Autoimmune Blistering diseases such as Bullous Pemphigoid (BP) and Pemphigus Vulgaris (PV) are complex, multifactorial, polygenic diseases, whose exact pathogenesis difficult to pinpoint. Research aimed at elucidating the associated epidemiologic risk factors of these two has been hampered by their rare disease status. Further, a lack centralization standardization available data makes practica...

Glutamic acid decarboxylase isoform 2 (GAD65; EC 4.1.1.15) has been identified as a key target autoantigen of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). IDDM is genetically associated with the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), and particular alleles from the HLA-DQ and HLA-DR loci contribute to disease. Among DR4 subtypes, HLA-DRB1*0401, HLA-DRB1*0402, and HLADRB1*0405 alleles lend susce...

PURPOSE Several previous studies suggested that HLA-Class II may be associated with susceptibility to primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), but data from individual studies remain controversial. Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis is needed to comprehensively evaluate the association between HLA-Class II and PBC risk. METHODS All published reports of an association between HLA class I...

Only a limited number of target molecules have been shown to be recognized by colon tumor-reactive T cells, limiting the options for the development of immunotherapies for patients with colon cancer. The current studies were undertaken in an attempt to generate tumor-reactive T cells that could be used to identify and characterize novel colon tumor-associated antigens. Multiple CD4(+) T-cell cl...

(-) Nicotine, in doses of OG%O~Ol mg/kg given intravenously over 1 min, produced transient behavioral arousal and EEG activation in cats with chronic indwelling brain electrodes. The effects of nicotine were evident when the animals were in natural slow wave (deep) sleep as observed behaviorally and by the EEG with recordings from various cortical and subcortical sites. After nicotine administr...

Species from all major jawed vertebrate taxa possess linked polymorphic class I and II genes located in an MHC. The bony fish are exceptional with class I and II genes located on different linkage groups. Zebrafish (Danio rerio), common carp (Cyprinus carpio), and barbus (Barbus intermedius) represent highly divergent cyprinid genera. The genera Danio and Cyprinus diverged 50 million years ago,...

OBJECTIVE To determine HLA-DQalpha and -DQbeta1 allele associations in juvenile-onset recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP) for risk, disease course, and human papillomavirus type. DESIGN A nonrandomized controlled study was performed on DNA extracted from papilloma specimens of children with a history of RRP, and from peripheral blood of African American and white children without RRP. ...