Xenogeneic Humoral Immune Responses to Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Mice.

Background And Objectives: Many preclinical studies have been conducted using animal disease models to determine the effectiveness of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) for treating immune and inflammatory diseases based on the belief that hMSCs are not immunogenic across species. However, several researchers have suggested xenogeneic immune responses to hMSCs in animals, still without detailed features. This study aimed to investigate a xenogeneic humoral immune response to hMSCs in mice in detail.

Acute and subchronic (13-week) toxicity of fermented Acanthopanax koreanum extracts in Sprague Dawley rats.

The biological fermentation of plants is usually used to improve their product properties, including their biological activity. Acanthopanax koreanum is a plant indigenous to Jeju, Korea; however, fermented A. koreanum (FAK) has not been guaranteed to be safe.

TCR signaling via Tec kinase ITK and interferon regulatory factor 4 (IRF4) regulates CD8+ T-cell differentiation.

CD8(+) T-cell development in the thymus generates a predominant population of conventional naive cells, along with minor populations of "innate" T cells that resemble memory cells. Recent studies analyzing a variety of KO or knock-in mice have indicated that impairments in the T-cell receptor (TCR) signaling pathway produce increased numbers of innate CD8(+) T cells, characterized by their high expression of CD44, CD122, CXCR3, and the transcription factor, Eomesodermin (Eomes). One component of this altered development is a non-CD8(+) T cell-intrinsic role for IL-4.

Synergistic interaction of MEF2D and Sp1 in activation of the CD14 promoter.

The expression of CD14, a monocyte receptor for the bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), is upregulated during monocytic cell differentiation. Although a Sp1 site at -110bp of the CD14 promoter was shown to be critical for activation of the promoter during the differentiation, how the Sp1 site is regulated has not been well understood. We have recently reported that expression of MEF2D protein increases during the differentiation of HL60 promyeloid cells to monocyte and that the upregulation of the protein is required for CD14 expression during the differentiation [Mol.