PURPOSE Studies have shown a strong association of human leukocyte antigens-B51 (HLA-B51) with Behçet's disease (BD). However, little is known about the association of non-HLA genes with BD. The polymorphisms of the Fc receptor-like 3 gene (FCRL3), -169C/T, -110A/G, +358C/G, and +1381A/G, have been reported to be associated with several autoimmune diseases. This study was designed to determine ...

NY-ESO-1 is one of the most immunogenic cancer antigens known to date, inducing humoral and cellular immune responses in a high proportion of patients with advanced NY-ESO-1-expressing cancers. The assessment of spontaneous and vaccine-induced CD8+ T cell responses has been limited to a small number of known NY-ESO-1 epitopes presented by MHC class I alleles. Recently, a new method to monitor N...

Although electrical coupling is present in many microcircuits, the extent to which it will determine neuronal firing patterns and network activity remains poorly understood. This is particularly true when the coupling is present in a population of heterogeneous, or intrinsically distinct, circuit elements. We examine this question in the Aplysia californica feeding motor network in five electri...

Previously, an analog of operant conditioning was developed using the buccal ganglia of Aplysia, the probabilistic occurrences of a specific motor pattern (i.e., pattern I), a contingent reinforcement (i.e., stimulation of the esophageal nerve), and monotonic stimulation of a peripheral nerve (i.e., n.2,3). This analog expressed a key feature of operant conditioning (i.e., selective enhancement...

PURPOSE To examine retrospectively the features of Behçet's disease patients with familial occurrence and make a comparison between familial Behçet's patients with ocular lesions and those without ocular lesions. METHODS We sent questionnaires about Behçet's disease patients with familial occurrence to 114 hospitals that reported treating such patients in previous nationwide hospital surveys,...

Behcet's disease (BD) is a mysterious multisystemic disorder characterized by recurrent involvement of mucocutaneous (including recurrent aphthous stomatitis; RAS), ocular, intestinal, vascular, and/or nervous system organs. Previously, the positivity of "pathergy test", which is one of the diagnostic examinations, was reported to be related to the possession of HLA-B51 gene in BD patients, eve...

STUDY OBJECTIVE Respiratory disturbance caused by ARDS has been reported during administration of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor. The clinical features of such respiratory distress were investigated in this study. DESIGN Retrospective case review. SETTING A 1,100-bed university teaching hospital. PATIENTS Five patients who had dyspnea caused by ARDS develop after chemotherapy or bo...

Organised and chaired by professors M. Zierhut (University of Tubingen, Germany) and S. Ohno (Hokkaido University, Japan) a two-day workshop on "Immunology of Behçet's Disease" was held in Ettal (Bavaria-Germany) on October 12 and 13, 2000. There were about 40 participants, 25 of whom gave formal papers. Even though the main heading was immunology many aspects of BD were discussed including epi...

Operant conditioning is a ubiquitous but mechanistically poorly understood form of associative learning in which an animal learns the consequences of its behavior. Using a single-cell analog of operant conditioning in neuron B51 of Aplysia, we examined second-messenger pathways engaged by activity and reward and how they may provide a biochemical association underlying operant learning. Conditi...