Signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (STAT5) plays an important role in regulating gene expression in response to cytokines of the common (γc) chain family. In this capacity, STAT5 promotes CD8 effector and memory T cell survival and regulatory T cell development. However, its function in conventional CD4 T cells is less clear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Immune dysfunction is an important component of the disease process underlying systemic sclerosis (SSc), but the mechanisms contributing to altered immune cell function in SSc remain poorly defined. This study was undertaken to measure the expression and function of the coinhibitory receptors (co-IRs) programmed cell death 1 (PD-1), T cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain (TIGIT), T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain 3 (TIM-3), and lymphocyte activation gene 3 (LAG-3) in lymphocyte subsets from the peripheral blood of patients with SSc.
Methods: Co-IR expression levels on subsets of immune cells were analyzed using a 16-color flow cytometry panel.
Background: Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease caused by T cell-mediated destruction of the insulin-producing β-cells in the pancreas. Therefore, approaches that effectively halt the pathogenic T cell response are predicted to have preventive or therapeutic benefit for type 1 diabetes patients. We previously demonstrated that long-term blocking of IL-7 signaling, which is critical for the survival and function of T cells, prevented and reversed type 1 diabetes in non-obese diabetic mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study examined age-related differences in the coordinative mechanism of the reach-to-grasp movement in three groups of children aged 6, 8, and 11 year, and in healthy adults. Three prehension conditions were manipulated: an unimanual and a bimanual self-driven tasks in which the reaching and grasping of the object were performed by participants, and a bimanual externally-driven task, in which the experimenter brought the object into the vicinity of the participant which grasped it. Classical kinematics data-peak velocities of the reaching and the grasping, the time to onset grip opening, maximum grip opening and grip closure-were calculated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe role of proprioceptive inputs in the control of goal-directed movements was examined, by means of the tendon vibration technique, in 5 to 11-year old children performing a serial pointing task. Children pointed, with movements of various amplitudes and at various positions, by alternating wrist flexions and extensions. Tendon vibration was applied to both agonist and antagonist muscles to perturb relevant muscular proprioceptive inputs during the static or dynamic phase of the task, i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of the present study was to analyze, in children aged 6, 8 and 11, the developmental trend of the attentional cost related to the programming and execution of pointing movements, using a dual-task paradigm. Our results showed that the attentional cost associated to the programming and the first phase of the pointing movement decreased non linearly with age, in particular a plateau between 8 and 11 was observed. This confirmed that the developmental trend of the control of pointing movements is characterized by a no monotonic evolution in which feedforward processes were predominantly used in the younger children, feedback processes were predominantly used in older children (since age 8), and one-line over feedforward processes were used in adults.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of the experiment was to study the adaptive capacities of children to perform drawing movements while being visually perturbed. Children aged 5-11 years and a group of adults drew diamonds via information provided through a computer screen. The screen display was either upright or rotated 180 degrees.
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