Involvement of tumour necrosis factor-alpha-related apoptosis-inducing ligand in enhanced cytotoxicity of lipopolysaccharide-stimulated dendritic cells to activated T cells.

Dendritic cells (DC) are potent antigen-presenting cells (APC) specialized in T-cell mediated immune responses, and also play critical roles in the homeostasis of T cells for controlling immune responses. In the present study, we demonstrated that during mouse bone-marrow-derived DC activation of ovalbumin (OVA)-specific Ia-kb-restricted T hybridoma cells, MF2.2D9 and OVA257-264-specific H-2kb-restricted RF33.

Activation of antigen-presenting cells by immunostimulatory plant DNA: a natural resource for potential adjuvant.

Genomic DNA sequences (bacteria, insect, nematodes and molluscs) or synthetic oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN) containing unmethylated CpG motifs (CpG-DNA/ODN) are regarded as promising candidates for new medical adjuvants for their ability to stimulate the mammalian immune system and enhance immune responses to specific antigens. Here, we first report the immunostimulatory activity of total genomic DNA from two plants, Brassica chinensis L. and Zea may, the CpG methylation status of which is incomplete compared with E.

Increased tumorigenicity, but unchanged immunogenicity, of transporter for antigen presentation 1-deficient tumors.

The lack of transporter-for-antigen-presentation (TAP)-1 expression by tumor cells prevents the processing and presentation of MHC class I-restricted tumor antigens. This could affect T-cell-dependent tumor immunity in either the priming or the effector phase. We have established TAP1(+) and TAP1(-) tumor cell lines using ras-transformed NIH3T3 fibroblasts.

Involvement of ERK, p38 and NF-kappaB signal transduction in regulation of TLR2, TLR4 and TLR9 gene expression induced by lipopolysaccharide in mouse dendritic cells.

Toll-like receptors (TLR) are sentinel receptors capable of recognizing pathogen-associated molecule patterns (PAMP) such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and CpG-containing oligonucleotides (CpG ODN). TLR2 and TLR4 are major receptors for Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial cell wall components, respectively. TLR9 is necessary for CpG signalling.

Up-regulation of TLR9 gene expression by LPS in mouse macrophages via activation of NF-kappaB, ERK and p38 MAPK signal pathways.

Toll-like receptors (TLR) are critical in the activation of macrophages by bacterial products. It has been shown that TLR2 and TLR4 mediate lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and lipoproteins signal transduction, respectively. Regulation of TLR2 and TLR4 expression by LPS was considered to be one of the mechanisms to control the overall responses of immune cells to bacteria.

Psoriatic lesional keratinocytes promote the maturation of human monocyte-derived Langerhans cells.

Background: Langerhans cells (LCs) are important antigen-presenting cells in the epidermis and may play a key role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. It has been proven that LCs isolated from psoriatic lesions are abnormal. However, the mechanism of the abnormality has not been reported so far.

Enhanced antitumor effect of EGF R-targeted p21WAF-1 and GM-CSF gene transfer in the established murine hepatoma by peritumoral injection.

One of the major obstacles in current cancer gene therapy is the lack of a gene delivery system with high efficiency and targetability. In this paper, a nonviral gene delivery system GE7, which was designed to target EGF receptor (EGF R) overexpressed on the surface of cancer cel Is through an EGF R-binding oligopeptide (GE7), was used for in vivo gene therapy in a murine subcutaneous hepatoma model. It was demonstrated that the GE7 system could target the reporter gene beta-gal to EGF R-expressing hepatoma cells with high efficiency after in vitro transfection and in vivo peritumoral injection.