BACKGROUND In 2006, it was reported that Focal and Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), Minimal Change Disease (MCD) and Membranous Glomerulonephritis (MGN) were the commonest primary glomerular diseases identified from percutaneous kidney biopsies done in Jamaica for that year (n = 76). The sample size was thought to be small and might have affected the reported findings. So a three-year revie...

The promise of inducing immunological tolerance through regulatory T cell (Treg) control of effector T cell function is crucial for developing future therapeutic strategies to treat allograft rejection as well as inflammatory autoimmune diseases. In the current study, we used murine allograft rejection as a model to identify microRNA (miRNA) regulation of Treg differentiation from naïve CD4 cel...

Respected President of the Indian Psychiatric Society, Members of the Chair, Members of the Awards Committee, distinguished colleagues and friends, I wish to express my gratitude to the Chairperson and the members of the Awards Committee of the Indian Psychiatric Swiety for having bestowed upon me the honour of delivering the 1996 DLN Murti Rao Oration to this august audience. Prof. D.L.N. Murt...

PURPOSE Amniotic membrane transplantation (AMT) reportedly improves herpetic stromal keratitis (HSK). Here we studied the role of the amniotic membrane (AM) on macrophages. METHODS BALB/c mice with necrotizing HSK received an AMT or tarsorrhaphy (TAR) as control. Apoptosis of F4/80+ cells was determined using the annexinV/7-AAD system. Macrophage invasion was determined using a cornea invasio...

To better understand CD8 memory T cell development, we analyzed the profile of CD8+ cells infiltrating skin as well their circulating counterparts in dLN after same VACV infection at days 2-60, using droplet-based microfluidic system Chromium (10X Genomics) single RNA sequencing platform. Using Leiden algorithm, Ag-specific were clustered and mapped through uniform manifold approximation projec...

BACKGROUND The receptors of Notch family play an important role in controlling the development, differentiation, and function of multiple cell types. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of Notch1 signaling upon immune suppression induced by melanoma cells. METHODS Melanoma cell line B16 cells were transfected by lentivirus containing mouse Notch1 gene or Notch1 shRNA to generate ...

Diisocyanates (dNCOs) are potent chemical allergens utilized in various industries. It has been proposed that skin exposure to dNCOs produces immune sensitization leading to work-related asthma and allergic disease. We examined dNCOs sensitization by using a dermal murine model of toluene diisocyanate (TDI) exposure to characterize the disposition of TDI in the skin, identify the predominant ha...

OBJECTIVE Invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells regulate collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) when activated by their potent glycolipid ligand, alpha-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer). Glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (GPI)-induced arthritis is a closer model of human rheumatoid arthritis based on its association with CD4+ T cells and cytokines such as TNF-α and IL-6 than CIA. Dominant T cell epitope pe...

Introduction: Dust in the Martian atmosphere influences energy deposition, dynamics, and the viability of solar powered exploration vehicles. The Viking, Pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity, Phoenix, and Curiosity landers and rovers each included the ability to image the Sun with a science camera that included a neutral density filter. Direct images of the Sun provide the ability to measure extinct...

We introduce a formal model for geographic social networks, and introduce the notion of rank-based friendship, in which the probability that a person v is a friend of a person u is inversely proportional to the number of people w who live closer to u than v does. We then prove our main theorem, showing that rank-based friendship is a sufficient explanation of the navigability of any geographic ...