background: hepatitis c (hcv) is a worldwide problem without an effective vaccine with more than 170 million chronically infected people worldwide. dna vaccines expressing antigenic portions of the virus with adjutants have recently been developed as a novel vaccination technology. objectives: in the present study, a dna vaccine expressing hcv core protein was developed with il12 as a genetic a...

Flow cytometry-based analysis of lymphocyte division using carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE) dye dilution permits acquisition of data describing cellular proliferation and differentiation. For example, CFSE histogram data enable quantitative insight into cellular turnover rates by applying mathematical models and parameter estimation techniques. Several mathematical models have been ...

transforming growth factor beta (tgf-b) is a mediator released by nearly all cell types. it has suppression activity on the immune system, but exactly how this effect is carried out is not clear. previous experiments showed that igg interacts with or carriers active tgf-b, that could suppresses cytotoxic t-cell responses to an immunogenic tumor in mice. since t cell receptor (tcr) has structura...

backgrounds: most of the hepatitis c virus (hcv) infections elicit poor immune responses and 75% to 85% of cases become chronic therefore, the development of an effective vaccine against hcv is of paramount importance. in this study, we aimed to evaluate co-administration of hcv non-structural protein 2 and il-12 dna vaccines in c57bl/6 mice. methods: a plasmid encoding full-length hcv ns2 prot...

Uterine fluid from unilaterally pregnant ewes contains activity inhibitory to lymphocyte proliferation. The molecules responsible for this activity may thereby regulate uterine immune responses during pregnancy. The purpose of the experiment described here was to identify the major protein in uterine fluid responsible for this activity. When uterine fluid was fractionated by a combination of ca...

Background: Brucella is a well-known intracellular bacterium entailing acute and chronic illnesses in humans and domestic animals. The infection chronicity may be affected by the cell-mediated immunity and cytokine patterns. Objective: To evaluate the patterns of T-helper cytokines in patients suffering from chronic and acute brucellosis. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 22 individuals w...

The proliferation of T-lymphocytes is dependent upon their ability to synthesize and secrete the cytokine, interleukin-2, and to express cell surface receptors for interleukin-2 and transferrin. We have previously reported that certain fatty acids inhibit mitogen-stimulated T-lymphocyte proliferation. We now report that unsaturated fatty acids decrease the concentration of interleukin-2 in the ...

Several laboratory and field studies indicate that organochlorine contaminants (OCs), such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and pesticides, modulate immune responses in rodents, wildlife, and humans. In the present study we examined the effects of OCs on immunity in free-ranging loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta). Mitogen-induced lymphocyte proliferation responses, lysozyme activity, a...

The newly identified cytokine, IL-15 enhanced antigen-induced proliferation of PBMC obtained from HIV-1-seropositive subjects. When compared to IL-2 which enhanced both spontaneous and antigen-induced lymphocyte proliferative responses, IL-15 rarely increased spontaneous lymphocyte proliferation. Additionally, in cultures of lymphocytes obtained from 15 HIV-1-infected patients with < 300 circul...