In cutaneous T cell lymphomas (CTCL), miR-21 is aberrantly expressed in skin and peripheral blood and displays anti-apoptotic properties in malignant T cells. It is, however, unclear exactly which cells express miR-21 and what mechanisms regulate miR-21. Here, we demonstrate miR-21 expression in situ in both malignant and reactive lymphocytes as well as stromal cells. qRT-PCR analysis of 47 pat...

Chronic inflammation is a major driving force in the development of cancer in many tissues, but the array of factors involved in this neoplastic transformation are not well understood. We have investigated the role of interleukin (IL)-21 in colitis-associated colon cancer (CAC), as this cytokine is overexpressed in the gut mucosa of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC), a chronic inflammatory ...

IL-21 is a key factor in the transition between innate and adaptive immune responses. We have used the cytokine gene therapy approach to study the antitumor responses mediated by IL-21 in the B16F1 melanoma and MethA fibrosarcoma tumor models in mice. Retrovirally transduced tumor cells secreting biologically functional IL-21 have growth patterns in vitro similar to that of control green fluore...

Background: Increased evidences have shown that unexplained recurrent spontaneous abortion (URSA) is associated with inflammatory responses and breakage of immunological autotolerance. Therefore, the balance between Th17 and Treg cells may elucidate the pathophysiology of URSA. Objective: To investigate the serum concentration of regulatory and inflammatory cytokines associated with Treg and Th...

BACKGROUND Decreased hepatitis C virus (HCV) clearance, faster cirrhosis progression and higher HCV RNA levels are associated with Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfection. The CD4+ T helper cytokines interleukin (IL)-21 and IL-17A are associated with virus control and inflammation, respectively, both important in HCV and HIV disease progression. Here, we examined how antigen-specific pro...

Cytokines within the tumor microenvironment play an important role in supporting the growth and survival of B-cell malignancies. One such cytokine, IL-21, promotes the growth of myeloma and Hodgkin lymphoma cells while inducing apoptosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. However, the biologic significance of IL-21 has not been examined in Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM), a B-cell lymphoma cha...

Interleukin-21 (IL-21) is a recently characterized T cell-derived cytokine with a significant homology to IL-2, IL-4 and IL-15. To determine whether IL-21 has broad immunoregulatory activity and can stimulate durable antitumour responses, we constructed mouse IL-21 (mIL-21) recombinant plasmid and evaluated its antitumor efficacy. Mouse IL-21 cDNA was amplified from Con A-activated mouse T cell...

We examined the role of CD4(+) T cell IL-21 production in viral control of HIV infection. HIV-infected individuals had greater circulating IL-21-producing CD4(+) T cells in blood compared with uninfected volunteers. HIV-specific IL-21-producing CD4(+) T cells were detected in blood during untreated acute and chronic HIV infection, and elevated frequencies of these cells correlated with relative...

Interleukin-21 (IL-21), a member of the IL-2 cytokine family, has diverse regulatory effects on natural killer (NK), T, and B cells. In contrast to other cytokines that are usually immunostimulatory, IL-21 can induce apoptosis of murine B cells at specific activation-differentiation stages. This effect may be used for treatment of B-cell malignancies. Herein we report that diffuse large B-cell ...