Recognition of conserved features of infectious agents by innate pathogen receptors plays an important role in initiating the adaptive immune response. We have investigated early changes occurring among T cells after injection of TLR agonists into mice. Widespread, transient phenotypic activation of both naive and memory T cells was observed rapidly after injection of molecules acting through T...

Aquifex aeolicus alphabeta-LeuRS is the only known heterodimeric LeuRS, while Escherichia coli LeuRS is a canonical monomeric enzyme. By using the genes encoding A. aeolicus and E. coli LeuRS as PCR templates, the genes encoding the alpha and beta subunits from A. aeolicus alphabeta-LeuRS and the equivalent amino- and carboxy-terminal parts of E. coli LeuRS (identified as alpha' and beta') were...

The kinetics of CD8 T cell IFN-gamma responses as they occur in situ are defined here during lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) infections, and a unique mechanism for the innate cytokines IFN-alphabeta and IL-18 in promoting these responses is defined. Infections of mice with Armstrong or WE strains of LCMV induced an unexpectedly early day 4 IFN-gamma response detectable in serum sample...

Rhodobacter capsulatus xanthine dehydrogenase (XDH) forms an (alphabeta)2 heterotetramer and is highly homologous to homodimeric eukaryotic XDHs. The crystal structures of bovine XDH and R. capsulatus XDH showed that the two proteins have highly similar folds. We have developed an efficient system for the recombinant expression of R. capsulatus XDH in Escherichia coli. The recombinant protein s...

Signal-transducing adaptor protein-2 (STAP-2) is a recently identified adaptor protein that contains pleckstrin and Src homology 2-like domains as well as a YXXQ motif in its C-terminal region. Our previous studies have demonstrated that STAP-2 binds to STAT3 and STAT5, and regulates their signaling pathways. In the present study, STAP-2 was found to positively regulate LPS/TLR4-mediated signal...

OBJECTIVE Microorganisms such as streptococcus and autoantigens such as 60 kD heat-shock protein (HSP60) are implicated in the etiopathogenesis of Behçet's disease (BD). METHODS Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with BD (n = 16) and healthy controls (HC) (n = 11) were cultured for 5 days with extracts of S. sanguis-KTH-1 (SS), E. coli (EC) and a mixed peptide combination from h...

Interferon (IFN)-gamma is necessary for tumor immunity, however, its initial cellular source is unknown. Because gammadelta T cells primarily produce this cytokine upon activation, we hypothesized that they would provide an important early source of IFN-gamma in tumor immunosurveillance. To address this hypothesis, we first demonstrated that gammadelta T cell-deficient mice had a significantly ...

Juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM), the most common pediatric inflammatory myopathy, is a systemic vasculopathy affecting young children. Epidemiology studies documenting an antecedent illness in the 3 mo before the first definite symptom (rash and/or weakness) of JDM are supported by immunologic data that suggest that the disease pathophysiology is Ag driven. The purpose of this study was to compa...

We examined TCR usage to a protective fragment of heat shock protein 60 from the fungus, Histoplasma capsulatum. Nearly 90% of T cell clones from C57BL/6 mice vaccinated with this protein were Vbeta6+; the remainder were Vbeta14+. Amino acid motifs of the CDR3 region from Vbeta6+ cells were predominantly IxGGG, IGG, or SxxGG, whereas it was uniformly SFSGG for Vbeta14+ clones. Short term T cell...