Probable walnut-induced anaphylactic reaction in a dog.

Background: Anaphylaxis due to nuts is frequent in humans; to the best of the authors' knowledge, it has not been reported previously in dogs.

Case Report: A 5-year-old female, intact, Vizsla dog was presented with acute diarrhoea, vomiting, respiratory distress and erythematous wheals. The dog had eaten walnuts, which she had been fed in small amounts for years, hours before the onset of clinical signs.

Western blot analysis of sera from dogs with suspected food allergy.

Background: Food allergy is often suspected in dogs with clinical signs of atopic dermatitis. This diagnosis is confirmed with an elimination diet and a subsequent challenge with regular food. Laboratory tests for the diagnosis of food allergy in dogs are unreliable and/or technically difficult.

Tyrosine kinase 2 variant influences T lymphocyte polarization and multiple sclerosis susceptibility.

The tyrosine kinase 2 variant rs34536443 has been established as a genetic risk factor for multiple sclerosis in a variety of populations. However, the functional effect of this variant on disease pathogenesis remains unclear. This study replicated the genetic association of tyrosine kinase 2 with multiple sclerosis in a cohort of 1366 French patients and 1802 controls.

IFIH1-GCA-KCNH7 locus is not associated with genetic susceptibility to multiple sclerosis in French patients.

A recent investigation reported, for the first time, an association between variants in the IFIH1-GCA-KCNH7 locus and multiple sclerosis (MS). We sought to replicate this genetic association in MS with a new independent MS cohort composed of French Caucasian MS trio families. The two most significant IFIH1 single nucleotide polymorphisms, rs1990760 and rs2068330, reported as involved in MS susceptibility, were genotyped in 591 French Caucasian MS trio families, and analyzed using the transmission/disequilibrium test.

Mast cell transcripts are increased within and outside multiple sclerosis lesions.

Few histological studies have reported an increased of mast cells (MCs) in the brain of MS patients; we have therefore investigated whether this accumulation is associated with disease activity. We assessed a large series of post-mortem white matter samples from MS patients (n=59, 20 patients) and controls (n=28, 28 subjects) for MC-specific markers, such as FcepsilonRI, tryptase and chymase, using quantitative RT-PCR. We have found in MS samples a concordant and significant increase in MC markers and have confirmed the presence of MCs by immunohistochemistry.

Pertussis toxin reduces the number of splenic Foxp3+ regulatory T cells.

Pertussis toxin (PTx) is a bacterial toxin used to enhance the severity of experimental autoimmune diseases such as experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. It is known to promote permeabilization of the blood-brain barrier, maturation of APC, activation of autoreactive lymphocytes and alteration of lymphocyte migration. In this study, we show that i.