the aim of the present study was to investigate the possibility of improvingproductive performance and immunity of growing japanese quailreared during summer in egypt by supplementing the diets with organic zinc (bioplex zinc) and prebiotic (mannan oligosaccharides). diets were a basal diet or the basal diet supplemented with 20 mg bioplex zinc (3.0 mg zn) (zn1), 40 mg bioplex zinc (6.0 mg zn) ...

this study was conducted to investigate the effects of different levels of zinc sulfate and chromium picolinate on the performance, immune response and meat quality of japanese quails under heat stress condition. the birds (n = 540; 7-d-old) were randomly assigned to 9 treatment groups consisting of 3 replicates of 20 birds each in a 3 × 3 factorial arrangement of treatments [zinc (0, 40, 80 mg...

BACKGROUND Type II activation of macrophages is known to support Th2 responses development; however, the role of Th2 cytokines (esp. IL-4) on type II activation is unknown. To assess whether the central Th2 cytokine IL-4 can alter type II activation of macrophages, we compared the ability of bone marrow-derived macrophages from wild type (WT) and IL-4Rα-deficient mice to be classically or type ...

Cytokines are important regulators of the immune system, and identifying fish cytokines has potential applications for the development of vaccines and/or immunostimulants application in fisheries. In order to understand the immune-related genes triggered by immunostimulants derived from pathogens, we investigated the effects of agonists (lipopolysaccharide (LPS), Poly I:C, and imiquimod) of thr...

In West Africa, Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, causing human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), is associated with a great diversity of infection outcomes. In addition to patients who can be diagnosed in the early hemolymphatic phase (stage 1) or meningoencephalitic phase (stage 2), a number of individuals can mount long-lasting specific serological responses while the results of microscopic investi...

Features of crescentic glomerulonephritis suggest that it results from a T helper 1 (Th1) nephritogenic immune response. Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), produced by Th1 cells, is involved in T cell-directed macrophage activation in effector Th1 responses. The hypothesis that endogenous IFN-gamma contributes to the development of crescentic glomerulonephritis was tested by comparing the developmen...

Backgrounds: Most of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections elicit poor immune responses and 75% to 85% of cases become chronic therefore, the development of an effective vaccine against HCV is of paramount importance. In this study, we aimed to evaluate co-administration of HCV non-Structural Protein 2 and IL-12 DNA vaccines in C57BL/6 mice. Methods: A plasmid encoding full-length HCV NS2 prot...

Rodriguez-Melendez, Rocio, Gabriela Camporeale, Jacob B. Griffin, and Janos Zempleni. Interleukin-2 receptor-dependent endocytosis depends on biotin in Jurkat cells. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 284: C415–C421, 2003. First published October 16, 2002; 10.1152/ajpcell.00365.2002.— Biotin has been credited with having beneficial effects on immune function despite observations that biotin supplementat...

CD4+ T helper cells play a vital role in the immune system by secreting cytokines, which regulate the immune response. Cytokines are secreted by T cells when an intracellular infection is detected as in case of HIV infection. HIV is known to infect T cells that have CD4+ receptors present on their surface. These cells, among others in the immune system, secrete cytokines. The levels of cytokine...

Interleukin-4 (IL-4) provides support for humoral immune responses through upregulation of T helper (Th) type 2 cell differentiation, but it is not known whether IL-4 promotes antibody-mediated autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Here, we show that the constitutive expression of an IL-4 transgene by B cells completely prevents the development of lethal lupus-like glo...