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The immunological mechanisms that contribute to multiple sclerosis (MS) differ between males and females. Females are 2-3 times more likely to develop MS compared to males, however the reason for this discrepancy is unknown. Once MS is established, there is a more inflammatory yet milder form of disease in females whereas males generally suffer from more severe disease and faster progression, neural degradation, and disability.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is characterized by permanent scarring of lung tissue and declining lung function, and is an incurable disease with increase in prevalence over the past decade.
This study is designed to identify the specific unique immune cell response that occurs in these children with recurrent disease.
There is now considerable evidence demonstrating that both prenatal and postnatal exposure to particular classes of microbial stimuli can provide beneficial signals during early life immune development, resulting in the protection against future inflammatory disease.
One explanation for the high burden of allergic and autoimmune diseases in industrialized countries is inappropriate immune development under modern...
the association between infant LRTI and risk for persistent wheeze/asthma in this cohort is generally stronger for fLRTIs than for other infection categories
The gut microbiota is influenced by environmental factors such as food. Maternal diet during pregnancy modifies the gut microbiota composition and function, leading to the production of specific compounds that are transferred to the fetus and enhance the ontogeny and maturation of the immune system. Prebiotics are fermented by gut bacteria, leading to the release of short-chain fatty acids that can specifically interact with the immune system, inducing a switch toward tolerogenic populations and therefore conferring health benefits.
Brown adipose tissue (BAT) may be an important metabolic regulator of whole-body glucose. While important roles have been ascribed to macrophages in regulating metabolic functions in BAT, little is known of the roles of other immune cells subsets, particularly dendritic cells (DCs). Eating a high-fat diet may compromise the development of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs)-which give rise to DCs-in bone marrow, with less known of its effects in BAT. We have previously demonstrated that ongoing exposure to low-dose ultraviolet radiation (UVR) significantly reduced the 'whitening' effect of eating a high-fat diet upon interscapular (i) BAT of mice.
We recently reported that offspring of mice treated during pregnancy with the microbial-derived immunomodulator OM-85 manifest striking resistance to allergic airways inflammation, and localized the potential treatment target to fetal conventional dendritic cell (cDC) progenitors. Here, we profile maternal OM-85 treatment-associated transcriptomic signatures in fetal bone marrow, and identify a series of immunometabolic pathways which provide essential metabolites for accelerated myelopoiesis.
We describe herein a highly reproducible in vivo passive cutaneous anaphylaxis assay using Sprague Dawley rats for the quantification of ovalbumin-specific IgE