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View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrauma remains a major cause of death throughout the world, especially for patients younger than 45 years. Due to rapid advances in clinical management, both in the acute and prehospital settings, trauma patients survive devastating injuries at unprecedented rates. However, these patients can often face life threatening complications that stem from the robust innate immune response induced by severe hemorrhage, leading to further tissue injury rather than repair.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHyaluronic acid (HA), a component of the extracellular matrix, is the ligand for CD44 and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of kidney inflammation in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), but its direct role and mechanism of action have not been studied. Here we show that administration of hymecromone (4-Methylumbelliferone, 4-MU), an HA synthesis inhibitor, to lupus-prone mice suppressed dramatically lupus-related pathology. Interestingly, 4-MU stopped the appearance of disease when administered prior to its onset and inhibited the progression of disease when administered after its appearance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Activation of the complement system and complement deposition on red blood cells (RBCs) contribute to organ damage in trauma. We conducted a prospective study in subjects with traumatic injuries to determine the pattern of complement deposition on RBC and whether they are associated with clinical outcomes.
Method: A total of 124 trauma patients and 42 healthy controls were enrolled in this prospective study.
C3a is important in the regulation of the immune response as well as in the development of organ inflammation and injury. Furthermore, C3a contributes to liver regeneration but its role in intestinal stem cell function has not been studied. We hypothesized that C3a is important for intestinal repair and regeneration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSystemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an incurable autoimmune disease characterized by autoantibody deposition in tissues such as kidney, skin and lungs. Notably, up to 75% of patients with SLE experience neuropsychiatric symptoms that range from anxiety, depression and cognitive impairment to seizures and, in rare cases, psychosis-collectively this is referred to as central nervous system (CNS) lupus. In some cases, certain autoantibodies, such as anti-NMDAR or anti-phospholipid antibodies, promote CNS lupus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntestinal ischemia followed by reperfusion leads to local and remote organ injury attributed to inflammatory response during the reperfusion phase. The extent to which ischemia contributes to ischemia/reperfusion injury has not been thoroughly studied. After careful evaluation of intestinal tissue following 30 min of ischemia, we noticed significant local mucosal injury in wild-type mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe robust inflammatory response that occurs during ischemia reperfusion (IR) injury recruits factors from both the innate and adaptive immune systems. However the contribution of platelets and their products such as Platelet Factor 4 (PF4; CXCL4), during the pathogenesis of IR injury has not been thoroughly investigated. We show that a deficiency in PF4 protects mice from local and remote tissue damage after 30 minutes of mesenteric ischemia and 3 hours of reperfusion in PF4-/- mice compared to control B6 mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol
June 2012
Tissue injury following ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) occurs as a consequence of actions of soluble factors and immune cells. Growing evidence supports a role for platelets in the manifestation of tissue damage following I/R. Spleen tyrosine kinase has been well documented to be important in lymphocyte activation and more recently in platelet activation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeveral innate and adaptive immune cell types participate in ischemia/reperfusion induced tissue injury. Amongst them, platelets have received little attention as contributors in the process of tissue damage after ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury. It is currently unknown whether platelets participate through the immunologically important molecules including, CD40 and when activated, CD154 (CD40L), in the pathogenesis of I/R injury.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol
April 2012
Ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. A functional role for platelets in tissue damage after mesenteric I/R is largely unknown. The hypothesis that mesenteric I/R local and remote injury are platelet dependent was tested.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol
December 2011
Gut commensal bacteria play important roles in the development and homeostasis of intestinal immunity. However, the role of gut commensals in intestinal ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is unclear. To determine the roles of gut commensal bacteria in intestinal IR injury, we depleted gut microbiota with a broad-spectrum antibiotic cocktail and performed mesenteric I/R (M I/R).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol
August 2010
Reperfusion injury to tissue following an ischemic event occurs as a consequence of an acute inflammatory response that can cause significant morbidity and mortality. Components of both the innate (complement, immunoglobulin, monocytes, and neutrophils) and adaptive (B and T lymphocytes) immune systems have been demonstrated to mediate tissue injury. Spleen tyrosine kinase (Syk) is responsible for membrane-mediated signaling in various cell types including B lymphocytes, macrophages, and T cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSevere injury disrupts normal immune regulation causing a transient hyperinflammatory reaction and suppressed adaptive immune function. This report addresses the potential contribution of dendritic cells (DC) to changes in adaptive immune function after injury by specifically measuring injury-induced changes in splenic DC numbers and subsets, cell-surface markers, TLR responses, and APC function. Using a mouse burn injury model, we found that injury did not markedly alter the relative percentage of lymphoid, myeloid, or plasmacytoid DC in the spleens of burn-injured mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol
February 2009
Ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury represents a major clinical challenge, which contributes to morbidity and mortality during surgery. The critical role of natural immunoglobulin M (IgM) and complement in tissue injury has been demonstrated. However, cellular mechanisms that result in the deposition of natural IgM and the activation of complement are still unclear.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: We recently reported increased CD4 CD25 T regulatory (Treg) activity after burn injury in mice. This study sought to determine if Tregs mediate the reduction in TH1-type immunity after serious injury in man and if Treg function is altered by injury.
Methods: Peripheral blood was withdrawn from 19 consenting adult patients (35.
Platelets play a fundamental role in maintaining hemostasis and have been shown to participate in innate and adaptive immunity. However, the role of platelets in the immune response to injury remains undefined. We tested the importance of platelets in the host response to serious injury in a newly developed platelet-deficient mouse model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLigation of endothelial cell (EC) CD40 induces the expression of several proinflammatory cytokines as well as angiogenesis factors, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Moreover, despite the reported importance of CD40 in cell-mediated immunity, little is known of the CD40-induced signaling pathways in EC. In this study, we have investigated the function of the Ras signaling pathway(s) for CD40-induced overexpression of VEGF.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is produced by several cell types in the kidney, and its expression is tightly regulated for the maintenance of normal renal physiology. Increases or decreases in its expression are associated with proteinuria and renal disease. Recently, we found that the expression of VEGF is markedly induced following interactions between CD40 ligand (CD40L) and CD40.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCell fusion involving progenitor cells is a newly recognized phenomenon thought to contribute to tissue differentiation. The molecular mechanisms governing cell fusion are unknown. P-glycoprotein and related ATP-binding cassette transporters are expressed by progenitor cells, but their physiological role in these cell types has not been defined.
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