BACKGROUND Leishmaniasis is an important parasitic disease affecting millions worldwide. Human cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where is caused by Leishmania braziliensis. The adaptive immune response is accountable for the healing of CL and despite of key role of CD8+ T cells in this immune response little is known about the CD8+ T lymphocytes frequencies, apo...

We and others have previously shown that reactive microglia express the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I and class II antigens in the hippocampus of patients suffering from epilepsy. Although the MHC glycoproteins serve as restriction elements for T lymphocytes, there is little information available regarding T lymphocytes in hippocampal sclerosis. In the present study, we investi...

Background Cytotoxic CD8 T lymphocytes (CTL) mediate target cell killing of tumor cells. New technological advances in multi-parameter flow cytometry have enabled the detection and enumeration of antigen-specific CD8 T cells (MHC-class I dextramer staining) in peripheral blood. A new dextramer based IVD test has been approved in Europe for the quantification of CMV specific CD8 T cells in perip...

Background: Azathioprine is an immunosuppressive agent that is used in a variety of dermatologic, digestive and hematologic disorders in both humans and small animals. Aims: The effects of long term Azathioprine administration on complete blood count, rate of CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes, serum immunoglobulins and protein concentrations of mixed-breed dogs were evaluated in this study. Methods: 24...

Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with HIV infection. CD4(+) T lymphocytes are critical for host defense against this infection, but in the absence of CD4(+) T lymphocytes, CD8(+) T lymphocytes may provide limited host defense. The cytokine interleukin-7 (IL-7) functions to enhance lymphocyte proliferation, survival, and recruitment of immune c...

Lysis of infected cells by CD8(+) T cells is an important mechanism for the control of virus infections, but remains difficult to quantify in vivo. Here, we study the elimination kinetics of viral antigen-positive lymphocytes by antiviral CD8(+) T cells using flow cytometry and mathematical analysis. In mice acutely infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, more than 99.99 % of target c...

human t-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (htlv-1) is associated with adult t-cell leukemia/lymphoma (atl) and htlv-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (ham/tsp). only a limited percentage of infected individuals develop disease in response to the virus while the majority remain asymptomatic and ham/tsp is the most common clinical manifestation of the virus. ham/tsp is an inflamma...

Introduction The aim of this study was to evaluate the expression of PD-L1 in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Its relation with clinicopathological variables, tumor infiltrating lymphocytes and survival was also determined. Results Positive PD-L1 status for the SP142 clone related with improved overall survival in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Tumors heavily infiltrated by tum...