Dear Editor, Cigarette smoking has destructive effect on periodontal tissue. The rates of loss of periodontal attachment and recession of gingival are higher in smokers than non-smokers (1-2). Previous studies on the inflammatory immune responses in smokers’ periodontitis have mainly focused on the role of neutrophils. Tumor necrosis factor–α, prostaglandin E2 and matrix metalloproteinase...

Despite the fact that extensive degranulation is a likely prerequisite for a pathogenic role of eosinophils, little is known about the degranulation status of these cells in eosinophilic conditions. The present study of the ultrastructure of tissue eosinophils explores eosinophil degranulation in allergic rhinitis before and during seasonal allergen exposure. A total of 23 patients scored sympt...

Introduction. Eosinophilic asthma can be characterized by intense infiltration of eosinophils into the airways, where they abundantly release various cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. Airway remodeling is closely related to increased airway smooth muscle (ASM) mass; however, another important feature could changes in extracellular matrix (ECM) homeostasis, driven production ECM proteins...

Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) was established as the constitutive and elicited human umbilical vein endothelial cell-derived eosinophil viability-sustaining factor. Stimulation of endothelium cell monolayers with IL-1 alpha (5 U/ml) increased the 48-h elaboration of GM-CSF from a mean of 3.2 to a mean of 8.2 pM (P less than 0.05). Dexamethasone (100 nM) decreased the...

Basophils and eosinophils play important roles in various host defense mechanisms but also act as harmful effectors in allergic disorders. We generated novel basophil- and eosinophil-depletion mouse models by introducing the human diphtheria toxin (DT) receptor gene under the control of the mouse CD203c and the eosinophil peroxidase promoter, respectively, to study the critical roles of these c...

Interleukin-9 (IL-9) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of allergic disorders. To examine the interaction between IL-9 and eosinophils, we evaluated mature peripheral blood eosinophils for their expression of the specific a-subunit of the IL-9 receptor (IL-9R–a). The expression of IL-9R–a by human eosinophils was detected at the messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels by reverse transcript...

Receptor antagonists block all receptor-coupled signaling pathways indiscriminately. We introduce a novel class of peptide inhibitors that is designed to block a specific signal from a receptor while keeping other signals intact. This concept was tested in the model of IL-5 signaling via Lyn kinase. We have previously mapped the Lyn-binding site of the IL-5/GM-CSF receptor common beta (beta c) ...

objective: inflammation is one of the major components of asthma. our aim was to evaluate the effects of c. sativus extract on total and differential white blood cells (wbc) count in lung lavage fluid (llf) of ovalbumin-sensitized rats. materials and methods: forty rats were divided into five groups (n = 8 for each group) as control (c), sensitized with injection and inhalation of ovalbumin (oa...