免疫学技术

In recent years, we have witnessed critical advances in genomics and proteomics which contributed to delineate the “tumor progression signature”. This includes the altered expression of genes and proteins not only in tumor cells, but also in tumor-associated stromal, endothelial, and ...

Shortly after the identification of nitric oxide (NO) as a product of macrophages, it was discovered that NO generated by inducible NO synthase (iNOS) inhibits the proliferation of T lymphocytes. Since then, it has become clear that iNOS activity also regulates the development, differenti ...

T-cell activation depends upon two types of signals: a T-cell-receptor-mediated antigen-specific signal and several non-antigen-specific ones provided by the engagement of costimulatory and/or inhibitory T-cell surface molecules. In clinical transplantation, T-cell co ...

Presence of foreign tissue in a host’s body would immediately lead to a strong immune response directed to destroy the alloantigens present in fetus and placenta. However, during pregnancy, the semiallogeneic fetus is allowed to grow within the maternal uterus due to multiple mechanisms of i ...

The testis is an immunological privileged tissue as evidenced by its ability to support grafts with minimal rejection. Immune privilege is essential for the tolerance of neo-antigens from developing germ cells that appear after the constitution of self-tolerance, but imposes the para ...

The eye is one of the immune privilege sites of the body that is consequently protected from the detrimental and potentially blinding influences of immunologic inflammation. Within the eye, the anterior chamber has been recognized for its immune privilege property for many years now; howe ...

For a virus to establish persistence in the host, it has to exploit the host immune system such that the active T-cell responses against the virus are curbed. On the other hand, the goal of the immune system is to clear the virus, following which the immune responses need to be downregulated, by a process known as i ...

Neural stem/progenitor cells (NSPCs) are multi-potent cells defined by their ability to self-renew and differentiate into cells of glial and neuronal lineage. Because of these properties, NSPCs have been proposed as therapeutic tools to replace lost neurons. Recent observations in a ...

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are capable of modulating the immune system and have been used to successfully treat a variety of inflammatory diseases in preclinical studies. Recent evidence has implicated paracrine signaling as the predominant mechanism of MSC therapeutic activi ...

Through the release of biologically active products, mast cells function as important effector and immunoregulatory cells in diverse immunological reactions and other biological responses; for example, mast cells promote inflammation and other tissue changes in immunoglo ...

NKT cells are innate-like αβ T cells that are conserved between humans and mice. They are distinct from conventional T cells as they recognize lipid antigens presented by the CD1d molecule. Most NKT cells expressed a highly restricted TCR repertoire and can be activated by α-galactosylcerami ...

Regulatory macrophages (M regs) are a novel type of suppressor macrophage which may be a particularly suitable cell for inducing tolerance of solid organ transplants. In this article, we provide a detailed description of the generation of human M regs from peripheral blood monocytes and met ...

Tolerogenic dendritic cells (Tol-DCs) are critical players in physiological tolerance. Moreover, they also play a role in immune regulation both in a pathophysiological context and when used as therapeutic tools in cell therapy strategies. Here, we describe a protocol to differentia ...

Dendritic cells (DCs) have a central role in immune regulation and serve as an essential link between innate and adaptive immunity. Their broad range of powerful immune stimulatory as well as regulatory functions has made DCs a target for vaccine development strategies. One approach to prom ...

CD11b+GR1+ myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) accumulate in several inflammatory conditions including cancer, infections, or trauma. MDSCs are found in bone marrow and lymphoid organs and suppress both innate and adaptive immune responses. Although mechanisms of suppre ...

Evidence has been accumulated to show that the forkhead/winged-helix transcription factor Foxp3 is a good marker for specialized CD4+ T cells that regulate immune responses to self as well as to a variety of foreign antigens including infectious or tumor antigens, alloantigens, allerge ...

Type 1 regulatory T (Tr1) cells are adaptive regulatory T cells that are induced in the periphery upon chronic exposure to antigen (Ag) in a tolerogenic environment containing interleukin (IL)-10. Tr1 cells are Ag-specific; they produce high levels of IL-10 and TGF-β in the absence of IL-4 and suppre ...

Based on results from experimental animal models, the adoptive transfer of CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ regulatory T cells (Treg) is expected to be efficacious in treating autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, as well as in preventing alloresponses after solid organ or stem-cell transplantat ...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) constitute a class of molecules regulating gene expression in many different cell types, including cells of the mammalian immune system. Indeed, changes in miRNA expression patterns have been implicated in various physiological and pathological processes. M ...

Human mature erythrocytes are terminally differentiated cells that have lost their nuclei and organelles during development. Even though mature erythrocytes lack ribosomal and other large-sized RNAs, they still retain small-sized RNAs. We have recently shown that there are abun ...