BACKGROUND Vitiligo is an acquired depigmenting disorder due to destruction of melanocytes. Although many theories have been suggested for its pathogenesis, the role of autoimmunity is the most popular one. The association of vitiligo with autoimmune thyroid diseases and the increased prevalence of autoantibodies including thyroid autoantibodies in vitiligo favor this role. Our objective was to...

About 8% of the general population suffers from autoimmune diseases, from which 78% are women. One of the most important causes of thyroid diseases is autoimmunity in origin, and it seems that people with thyroid diseases present more signs of asthma. This study was therefore designed to investigate the frequency of autoimmune thyroid diseases in women suffering from bronchial asthma.In a cross...

Immunocytochemistry, the identification of cell- or tissue-bound antigens in situ, by means of a specific antibody-antigen reaction, tagged microscopically by a visible label, has a remarkably wide range of applications. The basic techniques are straightforward and can be adapted to explore the localisation of virtually any molecule of interest to the researcher in samples of normal and/or mali...

We previously cloned an antigenic gene (named nfa1) from a cDNA library of Naegleria fowleri by immunoscreening. The nfa1 gene had a coding nucleotide sequence consisting of 357 bases and produced a recombinant 13.1-kDa protein (Nfa1). In this study, to get more information regarding the recombinant Nfa1 protein (rNfa1), we produced an anti-Nfa1 polyclonal antibody from mice immunized with rNfa...

Aim. The aim of the study was to study the relation of vitiligo with demographic data like age, sex, and duration and determine the prevalence of thyroid autoimmunity in vitiligo patients. Materials and Methods. This study was a cross sectional study consisting of 100 patients clinically diagnosed (old and new) as having vitiligo irrespective of age or sex. Patients with known thyroid disease o...

Ghrelin, a 28-amino acid acylated peptide, was identified as the endogenous ligand for the growth hormone (GH) secretagogue receptor and its role in reproduction has recently been established. It is believed that the site of ghrelin expression in testes may indicate its role in local regulation. This study investigated the immunohistochemical (IHC) localization of ghrelin in Holstein bull testi...

Background: Staphylococcal protein A (SPA) is a cell wall component of Staphylococcus aureus that binds to different IgG subclasses of human and several animal species. This bacterial protein can be used as an antibody detector in various immunological assays or as an isolation reagent for the purification of antibody molecules via immuno-chromatography procedures.Objectives: Molecular cl...

This unit describes a general method for immunoenzymetric assay of mouse and human cytokines. The technique is based on use of two anti-cytokine monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), each specific for a spatially distinct determinant on the cytokine. One of these is a coating antibody, and the other is a derivatized detecting antibody. A support protocol describes chemical labeling of anti-cytokine mon...