Liver is an exclusive anatomical and immunological organ that displays a considerable tolerance effect. Liver allograft acceptance is shown to occur spontaneously within different species. Although in human transplant patients tolerance is rarely seen, the severity level and cellular mechanisms of transplant rejection vary. Non-paranchymal liver cells, including Kupffer cells, liver sinusoidal ...

Immunological tolerance can be defined as an unresponsiveness of T and/or B cells to self antigens. Low responsiveness of T cells and/or B cells to self antigens could be termed partial tolerance. Protection from the development of autoimmune diseases and acceptance of transplanted organs or tissue are due to effective tolerance to self antigens and alloantigens, respectively. The breakdown of ...

Although several tolerance induction protocols have been successfully implemented in adult renal transplantation, no tolerance induction approach has, as yet, been defined for solid organ transplantations in young infants. Pediatric transplant recipients have a pressing demand for the elaboration of tolerance induction regimens. Indeed, since they display a longer survival time, they are expose...

CD40 is recognized as a member of tumor necrosis factor receptor super family. It is expressed by the immune and non-immune cells. Its interaction with CD40 ligand (CD154) brings about a regulatory effect on the cellular and humoral immunity. The pathway of CD40-CD154 is influential in various diseases. Investigations on such diseases have revealed dimensional mechanisms whereby this route inte...

Food allergy results from failure in oral tolerance that usually occurs in infancy or early childhood. Exposure to peanut and hen's egg via the inflamed and disrupted epithelial barrier in children with severe atopic dermatitis is a risk factor for the development of allergy to these foods and supports the hypothesis that epicutaneous exposure in the absence of oral feeding is an important path...

The thymic medulla plays a key role in negative selection (self-tolerance induction) and contains differentiated T cells en route to the extrathymic environment. However, being relatively mature, medullary T cells are thought to be beyond the stage of tolerance induction. This paradox is resolved by the finding that medullary T cells (CD4+8- thymocytes) comprise two distinct subsets. Medullary ...

Under certain instances, factor VIII (FVIII) stimulates an immune response, and the resulting neutralizing antibodies present a significant clinical challenge. Immunotherapies to re-establish or induce long-term tolerance would be beneficial, and an in-depth knowledge of mechanisms involved in tolerance induction is essential to develop immune-modulating strategies. We have developed a murine m...