• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.197-203
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• 1998

Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis is a disease occuring predominantly in patients with defects in immunity such as neutropenia, hematologic malignancies or with defects in cell-mediated immunity. The isolation of Aspergillus from respiratory tract of normal host usually signifies tracheobronchial colonization, making this diagnosis difficult. There are isolated case reports occuring in normal hosts but most of them were diagnosed postmortem at autopsies indicating that early diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis in normal host is difficult. We describe here a case of invasive aspergillosis in a immunocompetent host diagnosed by lung biopsy which was successfully treated with Amphotericin-B. Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis should be included as one of the differential diagnosis if a patient with pneumonic consolidation does not respond to usual therapy, even if the patient does not have any defect in immunity.

• Environmental Mutagens and Carcinogens
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.112-124
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• 2002

2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) has been reported to exert detrimental toxicities on various organ systems including reproductive, cardiovascular, nervous, or dermal system. Immunomodulatory effects of TCDD is thymic atrophy, downregulation of cytotoxic T or B lymphocyte differentiation and activation, which were demonstrated using experimental animals, whereas immunotoxicity in human has not been investigated well. This study was proceeded to evaluate general immunologic spectrum of the Korean Vietnam War veterans exposed to TCDD during their operation, and compare with that of the non-exposed control subjects with similar age. Regarding composition and quantity, immune cells in peripheral blood collected from the TCDD-exposed was not much different from those of the control except decreased red blood cell, hemoglobin and hematocrit level. Furthermore, plasma IgG2, G3, and G4 isotype distribution was similar between two groups, but IgG1 level was significantly lowered in the TCDD-exposed, indicating a TCDD-mediated functional alteration of B cells. Significantly enhanced level of IgE in plasma, a hallmark of dermal or respiratory allergic response, was also observed in the TCDD-exposed compared with that of the control. Elevated generation of IL-4 and IL-10 was resulted from in vitro stimulation of T cells with PMA plus ionomycin or PHA, respectively, from the TCDD-exposed in comparison to those of the control, suggesting a skewed type-2 response. In addition, the level of IFN${\gamma}$, a multifunctional cytokine for T cell-mediated immunity, was lowered in the TCDD-exposed with upregulation of tumor necrosis factor $\alpha$. The present study suggests that TCDD exposure disturbs immunohomeostasis in humans observed as an aberrant plasma IgE and IgG1 levels and dysregulation of T cell activities.

• Parasites, Hosts and Diseases
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.85-90
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• 1990

This study was aimed to observe the direct and Iymphokine-activated cell mediated cytotoxic effects against Trichomenas waginalis by mouse peritoneal macrophages. Cytotoxicity was measured as release of 3H-thymidine from prelabeled protozoa, and tested in U-bottom microtiter plates. A 0.1 ml suspension of labeled protozoa (2{\times}10^5/ml$) was placed in each well, followed by 0.1 ml of a suspension containing increasing numbers of peritoneal cells. After a 24 hr incubation at $37^{\circ}C$, 0.1ml of the supernatant was collected and counted in liquid scintillation counter. Mouse peritoneal macrophages had appreciable level of spontaneous cytotoxicity against T. maginalis at the effector to target cell ratios from 5 : 1 to 50 : 1, Treatment of macrophages with Iymphokine, produced by PHA-stimulated spleen cells, increased the cytotoxicity in comparison with resident macrophages against T. vaginalis. The degree of macrophage activation for the killing was not dependent upon the Iymphokine concentration. Peritoneal cells adherent to plastic displayed significant levels of cytotoxicity against T. vaginalis. This study indicates that mouse peritoneal macrophages are spontaneously cytotoxic for T. waginalis and Iymphokine increases the cytotoxicity by activating macrophages to kill T. vaginalis.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.335-349
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• 2002

