Mechanism of the Effect of Oxidants and Antioxidants on Inflammation and Immune
There is a growing body of evidence that antioxidants suppress inflammatory components of the response to infection and trauma and enhance components related to cell-mediated immunity see Hughes, Chapter 9, Prasad, Chapter 10, and McKenzie et al., Chapter 12, this volume . The reverse situation applies when antioxidant defences become depleted. The oxidant molecules produced by the immune system to kill invading organisms may activate at least two important families of proteins that are...
Measles
Vitamin A supplementation reduces the morbidity and mortality from acute measles in infants and children in developing countries. Children with low circulating vitamin A concentrations had higher mortality from measles in a study from Kinshasa, Zaire Markowitz et al., 1989 . An early clinical trial from London showed that vitamin A supplementation could reduce mortality in children with acute measles Ellison, 1932 . Clinical trials showed that high-dose vitamin A reduces morbidity and mortality...
The Cell Biology of Zinc with Relevance to the Immune System
Treatment of lymphocytes with mitogens results in a fairly rapid increase in cellular Zn see Zalewski, 1996 Shankar and Prasad, 1998 Prasad, 2000a . These findings are consistent with studies indicating a requirement for Zn during the mid to late G1 phase of the cell cycle in promotion of thymidine kinase expression Chesters et al., 1993 and in another less well-defined step involved in cell transition to S phase. Activated lymphocytes take up Zn via multiple mechanisms, including receptors for...
Taurine and Immune Function
Taurine, along with sulphate, can be regarded as a biochemical end-product of cysteine metabolism. However, it is apparent that taurine also plays a role in immune function. It is the most abundant free nitrogenous compound often incorrectly classified as an amino acid in cells. It is a membrane stabilizer and regulates calcium flux, thereby controlling cell stability. It has been shown to possess antioxidant properties and to regulate the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines in hamsters, rats...
Role of Glutamine in the Pathogenesis of Type Diabetes
Since glutamine appears to act to promote lymphocyte activity, it has been proposed that increased availability of glutamine could play a role in the patho-genesis of some autoimmune conditions, such as type 1 diabetes Wu et al., 1991 . Indeed, the administration of the anti-glutamine-utilization drug acivicin delayed or stopped the progression of the disease in diabetes-prone rats Misra et al., 1996 . Addition of the glutaminase inhibitor 6-diazo-5-oxo-norleucine to macrophages before exposure...
Importance of homoeostatic immune regulation
It may seem paradoxical that mucosal disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease IBD and coeliac disease, appear to depend, at least initially, on putative Th1-cell-driven pathogenic mechanisms Scott et al., 1997 Brandtzaeg et al., 1999d , while atopic IgE-mediated allergy originates from Th2-cell responses Brandtzaeg, 1997b Corry and Kheradmand, 1999 , which generate the essential cytokines IL-4 and IL-13 early phase as well as IL-3, IL-5 and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor...
Endocrine effects of arginine
Elevated plasma levels of arginine have been found to correlate with increased secretion of various hormones, including prolactin and growth hormone from the pituitary, insulin, glucagon, insulin-like growth factor 1 IGF-1 and adrenal catecholamines see Barbul, 1996 . These hormones, in turn, can affect the functioning of the immune system. While the powerful secretagogue action of arginine is largely unexplained, a direct cholinergic effect, membrane depolarization by this highly cationic...
Factors affecting ThTh differentiation
CD8 T-cells are predestined to mature into cytotoxic T-cells. However, Th1 and Th2 cells develop from a common CD4 T-cell precursor. Differentiation of precursor Th-cells is determined by genetic and environmental factors influential at the time of T-cell antigen recognition. Several factors influencing Th1 Th2 polarization have been proposed and demonstrated, but the most potent factor is the local cytokine milieu present at the time of T-cell activation. The most potent cytokine promoting...
Integration and regionalization
Lymphoid cells are located in three distinct compartments in the gut organized gut-associated lymphoid tissue GALT , the lamina propria and the surface epithelium. GALT comprises the Peyer's patches, the appendix and numerous solitary lymphoid follicles, especially in the large bowel O'Leary and Sweeney, 1986 . All these lymphoid structures are believed to represent inductive sites for intestinal immune responses Brandtzaeg et al., 1999a . The lamina propria and epithelial compartment...
