Th1 cell activation and cytokine production shift the balance between Th1 and Th2, favoring the up-regulation of proinflammatory activity that leads to destruction of insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells in type 1 diabetes. Th2-type cytokines, such as IL-10, have immune regulatory function. Administration of IL-10, or IL-10 gene transfer, prevents autoimmune diabetes in nonobese diabetic (NO...

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) results from a specific autoimmune mediated destruction of the pancreatic beta-cells. PDX-1 induced developmentally redirected liver cells were suggested to restore the ablated pancreatic function in chemically induced diabetes. However, developmentally redirected liver cells, may have acquired along with the desired beta-cell characteristics and functions, also ...

Rhizobium nodulation (Nod) factors are lipochitooligosaccharide signals that elicit key symbiotic developmental responses in the host legume root. In this study, we have investigated Nod factor signal transduction in the Medicago root epidermis by using a pharmacological approach in conjunction with transgenic plants expressing the Nod factor-responsive reporter construct pMtENOD12-GUS. Evidenc...

The non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse is a polygenic model for type 1 diabetes that is characterized by insulitis, a leukocytic infiltration of the pancreatic islets. During ~35 years since the original inbred strain was developed in Japan, NOD substrains have been established at different laboratories around the world. Although environmental differences among NOD colonies capable of impacting dia...

Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4), or CD152, is a negative regulator of T-cell activation and has been shown to be associated with autoimmune diseases. Previous work has demonstrated a defect in the expression of this molecule in nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice upon anti-CD3 stimulation in vitro. Using a genetic approach we here demonstrate that a novel locus (Ctex) telomeric on...

Reporter strains of soil-borne bacteria were used to test the hypothesis that chemicals released by root border cells can influence the expression of bacterial genes required for the establishment of plant-microbe associations. Promoters from genes known to be activated by plant factors included virE, required for Agrobacterium tumefaciens pathogenesis, and common nod genes from Rhizobium legum...

We utilized HL-60 cells as a model system to examine the regulation of ctsb gene expression by differentiating agents. Inducers of monocytic differentiation [phorbol ester (PMA), calcitriol (D3), and sodium butyrate (NaB)] and inducers of granulocytic differentiation [all-trans retinoic acid (RA) and 9-cis retinoic acid (9-cis RA)] increase ctsb mRNA levels in a dose-dependent manner as determi...

The microbiome plays a crucial role in controlling viral infections like the Human Papillomavirus. Getting infected by HPV is not always necessary or sufficient for progression of cervical cancer. According to many kinds research, it was shown that presence papillomavirus infection connected abundance Lactobacilli and L. gasseri. Besides some research data suggests an association cervicovaginal...

Abrogation of ICOS/ICOS ligand (ICOSL) costimulation prevents the onset of diabetes in the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse but, remarkably, yields to the development of a spontaneous autoimmune neuromyopathy. At the pathological level, ICOSL-/- NOD mice show stronger protection from insulitis than their ICOS-/- counterparts. Also, the ICOSL-/- NOD model carries a limited C57BL/6 region containin...

Although primary human hepatocytes are commonly used for induction studies, the evaluation method is associated with several problems. More recently, a reporter gene assay has been suggested to be an alternative, although the contribution of only transfected nuclear receptors can be evaluated. The aim of the present study was to establish a method by which the extent of in vivo CYP3A4 induction...