Naja kaouthia (monocled cobra) venom contains many isoforms of secreted phospholipase A2 (sPLA(2)). The PLA(2) exerts several pharmacologic and toxic effects in the snake bitten subject, dependent or independent on the enzymatic activity. N. kaouthia venom appeared in two protein profiles, P3 and P5, after fractionating the venom by ion exchange column chromatography. In this study, phage clone...

Humanized mice represent an important model to study the development and function of the human immune system. While it is known that mouse thymic stromal cells can support human T-cell development, the extent of interspecies cross-talk and the degree to which these systems recapitulate normal human T-cell development remain unclear. To address these questions, we compared conventional and non-c...

Live attenuated measles virus (MV) has long been recognized as a safe and effective vaccine, and it has served as the basis for development of various MV-based vaccines. However, because MV is a human-tropic virus, the evaluation of MV-based vaccines has been hampered by the lack of a small-animal model. The humanized mouse, a recently developed system in which an immunodeficient mouse is trans...

Chimeric mice with humanized liver (PXB mice) have been generated by transplantation of urokinase-type plasminogen activator/severe combined immunodeficiency mice with human hepatocytes. The purpose of the present study was to clarify the protein expression levels of metabolizing enzymes and transporters in humanized liver of PXB mice transplanted with hepatocytes from three different donors, a...

Biomedical research in human beings is largely restricted to in vitro studies that lack complexity of a living organism. To overcome this limitation, humanized mouse models are developed based on immunodeficient characteristics of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) or recombination activating gene (Rag)(null) mice, which can accept xenografts. Peripheral constitution of human immunity in S...

The pro-inflammatory cytokine, TNF-α, which plays a major role in the development and persistence of inflammatory diseases, is the basis for the use of anti-TNF-α therapies. The neutralization of TNF-α or blockage of its binding to the corresponding receptor has mainly served as a therapeutic strategy against some diseases. This study aimed to investigate the production of a humanized single ch...

Bullous pemphigoid (BP), the most common autoimmune blistering disease, is caused by autoantibodies against type XVII collagen (COL17). To establish an active stable BP animal model that demonstrates the persistent inflammatory skin lesions initiated by the anti-human COL17 Abs, we used COL17-humanized (COL17(m-/-,h+)) mice that we recently produced. First, we generated immunodeficient Rag-2(-/...

transplantation of CD34+ cord blood stem cells into newborn and adult NOD/SCID mice induce differential organ engraftment. Tissue Cell 2012;44:80-6. 7. Navarro-Montero O, Romero-Moya D, Montes R, et al. Intrahepatic transplantation of cord blood CD34+ cells into newborn NOD/SCID-IL2Rγ(null) mice allows efficient multi-organ and multi-lineage hematopoietic engraftment without accessory cells. Cl...