Recruitment of CD4 T lymphocytes and macrophages into the cervical epithelium of women after coitus.

Objective: T lymphocytes and macrophages are considered essential components of the immune response. Many factors are known to influence the presence and distribution these cells in genital mucosa. This study investigated the effect of sexual intercourse on cervical intraepithelial T lymphocytes and macrophages in healthy uninfected women.

Longevity and the immune response.

The domino hypothesis of the onset of age associated immune insufficiency suggests that it is the consequence of a cascade of events beginning with involution of the thymus. Involution is associated with a reduced thymic output leading to fewer naïve T cells contributing to the peripheral T-cell pool. Homeostatic mechanisms, which maintain the number of T cells in the peripheral pool within precise limits, induce the proliferation and prolong the survival of resident T cells to fill the niches left vacant by the absent naïve T cells.

Evaluation of the cervical cytobrush sampling technique for the preparation of CD45+ mononuclear cells from the human cervix.

A cytobrush technique developed to prepare mononuclear cells from the intraepithelial layer of the endocervix has been evaluated. Specimens yielded approximately 4-6x10(6) cells, of which 10-15% were CD45+. Between 10% and 15% of these CD45+ cells were mononuclear leukocytes.

Il-7 and not stem cell factor reverses both the increase in apoptosis and the decline in thymopoiesis seen in aged mice.

Thymic atrophy is an age-associated decline in commitment to the T cell lineage considered to be associated with defective TCR beta-chain rearrangement. Both IL-7 and stem cell factor (SCF) have dominant roles at this stage of triple negative (TN) thymocyte development. Because there is no age-associated decrease in the number of CD44(+)CD25(-)CD3(-)CD4(-)CD8(-) cells, this study investigated whether alterations in apoptosis within the TN pathway accounted for diminishing thymocyte numbers with age.