Coronary vasculitis.

Although patients with immune system dysfunction leading to MI may be a small subpopulation, they present an interesting challenge. Early recognition of their condition and prompt anti-inflammatory therapy, along with modification of cardiac rehabilitation and teaching protocols, will promote favorable long-term outcomes.

Allergen-specific human T cell clones: derivation, specificity, and activation requirements.

The interaction between allergen and immune cells plays a pivotal role in the development of human allergy. In an attempt to understand this interaction, we have studied allergen-specific T cells in vitro. These T cells are derived from rodent-allergic individuals and are specific for a major allergen found in mouse urine (MA-1).

Biological activity and receptor binding of human prointerleukin-1 beta and subpeptides.

We report here that the human interleukin-1 beta precursor (proIL-1 beta) protein as well as several interleukin-1 beta (IL-1 beta) subpeptides bind cellular receptors specifically and exhibit biological activity by stimulating proliferation of helper T-cells. IL-1 beta polypeptides have been synthesized by in vitro translation of mRNAs transcribed from plasmid vectors containing the bacteriophage SP6 promoter joined to the complete IL-1 beta cDNA or to deletion constructs. The quantity of IL-1 beta in vitro translation products was increased significantly by replacing the cognate IL-1 beta untranslated leader sequence with a 37-nucleotide plant viral untranslated leader.

Immunologic responses during allergen-specific immunotherapy for respiratory allergy.

At present there is no absolute way to determine which patient will respond to immunotherapy and which will not. Even in treated patients who derive clinical benefit, there is no one "best" immunologic parameter to follow although the generation of allergen-specific IgG seems to correlate better with clinical improvement than the other parameters. Whether or not the measurement of allergen-specific IgG4 will prove to be a useful clinical parameter is still a controversial issue and is an area for active investigation.