OBJECTIVE The concept of disease activity in Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO) might explain why as many as one-third of patients do not respond to immunosuppressive treatment, because only patients in the active stage of disease are expected to respond. The hypothesis was adopted that a parameter used to measure disease activity should be able to predict a response to immunosuppressive treatment. Th...

Cytokines play diverse and critical roles in innate and acquired immunity, and several function within the central nervous system and in peripheral tissues to modulate energy metabolism. The extent to which changes in energy balance impact the expression and circulating levels of cytokines (many of which have pleiotropic functions) has not been systematically examined. To investigate metabolism...

OBJECTIVES The immunologic status of kidney allograft recipients affects transplant outcome. High levels of pretransplant serum soluble CD30 correlate with an increased risk of acute rejection. Studies show conflicting results. We evaluated the relation between pretransplant serum sCD30 levels with the risk of posttransplant acute kidney rejection in renal transplant recipients. MATERIALS AND...

OBJECTIVE To assess circulating immunoregulatory cytokines and soluble surface markers of T and B cell activation in the plasma of patients with Wegener's granulomatosis (WG), Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS) and microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) during active and inactive disease, in order to establish their value in discriminating between disease entities and as markers of disease activity. METHOD...

BACKGROUND Immunotoxins (ITs) consist of cell binding ligands coupled to toxins or their subunits. Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) is an excellent target for ITs since lymphocyte activation markers such as CD25 and CD30 are expressed in large numbers. The ITs RFT5.dgA (anti CD25) and Ki-4.dgA (anti CD30) were constructed by linking the monoclonal antibodies RFT5 and Ki-4 to deglycosylated ricin A-chain...

Behçet's disease (BD) is a multi-systemic inflammatory disorder consisting of recurrent oral aphthosis, genital ulcers, and chronic relapsing bilateral uveitis; however, many other organs may be affected. Several pro-inflammatory cytokines, mainly derived from Th1 and Th17 lymphocytes, seem to be involved in different pathogenic pathways leading to development of the clinical manifestations. On...