OBJECTIVES Fc receptors (FcR) interacting with immune complexes (ICs) is a central event in the immune pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Here we asked if a specific FcR is linked to RA pathogenesis and if FcR activities relate to disease and treatment outcome in early RA. MATERIAL AND METHODS Twenty autoantibody-positive RA patients and 33 HC were included. The patients were evaluate...

INTRODUCTION An important mechanism by which trastuzumab inhibits the growth of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer cells is the activation of a host tumor response via antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). Although paclitaxel has a synergistic effect in combination with trastuzumab, whether ADCC is enhanced by paclitaxel is not known. In the p...

A major challenge for using native or modified T cell epitopes to induce or suppress immunity relates to poor localization of peptides to antigen presenting cells (APCs) in vivo. In this study, we demonstrate enhanced presentation of antigenic and antagonistic peptides by targeting them to the type I Fc receptor for IgG (F(c)gammaRI, CD64) on human monocytes. A Th epitope of tetanus toxoid, TT8...

The potential of the CD3 monoclonal antibody (MoAb) OKT3 to selectively target lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells and T-cell clones in vitro against autologous tumor cells was studied using material from patients with acute leukemias (1 9 acute myeloid leukemias [AML], and 3 acute lymphoblastic leukemias [ALL]). Cytotoxicity mediated by patient LAK cells against AML blasts, but not against...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) act as a first line of defense against bacterial infections. Recent studies indicated that PMNs could act as antigen-presenting cells. The aim of this study was to detect the expression of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II and certain molecules and receptors (CD83, CD64, and CD14) on the surface of PMNs stimulated with in...

BACKGROUND Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) has a biphasic effect on the peripheral immune system. The initial inflammatory response is followed by systemic immunosuppression, referred to as stroke-induced immunosuppression (SIIS), leading to severe complications in stroke patients. We aimed to identify an inflammatory marker that best represents this biphasic immunological response after AIS. MET...

Effector dysfunctions of neutrophil granulocytes are often associated with the occurrence dysregulatory processes in antibacterial immune defense. Acute destructive pneumonia is a severe purulent-inflammatory disease discordant functions effector mechanisms and emergence negatively transformed cell subsets. Therefore, search for new experimental approaches aimed at re-orientation altered phenot...

BACKGROUND Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease with severe consequences for the quality of life of sufferers. Regrettably, the inflammatory process involved remains unclear, and finding successful therapies as well as new means for its early diagnosis have proved to be daunting tasks. As macrophages are strongly associated with RA inflammation, effective diagnosis and therapy may...

Little is known about the functional capabilities of bronchial macrophages (BMs) and their relationship to airway disease such as asthma. We hypothesize that BMs from asthmatics may be modulated in their function compared with similar cells from healthy individuals. BMs obtained by induced sputum from mild asthmatics (n = 20) and healthy individuals (n = 20) were analyzed using flow cytometry f...