Gram-negative bacteria can stimulate mucin production but excessive mucus supports bacterial infection and consequently leads to airway obstruction. Therefore the effect of dexamethasone (DEX) and the antioxidant acetyl-cysteine (ACC) on bacterial induced mucus expression was investigated. Explanted human airway mucosa and mucoepidermoid cells (Calu-3) were stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (L...

Mucins are among the best described human tumor-associated antigens. At least 73 tumor-reactive anti-mucin antibodies have been described; in addition, we have previously demonstrated the existence of tumor-specific cytotoxic T-lymphocyte epitopes on the mucin produced by breast and pancreatic tumors. To determine whether the appearance of tumor-associated mucin epitopes can be explained by alt...

BACKGROUND The entire gastrointestinal tract is protected by a mucous layer, which contains complex glycoproteins called mucins. MUC2 is one such mucin that protects the colonic mucosa from invading microbes. The initial interaction between microbes and mucins is an important step for microbial pathogenesis. Hence, it was of interest to investigate the relationship between host (mucin) and path...

The T cell immunoglobulin mucin (Tim) family of receptors regulates effector CD4(+) T cell functions and is implicated in autoimmune and allergic diseases. Tim-3 induces immunological tolerance, and engagement of the Tim-3 immunoglobulin variable (IgV) domain by galectin-9 is important for appropriate termination of T helper 1-immune responses. The 2 A crystal structure of the Tim-3 IgV domain ...

Objective: Evaluate the protective effect of artificial saliva formulations associated or not with mucin on dentin. Materials and Methods: Bovine dentin specimens were randomly allocated to 10 groups (n = 20) according tested presence absence mucin: Amaechi et al. (1998); Klimek (1982); Vieira (2005) Eisenburger (2001) deionized water (control). Samples submitted an erosive cycle consisting two...

Autoimmune diseases can be reduced or even prevented if proinflammatory immune responses are appropriately down-regulated. Receptors (such as CTLA-4), cytokines (such as TGF-beta), and specialized cells (such as CD4+CD25+ T regulatory cells) work together to keep immune responses in check. T cell Ig mucin (Tim) family proteins are key regulators of inflammation, providing an inhibitory signal t...

Background: Pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) is a rare disease with excess intraperitoneal mucin secretion. Treatment involves laparotomy, cytoreduction and chemotherapy that is very invasive with patients often acquiring numerous compromises. Hence a mucolytic comprising of bromelain and N-acetyl cystein has been developed to solubilise mucin in situ for removal by catherization. Owing to differen...

Monoclonal antibodies against rabbit ocular mucin (ROM) and porcine stomach mucin (PSM) were developed to explore the biosynthesis and functional significance of ocular mucin. A nitrocellulose-based dot enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for hybridoma screening and mucin quantitation. The sensitivity was found to be at the level of 1 ng mucin per dot, which was about 1000 t...

Gram-negative bacteria can stimulate mucin production, but excessive mucus supports bacterial infection and consequently leads to airway obstruction. Therefore, the effect of dexamethasone (DEX) and the antioxidant acetyl-cysteine (ACC) on bacteria-induced mucus expression was investigated. Explanted human airway mucosa and mucoepidermoid cells (Calu-3) were stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (...