Search results for " IMMUNITY"
showing 10 items of 618 documents
Virologic, hematologic, and immunologic risk factors for classic Kaposi sarcoma.
2006
BACKGROUND Classic Kaposi sarcoma (CKS) is an inflammatory-mediated neoplasm that develops in the presence of KS-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and immune perturbation. In the current study, the authors compared CKS cases with age-matched and sex-matched KSHV-seropositive controls without human immunodeficiency virus-1 infection and markers of viral control, blood counts, CD4-positive and CD8-positive lymphocytes, and serum β-2-microglobulin and neopterin levels. METHODS Viral loads were detected using real-time amplification of the KSHV-K6 and EBV-pol genes, anti-K8.1 (lytic) titers were detected by enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay, and antilatent nuclear antigen (LANA) titers were detec…
Spontaneous and antibody-dependent cellular immune reactions to ethanol-altered hepatoma cells
2008
— Spontaneous cell-mediated cytotoxicity (SCMC), antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and proliferative lymphocyte stimulation in alcoholic liver disease (ALD) were investigated. Peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from eight patients with advanced ALD and nine normal controls were tested against hepatoma cells (PLC/PRF/5) as targets. Target cells were grown in either normal culture medium or medium supplemented with 1 and 5% ethanol, respectively, for 24 to 48 h. Ethanol-exposed hepatoma cells exhibited profound and characteristic morphological alterations. Ethanol preincubation, however, proved to be without effect on immune reactions. Provided that hepatoma cells are an appropr…
Modifications of general parameters of immune activation in the sera of Sicilian patients with Boutonneuse fever
1998
SUMMARYThe serum levels of β2-microglobulin (β2-M), soluble HLA class I antigen (sHLA-I), soluble CD4 (sCD4) and CD8 (sCD8) were studied in 98 Sicilian patients with Boutonneuse fever (BF). In different stages of infection all markers were significantly increased in sera from Sicilian patients with acute BF compared with healthy controls. sCD8 and sHLA-I reached the peak in the second week after the onset of symptoms, whereas sCD4 and β2-M reached the peak in the first week. Afterwards sCD8 decreased to the levels of controls within the third week, the other parameters decreased later and were unmodified until the third week of infection. Significant correlations were found between sCD4 and…
Role of cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific polyfunctional CD8+ T-cells and antibodies neutralizing virus epithelial infection in the control of CMV infec…
2015
The role of cytomegalovirus (CMV)-specific polyfunctional CD8+ T-cells and that of antibodies neutralizing virus epithelial infection (AbNEI) in the control of CMV DNAemia were investigated in 39 CMV-seropositive allogeneic stem-cell transplant (Allo-SCT) recipients with (n = 24) or without (n = 15) CMV DNAemia. AbNEI levels were monitored prospectively by means of a neutralization assay employing retinal epithelial cells (ARPE-19) and the recombinant CMV strain BADrUL131-Y4. Quantification of CMV-specific polyfunctional CD8+ T-cells (expressing two or three of the following markers: IFN-γγ, TNF-α and CD107a) in whole blood was performed by flow cytometry for intracellular cytokine staining…
Chloroquine Stimulates the Mitogen-Driven Lymphocyte Proliferation in Patients with Psoriasis
1993
Chloroquine is known to exacerbate psoriasis. Since immunological stimuli are considered to be important for the pathogenesis of psoriasis, we compared the effects of chloroquine on cell-mediated immunity in 15 healthy control individuals and 15 patients with psoriasis. We employed the spontaneous and phytohemagglutin (PHA)-induced uptake of 3H-thymidine to measure lymphocyte proliferation. Chloroquine was added to the cultures at concentrations ranging from 0.022 to 220 microM. We found that both spontaneous and PHA-driven lymphocyte proliferations were significantly lower in patients with psoriasis (p0.002). The spontaneous blastogenesis in both controls and patients remained stable under…
klebsiella pneumoniae-reactive t cells in blood and synovial fluid of patients with ankylosing spondylitis comparison with hla–b27 + healthy control …
1995
Objective To study the frequency of Klebsiella pneumoniae-responsive T cells in the peripheral blood (PB) of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients compared with that in healthy HLA-B27+ donors, and to examine T lymphocyte clones (TLC) derived from AS patient synovial fluid (SF) for the presence of Klebsiella reactivity. Methods Limiting dilution analysis of PB T cells in 8 patients with active AS and in 8 HLA-B27+ healthy subjects was used to determine the frequency of PB T cells responsive to K pneumoniae and Escherichia coli GroEL. SF T cells from a patient with active AS were cloned, and 125 TLC were characterized in proliferation assays. Results There were fewer T cells in the PB of AS p…
IgM and IgG antibodies to hepatitis C virus in patients with mixed cryoglobulinaemia
1993
SUMMARY To assess the relationship between hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and essential mixed cryoglobulinaemia (EMC), sera from 23 patients with EMC were tested for IgG and IgM antibodies to HCV antigens and for HCV RNA. Quantitative HCV antibody studies were performed on scrum and purified cryoglobulin fractions. HCV antibodies of both IgG and IgM class were found in 22 (96%) patients. Ten of these were also HCV-RNA positives. Higher litres of anti-HCV IgM were present in the 11 patients with evidence of liver damage. Anti-HCV IgG antibodies were shown to be concentrated in the IgG fraction of cryoglobulins in all eight patients studied. These results strongly suggest a role for HCV in…
Antibody Response to Meningococcal Polysaccharides A and C in Patients with Complement Defects
1993
Patients with defects of terminal complement components are particularly exposed to the risk of developing neisserial infections and seem to respond poorly to meningococcal capsular polysaccharide (PS) C via natural immunization. The sole meningococcal PSC is. on the other hand, an excellent immunogen in normal people. Considering the great importance of vaccine prophylaxis for the prevention of meningococcal infections in patients with complement defects, it is crucial to study the antibody response to the sole meningococcal PS in these patients. We therefore analysed the levels of anti-PSA and PSC antibodies in the members of four families including patients with homozygous and heterozygo…
Early neutralizing and glycoprotein B (gB)-specific antibody responses to human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) in immunocompetent individuals with distinct c…
2000
Abstract Background: Antibodies with functional anti-Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) activity are likely to be involved in preventing virus dissemination and thus may contribute to minimize the clinical manifestations of infection. Objectives: To investigate the role of humoral immunity in modulating the clinical expression of primary Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection in immunocompetent persons. Study design: Neutralizing (NA) and glycoprotein B (gB)-specific antibodies were quantitated in acute-phase and late-convalescence phase sera from 19 individuals who developed either HCMV mononucleosis (12) or oligosymptomatic hepatitis (seven). Results: The levels of NA in sera drawn early after …
In vitro treatment with interleukin-2 normalizes type-1 cytokine production by lymphocytes from elderly
2000
The term immunosenescence is taken to mean the deterioration of immune function seen in elderly, which is manifested in increased susceptibility to infectious diseases, neoplasias, and autoimmune diseases. It is only recently that we have begun to understand the cellular and molecular changes involved. Of special interest in this regard are observations of a decline in synthesis of Type-1 cytokines which predisposes to diminished cell mediated immunity. We have evaluated the production of type 1 cytokines in old and young donors either in presence or in absence of recombinant interleukin-2 (rIL-2). Lymphocytes were stimulated with plastic bound anti-CD3 and after 48 h the supernatants were …