Recognition of T cell epitopes unique to Cha o 2, the major allergen in Japanese cypress pollen, in allergic patients cross-reactive to Japanese cedar and Japanese cypress pollen.

Background: Pollens from species of the Cupressaceae family are one of the most important causes of respiratory allergies worldwide. Many patients with pollinosis have specific IgE to both allergens from Japanese cedar and Japanese cypress pollen. We set out to identify T cell epitopes in Cha o 2, the second major allergen of Japanese cypress pollen.

Microglia and astroglia prevent oxidative stress-induced neuronal cell death: implications for aceruloplasminemia.

We partially characterized the transferrin-independent iron uptake (Tf-IU) of neuronal and glial cells in the previous report. In the present study, we further examined a mechanism of which glial cells protect neuronal cells against iron stress using neuron-microglia (N-MG) and neuron-astrocyte (N-AS) co-cultures. When each solely purified cell was treated with iron citrate, cell death occurred in N and MG.

Binaural perception of the modulation depth of AM signals.

The purpose of this study was to determine the binaurally perceived modulation depth (m) of the low rate amplitude modulated (AM) signals, under conditions of their dichotic presentation, i.e., when the AM signals presented to the left and the right ear had different modulation depths.