Linoleic and alinolenic acids and acquired immune function
Essential fatty-acid deficiency is reported to decrease thymus and spleen weight and suppress cell-mediated immune responses and antibody production for references, see Kelley and Daudu, 1993 Calder 1998a . However, a large number of studies in rats, mice, rabbits, chickens and monkeys have reported lower mitogen-stimulated lymphocyte proliferation and antibody production following the feeding of diets rich in linoleic acid maize, sunflower or safflower oils , compared with feeding high-fat...
L Role of Iron in Immunity and Infection
Solo Kuvibidila 1 and B. Surendra Baliga2 1 Division of Hematology Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Box T8-1, 1542 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA 2Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of South Alabama, 2451 Fillingim Street, Mobile, AL 36617, USA Iron is the fourth most common element on earth and is one of the most studied nutrients in human health see Yip and Dallman, 1996 . Iron exists in two main forms...
Thymulin
Thymulin is a nine-peptide hormone Glu-Ala-Lys-Ser-Gln-Gly-Gly-Ser-Asn secreted by thymic epithelial cells. Zn is bound to thymulin in a 1 1 stoi-chiometry via the side-chain of asparagine and the hydroxyl groups of the two serines. The binding of Zn results in a conformational change, which produces the active form of thymulin. Thymulin binds to high-affinity receptors on T-cells and promotes T-cell maturation, cytotoxicity and interleukin IL -2 production see Shankar and Prasad, 1998 ....
The secretory antibody system and its function
The remarkable magnitude of GALT as an inductive site for B-cells is documented by the fact that more than 80 of all Ig-producing blasts and plasma cells in an adult are located in the intestinal lamina propria Brandtzaeg et al., 1999a . As mentioned above, most such terminally differentiated mucosal B-cells immunocytes produce J-chain-containing dimers and some larger polymers of IgA, collectively called pIgA. These polymers as well as pentameric IgM with J chain are efficiently transported...
Glutamine Metabolism by Cells of the Immune System
The possible fates of glutamine carbon are shown in Fig. 6.4. One possible rate-determining step in the pathway of glutamine utilization is that catalysed by the enzyme phosphate-dependent glutaminase hereafter referred to as glutaminase , which is found within mitochondria. The activity of glutaminase is high in all lym-phoid organs examined, including lymph nodes, spleen, thymus, Peyer's patches and bone marrow Ardawi and Newsholme, 1985 , and in lymphocytes Ardawi, 1988a Keast and Newsholme,...
References 2
Anon. 1987 This week's citation classic. Current Contents 30, 15. Ashworth, A. 2001 Low birth weight infants, infection and immunity. In Suskind, R.M. and Tontisirin, K. eds Nutrition, Immunity and Infection in Infants and Children. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, Philadelphia, pp. 121-131. Beatty, D.W. and Dowdle, E.B. 1978 The effects of kwashiorkor serum on lymphocyte transformation in vitro. Clinical and Experimental Immunology 32, 134-143. Chandra, R.K. 1972 Immunocompetence in...
References 11
Allan, C.B., Lacourciere, G.M. and Stadtman, T.C. 1999 Responsiveness of selenoproteins to dietary selenium. Annual Review of Nutrition 19, 1-16. Arner, E.S.J. and Holmgren, A. 2000 Physiological functions of thioredoxin and thioredoxin reductase. European Journal of Biochemistry 267, 6102-6109. Arthur, J.R. and Beckett, G.J. 1994 Newer aspects of micronutrients in at risk groups new metabolic roles for selenium. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 53, 615-624. Arthur, J.R., Nicol, F,...
Harsharnjit S Gill
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The Tcell receptor
Each T-cell possesses approximately 30,000 antigen-specific T-cell receptor TCR molecules on its surface, each with the same antigen specificity. Unlike B-cell immunuoglobulin molecules, TCR is always surface-bound, is not secreted and does not undergo any form of isotype switching or somatic hypermutation. The TCR Fig. 1.2 comprises two transmembrane glycoprotein chains, linked by a disulphide bond. A single a and a single p chain associate to form the majority 90 of TCRs. However, 10 of...