CD40 ligand (CD40L)/CD40 interactions play a central role in T-cell-dependent B-cell activation as previously shown by in vitro studies, the phenotype of CD40L knockout mice and the defective expression of CD40L in patients who have X-linked immunodeficiency with hyper-IgM. The distribution of CD40 in cells other than of myeloid and lymphoid lineages has suggested additional functions for this ...

A vaccine for the prevention of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is desperately needed to control the AIDS pandemic. To address this problem, we developed vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein-pseudotyped replication-defective simian immunodeficiency viruses (dSIVs) as an AIDS vaccine strategy. The dSIVs retain characteristics of a live attenuated virus without the drawbacks of po...

Hypercholesterolemia is associated with phenotypic changes in endothelial cell function that lead to a proinflammatory and prothrombogenic state in different segments of the microvasculature. CD40 ligand (CD40L) and its receptor CD40 are ubiquitously expressed and mediate inflammatory responses and platelet activation. The objective of this study was to determine whether CD40/CD40L, in particul...

Background and aims: Angiogenesis is a novel component in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) pathogenesis. We have previously shown that immune–nonimmune interactions through the CD40–CD40ligand (CD40L) pathway might sustain gut inflammation, although their effect on regulating inflammationdriven angiogenesis is unknown. The present study evaluated the role of the CD40–CD40L interaction in the pr...

The common denominator of arterial diseases is inflammation. Co-stimulatory molecules are essential to propagate and modulate immune reactions and thus the inflammatory response (1). In diseases such as atherosclerosis and restenosis, the co-stimulatory CD40-CD40L dyad plays a pivotal role. However, both CD40 and CD40L have Janus-faced properties. In the majority of studies, genetic or pharmaco...

Expression De Novo in Endothelial Cells: Adding a Loop to Microvascular Inflammation To the Editor: We read with great interest the article by Wagner et al, in which the authors elegantly showed that membrane bound CD154 (CD40 ligand [L]) expressed by T-cells can effectively trigger CD40L expression by endothelial cells. More importantly, the authors demonstrated a functional activity of endoth...

CD40 binding produces multifaceted growth signals in normal and malignant B cells, whereas its physiological role is less well characterized in epithelial cancers. We examined the growth outcome of CD40 ligation in human breast cancer cells, using CD40 (T47D and BT-20) and CD40-negative (MCF-7, ZR-75–1) cell lines as defined by flow cytometric analysis, immunohistochemistry, and reverse transcr...

CD40 binding produces multifaceted growth signals in normal and malignant B cells, whereas its physiological role is less well characterized in epithelial cancers. We examined the growth outcome of CD40 ligation in human breast cancer cells, using CD40+ (T47D and BT-20) and CD40-negative (MCF-7, ZR-75-1) cell lines as defined by flow cytometric analysis, immunohistochemistry, and reverse transc...

Mononuclear phagocytes (MP) and T lymphocytes play a pivotal role in the host immune response to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection. Regulation of such immune responses can be mediated, in part, through the interaction of the T-lymphocyte-expressed molecule CD40 ligand (CD40L) with its receptor on MP, CD40. Upregulation of CD40L on CD4+ peripheral blood mononuclear cells duri...