Transplantation of Umbilical Cord-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Attenuates Surgical Wound-Induced Blood-Brain Barrier Dysfunction in Mice.

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) is the most important component of central nervous system (CNS) to keep toxins and pathogens from CNS. Although our studies demonstrated that using interleukin-6 antibodies (IL-6-AB) reversed the increased permeability of BBB, IL-6-AB is limited in their application that only could be used a few hours before surgery and seemed delayed the surgical wounds healing process, which urges us to find another more effective method. In this study, we employed the C57BL/6J female mice to investigate the potential effects of umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) transplantation on BBB dysfunction induced by surgical wound.

Therapeutic effects of mesenchymal stem cells and their derivatives in common skin inflammatory diseases: Atopic dermatitis and psoriasis.

Chronic skin inflammatory diseases including atopic dermatitis (AD) and psoriasis have been considered uncontrolled inflammatory responses, which have usually troubled patients around the world. Moreover, the recent method to treat AD and psoriasis has been based on the inhibition, not regulation, of the abnormal inflammatory response, which can induce a number of side effects and drug resistance in long-term treatment. Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) and their derivatives have been widely used in immune diseases based on their regeneration, differentiation, and immunomodulation with few adverse effects, which makes MSCs a promising treatment for chronic skin inflammatory diseases.

Systematic analysis and case series of the diagnosis and management of trichilemmal carcinoma.

Background: Trichilemmal carcinoma (TLC) is a rare malignant cutaneous adnexal neoplasm, with no relatively comprehensive research.

Objective: The aim of this study is to perform an updated statistical analysis so as to better understand TLC's epidemiology, clinical features, diagnosis, and treatment.

Methods: The diagnosis and treatment of three TLC cases in our department were summarized.

CD4 T-cell epitope-based heterologous prime-boost vaccination potentiates anti-tumor immunity and PD-1/PD-L1 immunotherapy.

Background: Antitumor therapeutic vaccines are generally based on antigenic epitopes presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC-I) molecules to induce tumor-specific CD8 T cells. Paradoxically, continuous T cell receptor (TCR) stimulation from tumor-derived CD8 T-cell epitopes can drive the functional exhaustion of tumor-specific CD8 T cells. Tumor-specific type-I helper CD4 T (T1) cells play an important role in the population maintenance and cytotoxic function of exhausted tumor-specific CD8 T cells in the tumor microenvironment.

Predictive values of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio on disease severity and mortality in COVID-19 patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a highly infectious disease, has been rapidly spreading all over the world and remains a great threat to global public health. Patients diagnosed with severe or critical cases have a poor prognosis. Hence, it is crucial for us to identify potentially severe or critical cases early and give timely treatments for targeted patients.

The Transcription Factor T-Bet Is Required for Optimal Type I Follicular Helper T Cell Maintenance During Acute Viral Infection.

Follicular helper T cells (TFH cells), known as the primary "helpers" of the germinal center (GC) reaction, promote the humoral immune response to defend against various pathogens. Under conditions of infection by different types of pathogens, many shared transcription factors (TFs), such as Bcl-6, TCF-1, and Maf, are selectively enriched in pathogen-specific TFH cells, orchestrating TFH cell differentiation and function. In addition, TFH cells also coexpress environmentally associated TFs as their conventional T cell counterparts (such as T-bet, GATA-3, or ROR-γt, which are expressed in Th1, Th2, or Th17 cells, respectively).

Ceria nanoparticles promoted the cytotoxic activity of CD8 T cells by activating NF-κB signaling.

Cytotoxic CD8+ T cells (CTLs) are crucial for controlling intracellular pathogens as well as cancer. However, how to promote the cytotoxic activity of CTL cells in vitro and in vivo remains largely unknown. On the other hand, ceria nanoparticles (CNPs) are widely used in biomedical fields, but the role of CNPs in CTL cells is still unclear.

The histone methyltransferase EZH2 primes the early differentiation of follicular helper T cells during acute viral infection.

Epigenetic modifications to histones dictate the differentiation of naïve CD4 T cells into different subsets of effector T helper (T) cells. The histone methyltransferase enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) has been implicated in the mechanism regulating the differentiation of T1, T2 and regulatory T (T) cells. However, whether and how EZH2 regulates follicular helper T (T) cell differentiation remain unknown.

The Transcription Factor TCF1 Preserves the Effector Function of Exhausted CD8 T Cells During Chronic Viral Infection.

The long-term persistence of viral antigens drives virus-specific CD8 T cell exhaustion during chronic viral infection. Yet exhausted, CD8 T cells are still endowed with certain levels of effector function, by which they can keep viral replication in check in chronic infection. However, the regulatory factors involved in regulating the effector function of exhausted CD8 T cell are largely unknown.

Genome-wide analysis identifies NR4A1 as a key mediator of T cell dysfunction.

T cells become dysfunctional when they encounter self antigens or are exposed to chronic infection or to the tumour microenvironment. The function of T cells is tightly regulated by a combinational co-stimulatory signal, and dominance of negative co-stimulation results in T cell dysfunction. However, the molecular mechanisms that underlie this dysfunction remain unclear.

Late-stage tumors induce anemia and immunosuppressive extramedullary erythroid progenitor cells.

Impaired immunity in patients with late-stage cancer is not limited to antitumor responses, as demonstrated by poor vaccination protection and high susceptibility to infection. This has been largely attributed to chemotherapy-induced impairment of innate immunity, such as neutropenia, whereas systemic effects of tumors on hematopoiesis and adoptive immunity remain incompletely understood. Here we observed anemia associated with severe deficiency of CD8 T cell responses against pathogens in treatment-naive mice bearing large tumors.

Differentiation and Function of Follicular CD8 T Cells During Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection.

The combination antiretroviral therapeutic (cART) regime effectively suppresses human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication and prevents progression to acquired immunodeficiency diseases. However, cART is not a cure, and viral rebound will occur immediately after treatment is interrupted largely due to the long-term presence of an HIV reservoir that is composed of latently infected target cells that maintain a quiescent state or persistently produce infectious viruses. CD4 T cells that reside in B-cell follicles within lymphoid tissues, called follicular helper T cells (TFH), have been identified as a major HIV reservoir.

Efficient control of chronic LCMV infection by a CD4 T cell epitope-based heterologous prime-boost vaccination in a murine model.

CD4 T cells are essential for sustaining CD8 T cell responses during a chronic infection. The adoptive transfer of virus-specific CD4 T cells has been shown to efficiently rescue exhausted CD8 T cells. However, the question of whether endogenous virus-specific CD4 T cell responses can be enhanced by certain vaccination strategies and subsequently reinvigorate exhausted CD8 T cells remains unexplored.