The effects of cytokines on suppression of lymphocyte proliferation by dexamethasone.

Treatment failure occurs in up to 30% of patients treated with steroids for inflammatory diseases. The aim of this study was to explore the potential role of 21 cytokines in steroid-resistant inflammatory disease and to develop methods to restore steroid sensitivity through cytokine manipulation. The dexamethasone inhibition of lymphocyte proliferation assay correlates with the outcome of steroid therapy in ulcerative colitis (UC) and other inflammatory diseases.

CD4+CD25(int) T cells in inflammatory diseases refractory to treatment with glucocorticoids.

Up to 30% of patients with autoimmune, allergic, and lymphoproliferative diseases are refractory to glucocorticoid therapy. The present study was undertaken to investigate whether such steroid resistance (SR) is limited to a subpopulation of CD4(+) T cells and, as IL-2 is a putative driver of SR, whether T cell SR is associated with CD25 expression. We show that SR patients have a characteristic subgroup of activated CD4(+) T cells that continue to proliferate despite exposure to high-dose Dexamethasone (Dex), demonstrate that CD4(+)CD25(-) cells are exquisitely sensitive to Dex whereas CD4(+)CD25(int) cells are highly SR, and further find that the combination of an anti-CD25 mAb with Dex enhances suppression of T cell proliferation compared with each agent alone.

Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3: relationship to the development of gastric pre-malignancy and gastric adenocarcinoma (United Kingdom).

IGF family proteins play a pivotal role in regulating cell growth and apoptosis in normal and tumour tissues. IGFBP-3 is the major binding protein of IGFs and modulates the bioactivity of IGFs. To examine the role of IGFBP-3 in gastric cancer, an IGFBP3 promoter polymorphism, and serum and gastric mucosal levels of IGFBP-3 were assessed in two independent groups of patients (396 and 117 patients, respectively) with gastroduodenal diseases.