Inflammation, immunity, and vaccines for Helicobacter pylori infection.

The tight control of the innate and adaptive immune responses in the stomach mucosa during chronic Helicobacter pylori infection is of prime importance for the bacteria to persist and for the host to prevent inflammation-driven diseases. This review summarizes recent data on the roles of innate and adaptive immune responses during H. pylori/host interactions.

Maternal immune response to helminth infection during pregnancy determines offspring susceptibility to allergic airway inflammation.

Background: Schistosomiasis, a chronic helminth infection, elicits distinct immune responses within the host, ranging from an initial TH1 and subsequent TH2 phase to a regulatory state, and is associated with dampened allergic reactions within the host.

Objective: We sought to evaluate whether non-transplacental helminth infection during pregnancy alters the offspring's susceptibility to allergy.

Methods: Ovalbumin-induced allergic airway inflammation was analyzed in offspring from Schistosoma mansoni-infected mothers mated during the TH1, TH2, or regulatory phase of infection.

Schistosoma mansoni-mediated suppression of allergic airway inflammation requires patency and Foxp3+ Treg cells.

The continual rise of asthma in industrialised countries stands in strong contrast to the situation in developing lands. According to the modified Hygiene Hypothesis, helminths play a major role in suppressing bystander immune responses to allergens, and both epidemiological and experimental studies suggest that the tropical parasitic trematode Schistosoma mansoni elicits such effects. The focus of this study was to investigate which developmental stages of schistosome infection confer suppression of allergic airway inflammation (AAI) using ovalbumin (OVA) as a model allergen.