Although the functions of chemokines in the regulation of immune processes have been studied in some detail, the role of these biomolecules in cancer is not fully understood. Chemokines mediate migration of immune cells and other functions related to immunity. They are also involved in oncogenesis and in tumor progression, invasion, and metastasis through mechanisms similar to their roles in im...

Leukocyte infiltration during acute and chronic inflammation is regulated by exogenous and endogenous factors, including cytokines, chemokines and proteases. Stimulation of fibroblasts and human microvascular endothelial cells with the inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta) or tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) combined with either interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha), IFN-beta or IF...

Neurocysticercosis, caused by infection with larval Taenia solium, is a major cause of epilepsy worldwide. Larval degeneration, which is symptomatic, results in inflammatory cell influx. Astrocytes, the most abundant cell type and major cytokine-producing cell within the CNS, may be important in orchestrating inflammatory responses after larval degeneration. We investigated the effects of direc...

Interleukin-8 (IL-8) is a neutrophil chemokine that is encoded on the CXCL8 gene. Normally CXCL8 expression is repressed due to histone deacetylation, octamer-1 binding to the promoter and the inhibitory effect of nuclear factor-κB repressing factor (NRF). However, in response to a suitable stimulus, the human CXCL8 gene undergoes transcription due to its inducible promoter that is regulated by...

Pro-inflammatory mediators, like prostaglandin (PG) and chemokines, promote tumourigenesis by enhancing cell proliferation, migration of immune cells and recruitment of blood vessels. Recently we showed elevated expression of the chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor 2 (CXCR2) in endometrial adenocarcinomas localized to neutrophils and neoplastic epithelial and vascular cells. Furthermore we found t...

Airborne particulate matter (PM) may induce or exacerbate neutrophilic airway disease by triggering the release of inflammatory mediators, such as CXC chemokine ligand (CXCL)8, from the airway epithelium. It is still unclear which PM components are driving CXCL8 responses, as most candidates occur at low concentrations in the dusts. We therefore hypothesised that different PM constituents may c...

Recent in vitro studies have suggested a role for sialylation in chemokine receptor binding to its ligand (Bannert, N., S. Craig, M. Farzan, D. Sogah, N.V. Santo, H. Choe, and J. Sodroski. 2001. J. Exp. Med. 194:1661-1673). This prompted us to investigate chemokine-induced leukocyte adhesion in inflamed cremaster muscle venules of alpha2,3 sialyltransferase (ST3Gal-IV)-deficient mice. We found ...

IN THE LAST TWO AND A HALF DECADES, there has been an explosion of interest in a group of chemotactic cytokines that have chemotactic activity for leukocytes, now known as chemokines. Indeed, there have been more than 16,000 publications related to chemokines since 1975. The human chemokine families are referred to as CXC, CC, C, and CX3C chemokines. These four closely related polypeptide famil...

Microbial penetration of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) into the central nervous system is essential for the development of meningitis. Considerable progress has been achieved in understanding the pathophysiology of meningitis, however, relatively little is known about the early inflammatory events occurring at the time of bacterial crossing of the BBB. We investigated, using real-time quantitat...

Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) using in vitro expanded T cells from biopsy material represents a highly promising treatment of disseminated cancer. ACT in its present form is rather crude and improvements seem within reach. Recruitment of transferred lymphocytes to the tumor site is a crucial step in ACT efficacy; however, quite few T cells actually reach the tumor site upon administration. In th...