The hallmark of HIV-1 disease is the gradual disappearance of CD4+ T cells from the blood. The mechanism of this depletion, however, is still unclear. Evidence suggests that lymphocytes die in lymph nodes, not in blood, and that uninfected bystander cells are the predominant cells dying. Our and others' previous studies showed that the lymph node homing receptor, CD62 ligand (CD62L), and Fas ar...

Homing endonucleases (HEs) promote the evolutionary persistence of selfish DNA elements by catalyzing element lateral transfer into new host organisms. The high site specificity of this lateral transfer reaction, termed homing, reflects both the length (14-40 bp) and the limited tolerance of target or homing sites for base pair changes. In order to better understand molecular determinants of ho...

Hematopoietic reconstitution of ablated recipients requires that intravenously (IV) transplanted stem and progenitor cells "home" to organs that support their proliferation and differentiation. To examine the possible relationship between homing properties and subsequent engraftment potential, murine bone marrow (BM) cells were labeled with fluorescent PKH26 dye and injected into lethally irrad...

Homing-based gene drives use a germline source of nuclease to copy themselves at specific target sites in genome and bias their inheritance. Such can be designed spread deliberately suppress populations malaria mosquitoes by impairing female fertility. However, strong unintended fitness costs the drive propensity generate resistant mutations limit drive’s potential spread. Alternative regulator...

The literature often suggests that proprioceptive and especially vestibular cues are required for navigation and spatial orientation tasks involving rotations of the observer. To test this notion, we conducted a set of experiments in virtual environments in which only visual cues were provided. Participants had to execute turns, reproduce distances, or perform triangle completion tasks. Most ex...

Knowledge about the nature of lymphocytes infiltrating atopic dermatitis skin is restricted to allergen-specific T cells. We investigated the proliferative capacities of T lymphocytes cultured in an antigen-independent way from biopsies of atopic dermatitis skin. When compared with peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy donors or atopic dermatitis patients, the skin-homing lymph...

Macrophage infiltration into the subendothelial space at lesion prone sites is the primary event in atherogenesis. Inhibition of macrophage homing might therefore prevent atherosclerosis. Since HDL levels are inversely correlated with cardiovascular risk, their effect on macrophage homing was assessed in apoE-deficient (apoE-/-) mice. Overexpression of human apolipoprotein AI in apoE-/- mice in...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Poor homing efficiency is one of the major limitations of current stem cell therapy. Magnetic bionanoparticles (MPs) obtained from Magnetospirillum sp. AMB-1 have a lipid bilayer membrane and ferromagnetic properties. We evaluated a novel priming strategy using MPs to enhance the homing of transplanted progenitor cells to target tissue. MATERIALS AND METHODS Effects ...

Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are recruited to ischemic regions and improve neovascularization. Integrins contribute to EPC homing. High-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) is a nuclear protein that is released extracellularly on cell necrosis and tissue damage, eliciting a proinflammatory response and stimulating tissue repair. In the present study, we investigated the effects of HMGB1 on EPC h...