allergic rhinitis  (ar) is  an  inflammatory  disorder  of  the  nasal  mucosa  with  high morbidity and prevalence. natural killer (nk) cells might have a role in ar. we aimed to evaluate the changes of the markers and receptors on nk cells in ar patients compared to the non-atopic controls. flow  cytometric  analysis was  used  with  double  staining  of  the  peripheral  blood mononuclear ce...

Thymus-derived regulatory T lymphocytes of CD4(+)CD25(+) phenotype regulate a large variety of beneficial and deleterious immune responses and can inhibit lethal graft-versus-host disease in rodents. In vitro, CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells require specific major histocompatibility complex (MHC)/peptide ligands for their activation, but once activated they act in an antigen-nonspecific manner. In vivo, ...

The studies presented in this dissertation examine how the T cell receptor (TCR) specificity of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T (Treg) cells affects their function in a mouse model of autoimmune arthritis. TS1xHACII mice co-express CD4+ T cells that express the transgenic 6.5 TCR, which is specific for the S1 determinant of influenza virus PR8 hemagglutinin (HA), and HA as a neo-self antigen under the M...

Evidences are accumulating that CD4⁺ T cells can physiologically mediate antigen specific target cell lysis. By circumventing major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-restrictions through an engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), CD4⁺ T cells lyse defined target cells as efficiently as do CD8⁺ T cells. However, the cytolytic capacity of redirected CD4⁺CD25- T cells, in comparison with CD4⁺CD...

PURPOSE Regulatory CD4+ T cells (T regs) arise in the spleens of mice with anterior chamber-associated immune deviation (ACAID), an eye-derived tolerance evoked by injection of antigen into the ocular anterior chamber (AC). The current study was conducted to investigate the possibility that these T regs express CD25 and are derived from natural CD4+CD25+ T cells. METHODS Naïve T cells from DO...

It is now generally accepted that CD4+CD25+ Treg cells play a major role in the prevention of autoimmunity and pathological immune responses. Their involvement in the pathogenesis of chronic arthritis is controversial, however, and so we examined their role in experimental antigen-induced arthritis in mice. Depletion of CD25-expressing cells in immunized animals before arthritis induction led t...

Elimination of CD25+ T cells, which constitute 5-10% of peripheral CD4+ T cells in normal naive mice, leads to spontaneous development of various autoimmune diseases. These immunoregulatory CD25+CD4+ T cells are naturally unresponsive (anergic) in vitro to TCR stimulation, and, upon stimulation, suppress proliferation of CD25-CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells. The antigen concentration required for...

PURPOSE Numerous immune-based strategies are currently being evaluated for cancer therapy in preclinical models and clinical trials. Whereas many strategies look promising in preclinical models, they are often evaluated before or shortly following tumor implantation. The elimination of well-established tumors often proves elusive. Here we show that a multimodal immune-based therapy can be succe...

CD25(+)4(+) regulatory T cells (T(reg)) play an indispensable role in preventing autoimmunity. Little is known, however, about the antigen specificities required for their development and effector functions. Mice transgenic for an anti-myelin basic protein (MBP) T cell antigen receptor (TCR) spontaneously develop experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) when deficient for the RAG-1 gene ...

Abstract Maternal Tdap vaccination during pregnancy is recommended to protect infants from pertussis, pre-vaccination. However, it unclear whether maternal immune responses improve following booster. We present analysis of pre- and post-Tdap booster, pregnant women (Pw) primed by whole cell vaccines, who received booster pregnancy, compared boosted non-pregnant (NPw). antigen specific serum ant...