免疫学技术

Rheumatoid arthritis is characterized by inflamed joints with proliferating synovium and erosion of cartilage and bone. Eventually, loss of articular cartilage leads to a necessity for joint replacement surgery. Elucidation of the mechanisms of cartilage degradation are key to u ...

Exposure to pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNFα and IL-1) results in activation of signaling cascades that lead to stimulation of activity of the transcription factors AP-1 and NF-κB and induction of genes that are controlled by these transcription factors. Such genes code for cytokines (T ...

Nuclear transcription factors (TF) regulate tissue- and stimulus-specific gene expression through their ability to integrate extracellular signals at the level of the nucleus (1). Multiple human diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurologic and autoimmu ...

Leukocyte adhesion to vascular endothelial cells is central in regulating inflammatory responses. Endothelial cells line the vasculature and cover over 1000 m2 in the average adult (1). These cells were long thought to be inert, acting only to contain the blood. This view began to change when Wa ...

The ability to measure and manipulate cytosolic free Ca2+ concentration is important for understanding many aspects of the physiology of inflammatory cells. The evidence for the role of this ion in triggering and controling neutrophils, monocytes, lymphocytes, and others cells rele ...

Phagocytosis is perhaps the key goal to which the activity of myeloid cells such as neutrophils and macrophages is directed. In vivo, neutrophils triggered to leave the blood stream, migrate through the extracellular matrix (ECM) and are guided to sources of microbes in order to kill them after ph ...

An important aspect of the function of immune phagocytes (i.e., neutrophils) is the killing of infecting microorganisms. This is achieved, after phagocytosis of the microbe, by activation of an NADPH-oxidase, which reduces oxygen to the superoxide ion in the phagosome. This has three effect ...

Complement is a humoral defense system that protects the host from microorganisms by inducing an inflammatory reaction at the site of invasion. However, complement activation is not limited to microbial protection, but is generally activated in any tissue damage irrespective of the st ...

Human synovial cells in culture, particularly those obtained from patients with rheumatoid arthritis, secrete a number of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) into the culture medium. Enzymes secreted include collagenases (MMP-1, MMP-13), gelatinases (MMP-2 and MMP-9), and strome ...

Carrageenin, from the Irish word “carraigin” meaning Irish moss, refers not only to a species of red alga Chondrus crispus found along rocky areas of the Atlantic coast of the British Isles, Europe, and North America, but also refers to its mucopolysaccharide extract, discovered by the British ph ...

This section is dedicated to in vivo models of inflammation, a necessary procedure for the discovery of appropriate usage of new therapeutic agents despite its problems (see essay later in this book by Professor David Blake). It is surprising that despite the increasing numbers of new antiinf ...

Methods were earlier described (1) for the determination of proinflammatory mediators and biochemical markers, models of acute inflammation and pain (use of implanted sponges to study the acute inflammatory response, pleurisy and pouch models, and so on), models of nonarthritic infl ...

The inflammatory response is complex. It involves selective and temporal migration of specific cell types to the affected site, fluid exudation, and usually (given time) some form of resolution. These events are orchestrated by a plethora of mediators that act sequentially to give rise to the ...

The host inflammatory response is a complex process characterized by several different steps (or phenomena) all contributing to the well-known macroscopic symptoms of this condition, which are pain, fever, redness, swelling, and, in the case of chronic inflammation (such as rheumatoid ...

Peptidoglycan-polysaccharide complexes from Group A streptococcal cell walls (SCW) induce a biphasic inflammatory response in rats that resembles rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in humans (1–3). Initiation of synovitis is dependent on the dissemination, deposition, and persiste ...

Rheumatic joint disease is commonly treated with nonsteroidal (NSAID) and steroidal antiinflammatory drugs, as well as antirheumatic agents and immunomodulators. These approaches are aimed at reducing the inflammatory processes with the assumption of limiting joint destr ...

Collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) is a polyarthritis induced by sensitization of susceptible strains of animals with collagen II (the major collagen of hyaline cartilage). Because the original description of the model in rats by Trentham et al. (1), it has become clear that species includi ...

Angiogenesis, the growth of new capillary blood vessels is an integral part of development, repair, and reproduction. Normal tissue growth such as in embryonic development, wound repair, and the menstrual cycle is characterized by dependence on new vessel formation for the supply of oxygen ...

Animal models are essential for the study of the pathophysiological basis of disease this particularly holds true for the study of inflammation and inflammatory disease. The inflammatory response in vivo involves multiple interactions between signaling pathways which have dev ...

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the Western world. The American Heart Association estimates that the treatment of CVD in 1999 cost the U.S. more than $286 billion, and when unsuccessful, claimed the lives of more than 1 million U.S. citizens. Thus, in the U.S. every 29 s someone wi ...