AIM To evaluate the effectiveness of metronidazole in combination with corticosteroids in enema and mesalazine (5-aminosalicylic acid) in comparison with the same protocol without metronidazole in the treatment of chronic radiation proctitis. METHODS Sixty patients with rectal bleeding and diarrhea were randomly divided into two groups. Patients in the first group were treated with metronidaz...

The synthetic unmethylated oligodeoxynucleotides with CpG motifs (CpG ODN) were shown to activate Toll-like receptor 21 (TLR21) and stimulate the innate and adaptive immune system. In this study we tested the expression of TLR21, interferon (IFN)-γ and interleukin (IL)-1β mRNA in the blood after subcutaneous and intraocular application of the class B CpG ODN in chicken. The relative expression ...

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of oral administration of escin on acute inflammation and intestinal mucosal injury in animal models. The effects of escin on carrageenan-induced paw edema in a rat model of acute inflammation, cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) induced intestinal mucosal injury in a mouse model, were observed. It was shown that oral administration of escin inhi...

Vaccination by a mucosal route is an excellent approach to the control of mucosally acquired infections. Several reports on rodents suggest that DNA vaccines can be used to achieve mucosal immunity when applied to mucosal tissues. However, with the exception of one study with pigs and another with horses, there is no information on mucosal DNA immunization of the natural host. In this study, th...

BACKGROUND Mucosal immune surveillance is thought to be largely achieved through uptake by specialized epithelial M cells. We recently identified Claudin 4 as an M cell target receptor and developed a Claudin 4 targeting peptide (CPE) that can mediate uptake of nanoparticles through Nasal Associated Lymphoid Tissue (NALT) M cells. METHODS Recombinant influenza hemagglutinin (HA) and a version...

Leptin, a multifunctional hormone that regulates food intake and energy expenditure, has emerged recently as an important modulator of inflammatory cascades associated with wound healing. In this study, we applied the animal model of buccal mucosal ulcer to investigate the role of endothelin-1 (ET-1) and leptin in soft oral tissue repair. Using groups of rats with experimentally induced buccal ...

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that administration of obestatin exhibits a protective effect in the pancreas, attenuating the development of acute pancreatitis. The aim of the present study was to investigate the influence of obestatin administration on the healing of chronic gastric ulcers. MATERIAL/METHODS Chronic gastric ulcers were induced in rats by 100% acetic acid applied to th...

A fascinating feature of the intestinal mucosal immune system is its ability to guard against invasion by pathogens while avoiding a response to the many potential Ags present in food. The phenomenon of systemic tolerance after oral administration of protein Ags is well documented, but the cellular and molecular basis for the observed nonresponsiveness is not fully understood. To gain insight i...

Annual outbreaks of seasonal influenza are controlled or prevented through vaccination in many countries. The seasonal vaccines used are either inactivated, currently administered parenterally, or live-attenuated given intranasally. In this study three mucosal adjuvants were examined for the influence on the humoral (mucosal and systemic) and cellular influenza A-specific immune responses induc...

The aim of the present study was to elucidate the beneficial effects of rosuvastatin, a new HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, on colonic mucosal damage and on the inflammatory response in a dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) colitis model. Acute colitis was induced using 8% DSS in female BALB/c mice. Colonic mucosal inflammation was evaluated clinically, biochemically, and histologically. Mucosal protein ...