Steroids Inhibit Eosinophil Accumulation and Downregulate Hematopoietic Chemotaxic Prostaglandin D Receptor in Aspirin-Exacerbated Respiratory Disease.

Background: Aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) is characterized by eosinophilic rhinosinusitis, nasal polyposis, aspirin sensitivity, and asthma. This study aims to identify a mechanism to target for the future treatment of AERD via the elucidation of the effect of systemic steroids on the expression of hematopoietic prostaglandin D synthase (HPGDS) and chemotaxic prostaglandin D (DP2) receptor relative to eosinophil activation in the nasal polyps of patients with AERD.

Materials And Methods: Among 37 patients undergoing endoscopic sinus surgery, 28 received systemic steroids preoperatively.

Synthesis of functional protein in liposome.

The liposome consisting of eggPC, cholesterol, and DSPE-PEG5000 with a molar ratio of 1.5:1:0.08 was used to entrap cell-free protein synthesis reaction mixture.

Nonredundant roles of Sema4A in the immune system: defective T cell priming and Th1/Th2 regulation in Sema4A-deficient mice.

The class IV semaphorin Sema4A provides a costimulatory signal to T cells. To investigate the possible developmental and regulatory roles of Sema4A in vivo, we generated Sema4A-deficient mice. Although Sema4A-deficient mice develop normally, DCs and T cells from knockout mice display poor allostimulatory activities and T helper cell (Th) differentiation, respectively.

An observation of the initial stage towards a symbiotic relationship.

Two well-characterized and phylogeneticaly different species, Escherichia coli and Dictyostelium discoideum, were used as the model organisms. When the two species were mixed and allowed to grow on minimal agar plates at 22 degrees C, remarkably, the two species achieved a state of coexistence at an average of 2-4 weeks. In addition, the emerged colonies housing the coexisting species had a mucoidal nature that was not observed from its origin.

Importance of compartment formation for a self-encoding system.

A self-encoding system designed to have strict "compartition" of the molecules, i.e., to contain only a single molecule of DNA in each compartment, was established, and its evolutionary fate was analyzed.