Spred-1 moderates eosinophil activation normally mediated by IL-5, according to a study by Inoue et al. on page 73. Mice lacking Spred-1 have overly exuberant eosinophils and develop exaggerated allergic responses to inhaled antigens. Allergies and asthma are characterized by invasion of the airways by T cells and eosinophils. A subset of CD4 T cells, known as Th2 cells, produce an array of cyt...

Cell counts of leukocytes subpopulations are demonstrating to have an important value in predicting outcome in severe infections. We evaluated here the render of leukogram counts to predict outcome in patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) caused by Staphylococcus aureus. Data from patients admitted to the ICU of Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valladolid from 2006 to 2011 with d...

Adipose tissue (AT) inflammation during obesity is mediated by immune cells and closely correlates with systemic insulin resistance. In lean AT, eosinophils are present in low but significant numbers and capable of promoting alternative macrophage activation in an IL-4/IL-13-dependent manner. In WT mice, obesity causes the proportion of AT eosinophils to decline, concomitant with inflammation a...

I read with interest the demonstration by Volbeda et al that clinical asthma control associates significantly with ‘lower activated eosinophil numbers in the bronchial wall, yet only weakly with sputum eosinophils’. I was particularly intrigued by the online supplemental information: ‘EPX staining showed widely spread distribution of eosinophilic granules, not necessarily in close proximity to ...

The eosinophil granulocyte is an inflammatory cell involved in allergic diseases such as asthma and rhinitis. Eosinophil cationic protein (ECP) is a basic and potentially cytotoxic granule protein that is released from the eosinophil upon activation. The aim was to study secretion of molecular variants of ECP from blood eosinophils with the hypothesis that the stored noncytotoxic ECP is altered...

Staphylococcus aureus, a major human pathogen, exacerbates allergic disorders, including atopic dermatitis, nasal polyps and asthma, which are characterized by tissue eosinophilia. Eosinophils, via their destructive granule contents, can cause significant tissue damage, resulting in inflammation and further recruitment of inflammatory cells. We hypothesised that the relationship between S. aure...

Digestive tract damage during graft-versus-host reaction (GVHR) causes high morbidity and mortality. Diagnosis is often late because biopsies are performed when clinical signs are severe and pathologic markers of early inflammatory lesions are lacking. Eosinophils are inflammatory cells, cytotoxic in vitro to digestive epithelium; they are found in biopsy specimens taken during acute flare-ups ...

BACKGROUND We have previously demonstrated the clinical efficacy of montelukast in a randomized double-blind controlled cross-over trial in patients with dyspepsia in association with duodenal eosinophilia. The mechanism of this clinical response is unknown but could involve a decrease in eosinophil density or activation. METHODS Twenty-four dyspeptic patients 8-17 years of age underwent init...

Schistosoma mansoni infection induces in their hosts a marked and sustained eosinophilia, which is influenced or modulated by complex mechanisms, that vary according to the phase of infection. To address this phenomenon, we used the air pouch (AP) model in control and infected Swiss webster mice, analyzing the cellular, tissue response and local expression of adhesion molecules [CD18 (beta(2)-c...

Disparate reports exist on the eosinophil chemotactic capacity of interleukin-8 (IL-8). We hypothesized that the difference is due to the methods used to purify eosinophils. We therefore compared the eosinophilotactic capacity of IL-8 on human cells isolated by Percoll (positive selection) vs. magnetic cell separation system (MACS) (negative selection). Discontinuous Percoll gradients were prec...