation. Because of the little information available on the differences between intrahepatic and peripheral T cells, we used recombinant proteins of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) to establish specific T cell ...

It is known that CD28, a positive costimulatory receptor, plays a very important role in inducing the optimal stimulation of T lymphocytes. CTLA-4 (CD152), however, acts as a negative regulator in T lymphocyte activation. The effect of an feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection on the expression of feline CD28 and CTLA-4 was studied with FIV-infected and uninfected peripheral blood mononu...

BACKGROUND Occult hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is characterised by the presence of HCV-RNA in the liver in the absence of anti-HCV, and serum viral RNA. Up to 70% of these patients also have HCV-RNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) but it is not known if HCV is replicating in these cells. AIM We studied possible HCV replication in PBMC of 18 patients with an occult HCV infect...