To survive in host cells, intracellular pathogens or symbiotic bacteria require protective mechanisms to overcome the oxidative stress generated by phagocytic activities of the host. By genomic library tagging, we cloned a dps (stands for DNA-binding protein from starved cells) gene of the symbiotic "Candidatus Legionella jeonii" organism (called the X bacterium) (dps(X)) that grows in Amoeba p...

Phagocytosis of opsonized sheep red blood cells (SRBC) by alveolar macrophages (AM) was measured in rats fasted for 1 to 9 days or fed on diets restricted 20 to 95% compared to control group for 2 and 8 weeks. In rats fasted for 1 to 6 days, AM showed an increased phagocytosis at 2 days after fasting, but their phagocytic activity remarkably decreased afterwards. Furthermore, phagocytic activit...

Many findings point to the presence of a close relationship between the immune, endocrine and neurologic systems. For example the suppressive effects of β-human chorionic gonadotropin (β-HCG) on IL-l production, the potentiative effect of enkephalins on lymphocyte functions and the suppressive effect of leuteinizing hormone (LH) on natural killer (NK) cell activities have been clearly esta...

BACKGROUND An excessive leucocyte activation takes place early in severe acute pancreatitis. Furthermore, some indirect evidences suggest a disturbance of the mononuclear phagocytic system in the severe cases. AIMS To compare the early functionalism of leucocytes obtained from patients with mild disease and severe disease, under the hypothesis that an impaired phagocytic function could be ass...

Sepsis predisposes the host to a number of infectious sequelae, particularly the development of nosocomial pneumonia. Mechanisms by which sepsis results in impairment of lung antibacterial host defense have not been well defined. Alveolar macrophages (AM) represent important immune effector cells of the lung airspace. In this study, we examined the effects of cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) o...

Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) and monocytes from 20 patients with acute bacterial infections were examined for phagocytic function. PMN of patients expressed markedly enhanced phagocytosis as measured by the ingestion of erythrocyte (E)IgG and IgG/C3b-coated E. Phagocytosis of E coated with C3b alone was not seen, while low levels of ingestion of iC3b-E by patients' PMNs was noted. Monocyt...

PURPOSE To isolate and characterize stem cells from human trabecular meshwork (TM) and to investigate the potential of these stem cells to differentiate into TM cells. METHODS Human trabecular meshwork stem cells (TMSCs) were isolated as side population cells by fluorescence-activated cell sorting or isolated by clonal cultures. Passaged TMSCs were compared with primary TM cells by immunostai...