BACKGROUND Atopic dermatitis (AD) is characterized by defective skin barrier and imbalance in T helper 1/T helper 2 (Th1/Th2) cytokine expression. Filaggrin (FLG) is the key protein to maintaining skin barrier function. Recent studies indicated that Th1/Th2 cytokines influence FLG expression in keratinocytes. However, the role of Th1/Th2 cytokines on FLG processing is not substantially document...

Chronic helminth infections are known to be associated with modulation of Ag-specific CD4(+) T responses. However, the role of CD4(+) T cell responses in human infection with Strongyloides stercoralis is not well defined. To examine the role of CD4(+) T cells expressing Th1, Th2, and Th17 cytokines in strongyloidiasis, we compared the frequency (Fo) of these subsets in infected (INF) individual...

BACKGROUND Agaricus blazei Murill (AbM) is an edible Brazilian mushroom that has been used in traditional medicine for a range of diseases. It has been shown to have anti-infection and anti-tumor properties in the mouse, which are due to induction of Th1 responses. On the other hand, IgE-mediated allergy is induced by a Th2 response. OBJECTIVE Since according to the Th1/Th2 paradigm an increa...

The effects of spermine (SPM) on the production of Th1 and Th2 cytokines using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) derived from cedar pollinosis subjects were investigated. Th2 cytokines produced by PBMCs stimulated by 10 microM SPM was significantly lower than that in the controls. These findings indicate that blood SPM is an important factor in the Th1/Th2 balance.

The recruitment of T cells into the skin is regulated by chemokines released by resident cells. In this study, we found that normal human keratinocytes activated with Th1-derived supernatant (sup) expressed early (6-12 h) IP-10/CXCL10, MCP-1/CCL2, IL-8/CXCL8, and I-309/CCL1 mRNAs and with slower kinetics (24-96 h), RANTES/CCL5 and MDC/CCL22 mRNAs. Upon stimulation with the Th1 sup, keratinocyte...

The liver is the major site of clearance and degradation of foreign antigens from the portal circulation. Despite the presence of hepatic accessory cells, antibody responses to orally administered antigens are uncommon. To ascertain if hepatic accessory cells are incapable of stimulating specific subsets of T lymphocytes, freshly isolated hepatic nonparenchymal and splenic cells were cultured w...

Eosinophilic inflammation in combination with immunoglobulin E (IgE) production is a characteristic feature of atopic dermatitis. Although activated T-helper type (Th) 2 cells play critical roles in the local accumulation and activation of eosinophils, whether they induce eosinophilic skin inflammation, independent of the IgE-mediated pathway has been unclear. To address the functional role of ...

Emerging evidence suggests that the peripheral immune system has an active role in the progression of Parkinson's disease (PD). The finding of T‑helper (Th; CD4+) cells infiltrating into the substantia nigra in PD patients demonstrated that Th cells are involved in PD. However, the association between peripheral T‑helper cell sub‑sets (Th1, Th2, Treg and Th17) and the sub‑set balance (Th1/Th2 a...

Our previous in vivo studies show that both the amount of Ag and the number of available naive CD4 T cells affect the Th1/Th2 phenotype of the effector CD4 T cells generated. We examined how the number of OVA-specific CD4 TCR transgenic T cells affects the Th1/Th2 phenotype of anti-SRBC CD4 T cells generated in vivo upon immunization with different amounts of OVA-SRBC. Our observations show tha...

The preferential association of some chemokine receptors with human Th1 or Th2 cells has recently been reported. In this study, the expression of CCR3, CCR5, CXCR3, and CXCR4 were analyzed by flow cytometry in three distinct in vitro models of Th1/Th2 polarization, activated naive and memory T cells, and T-cell clones, in which the intracellular synthesis of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) and int...