Immunostimulatory sequence CpG elicits Th1-type immune responses in inflammatory skin lesions in an atopic dermatitis murine model.

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease, for which no fundamental therapy exists. Immunostimulatory sequence CpG (ISS CpG) has potential in reducing susceptibility to allergic diseases and reversing established allergic reactions.

Objective: To investigate the effects of ISS CpG in the prevention and treatment of AD in an AD murine model.

Contact dermatitis.

Contact dermatitis is a common skin disease caused by contact with irritants or allergens. Irritant contact dermatitis is a result of nonspecific irritant factors, which cause activation of mainly innate immunity, resulting in skin inflammation. Contact hypersensitivity, which manifests itself as allergic contact dermatitis, is result of adaptive immune response, where sensitization to hapten-carrier complexes leads to T-cell-mediated contact allergy.

Topical superantigen exposure induces epidermal accumulation of CD8+ T cells, a mixed Th1/Th2-type dermatitis and vigorous production of IgE antibodies in the murine model of atopic dermatitis.

Patients with atopic dermatitis (AD) have repeated cutaneous exposure to both environmental allergens and superantigen-producing strains of Staphylococcus aureus. We used a murine model of AD to investigate the role of staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) in the modulation of allergen-induced skin inflammation. Mice were topically exposed to SEB, OVA, a combination of OVA and SEB (OVA/SEB), or PBS.

Intranasal exposure to Stachybotrys chartarum enhances airway inflammation in allergic mice.

Rationale: Exposure to building dampness, often associated with growth of microbes such as Stachybotrys chartarum, has been linked to respiratory symptoms. We have shown previously in a murine model that exposure to S. chartarum can induce lung inflammation characterized by infiltration of neutrophils and lymphocytes; this process is regulated by proinflammatory cytokines and leucocyte-attracting chemokines.

The photoactivation energy of the visual pigment in two spectrally different populations of Mysis relicta (Crustacea, Mysida).

We report the first study of the relation between the wavelength of maximum absorbance (lambdamax) and the photoactivation energy (Ea) in invertebrate visual pigments. Two populations of the opossum shrimp Mysis relicta were compared. The two have been separated for 9,000 years and have adapted to different spectral environments ("Sea" and "Lake") with porphyropsins peaking at lambdamax=529 nm and 554 nm, respectively.

Polymorphism of the rod visual pigment between allopatric populations of the sand goby (Pomatoschistus minutus): a microspectrophotometric study.

Absorbance spectra were measured by microspectrophotometry in retinal rods of sand gobies (Pomatoschistus minutus) from four allopatric populations (Baltic Sea, Swedish west coast, English Channel and Adriatic Sea). Mean (+/- S.E.