BACKGROUND Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been associated with an increased risk of infections, but the underlying pathways have not yet been identified. Toll-like receptors (TLR) probably play a role in synovial inflammation and may also contribute to the understanding of the role of infections in RA. OBJECTIVES To investigate if the synovial expression of TLR3 and TLR7 in RA correlates with ...

The introgression lines (ILs) from cv. M82 (Solanum lycopersicum) × LA0716 (S. pennellii) have been proven to be exceptionally useful for genetic analysis and gene cloning. The introgressions were originally defined by RFLP markers at their development. The objectives of this study are to develop polymorphic SSR markers, and to re-define the DNA introgression from LA0716 in the ILs. Tomato sequ...

Immunological tolerance between fetal allograft and mother is crucial for pregnancy establishment and maintenance; however, these mechanisms particularly those during the latter part of pregnancy have not been definitively elucidated. The aim of this study was to examine the presence and potential function of innate immunity characteristic to the middle to late pregnancy. We first characterized...

The immune response activatesB cells to produce antibody and T cells to mediate cytotoxicity or produce cytokines. An important division in the development of T cells is their tendency to develop into subpopulations producing either TH1 or TH2 cytokines. The TH1 cytokines include interferon g, tumour necrosis factor b (TNFb) and interleukin 2 (IL-2), while the cytokines which best characterize ...

IL-12 and IL-18 are immunomodulatory cytokines that play important roles in host immune response against cancers. Variation in DNA sequence in gene promoter may lead to altered IL-18 production and/or activity, and hence can modulate an individual's susceptibility to BC. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the relationship of IL-18 gene promoter -137 G/C and -607C/A polymorphisms and IL12 ...

Legionella pneumophila is the causative agent of Legionnaires' disease, a potentially fatal lung infection. Alveolar macrophages support intracellular replication of L. pneumophila, however the contributions of other immune cell types to bacterial killing during infection are unclear. Here, we used recently described methods to characterise the major inflammatory cells in lung after acute respi...

Synbiotics are synergistic combinations of prebiotics and probiotics. In chickens, synbiotics can be delivered in ovo to expedite colonization of the gut by beneficial bacteria. We therefore aimed to design synbiotics in vitro and validate them in broiler chickens upon in ovo delivery. The probiotic components of the synbiotics were Lactobacillus salivarius and Lactobacillus plantarum. Their gr...