OBJECTIVE Fatigue is a common problem among cancer patients and survivors, yet the mechanisms underlying the occurrence and persistence of this symptom are not known. Activation of the immune system may evoke feelings of fatigue, which are mediated by proinflammatory cytokines. We examined whether fatigued breast cancer survivors would show elevations in proinflammatory cytokines and markers of...

BACKGROUND Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) has proven its success against HIV-1, the long lifespan of infected cells and viral latency prevent eradication. In this study we analyzed the sensitivity to ART of HIV-1 strains in naïve, central memory and effector memory CD4+ lymphocyte subsets. METHODS From five patients cellular HIV-1 infection levels were quantified before and after initi...

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) is an effective treatment option for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS), but its therapeutic mechanism of action has not been fully elucidated. A better understanding of its mechanism will allow for the development of assays to monitor its clinical efficacy and safety in patients, as well as guide the development of the next generation of therapies for MS. In or...

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection is characterized by a depletion of the CD4+ T-lymphocytes. Absolute counts of CD3+CD4+ cells have been used in monitoring the progression of this disease and in assessing clinical trials of drugs developed to treat HIV infection and related complications [6,10]. In 1993, the definition of AIDS was revised to include HIV-infected persons whose CD4+ Tl...

Cell adhesion molecules play a critical role in lymphocyte migration and homing. They convey tissue-specific homing properties to lymphocyte subsets and regulate the positioning of these subsets in the body. In a patient with pagetoid reticulosis, a rare form of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma characterized by extreme epitheliotropism, we examined the expression of adhesion molecules. The neoplastic ...

The aim of this study was to investigate the T lymphocyte subsets involved in experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU) by quantifying the numbers of cells expressing mRNA for each of the lymphokines interferon gamma, interleukin 2, interleukin 4, and lymphotoxin throughout the disease process. Lewis rats were immunised with retinal S-antigen to provide a model of inflammatory eye disease. In...

This unit describes protocols for the generation of polyclonal T(H)1 and T(H)2 cell lines from naive CD4(+) T cells as well as for generation of antigen-specific cell lines from TCR-transgenic mice and antigen-specific T cell clones from primed mice. Also described are methods for the preparation and maintenance of alloreactive murine helper T (T(H)) lymphocyte and cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) ...