The immune response against Salmonella gallinarum infection was investigated in immunosuppresed chickens. Newly hatched chickens were treated with cyclophosphamide at the first and second day after birth and were challenged intraperitoneally with S gallinarum ($1{\times}10^7CFU/m{\ell}$) on day 6. Group 1, Immunosuppresed and Challenged group, was treated with cyclophaiphamide and challenged with S gallinarum; group 2, Immunosuppressed group, was only treated with cyclophsphamide; group 3, Challenged group, was only challenged with S gallinarum; group 4, Control group. In each group, the localization of lymphocytes of the lymphoid organs and intestine was immunohistochemically compared using a variety of monoclonal antiboies ($CD4^+$, $CD8^+$, and B lymphocyte). Also, S gallinarum were assessed by Maccallum-Goodpasture stain and immunohistochemical analysis in the paraffin-embedded intestinal tissues. In S gallinarum challenged chickens, $CD4^+$ and $CD8^+$ lymphocytes of the intestinal organs such as duodenum, jejunum, ileum and colon were increased. However, in cyclophophamide treated chickens, $CD4^+$ and $CD8^+$ lymphocytes and especially B lymphocytes of the lymphoid organs such as thymus, spleen, and bursa of Fabricius were dramatically decreased. These results suggest that cyclophsophamide is an immunosuppressive agent that especially causes depletion of B lymphocytes, suppress humoral immunity and eventually suppresses avian immune responses. Its protection against S gallinarum infection is mainly dependent on both cell-mediated mechanism and the humoral immune response.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.12
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• pp.1728-1735
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• 2014

Scrub typhus, caused by infection with Orientia tsutsugamushi, is a mite-borne zoonotic disease endemic to the Asian-Pacific region. In Korea, the incidence of this disease has increased with climate changes, and over 10,000 cases of infection were reported in 2013. Although this infection is treatable with antibiotics such as doxycycline and azithromycin, an effective prophylactic vaccine against O. tsutsugamushi would be more desirable for preventing scrub typhus in endemic areas. In this study, we investigated the 56-kDa type-specific antigen (TSA56), which is a major outer membrane protein of O. tsutsugamushi, as a vaccine candidate. Intranasal immunization of recombinant TSA56 (rec56) induced a higher level of TSA56-specific IgG than that induced by intramuscular immunization of tsa56-expressing DNA (p56). Both types of immunization induced a cell-mediated immune response to TSA56, as demonstrated by the splenic cell proliferation assay. Mice immunized with p56, followed by rec56 plus heat-labile enterotoxin B subunit from E. coli, had a stronger protection from a homologous challenge with the O. tsutsugamushi Boryong strain than with other combinations. Our preliminary results suggest that an effective human vaccine for scrub typhus can include either recombinant TSA56 protein or tsa56-expressing DNA, and provide the basis for further studies to optimize vaccine performance using additional antigens or different adjuvants.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.31 no.4 s.85
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• pp.287-293
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• 2005

Pollen has been used for Prevention or treatment of certain diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, or cancer in traditional medicine. In addition, pollen is under investigation as a host cell for a gene expression. This study was undertaken to evaluate the immunologic safety of pollen intake. BALB/c mice were administered with 500, 50,5, or 0.5 mg/kg bw of lily pollen for five times a week for four weeks through gastric intubation. Comparing the control mice administered with distilled water, no significant changes were observed in body weight gain, weight of liver, spleen, lung, and his-topathological findings of liver and kidney of the mice groups administered with the pollen. Plasma level of IgG1, IgG2a, and IgE was not different among the groups. When splenic B lymphocytes were stimulated in vitro with lipopolysaccharides for 7 days, level of IgGl and IgGwa produced in the culture supernatants was not significantly different among the groups. Furthermore, no significant alteration was observed in IL-4 and $IFN{\gamma}$ producing ability with splenic T lymphocytes stimulated in vitro with phytohemagglutinins for 48 hours between the pollen-administered and the control mice. Overall, this study suggests that the lily pollen intake is Inducing no significant modulation of humoral and cell-mediated immunity in mice.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.257-262
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• 1998

Benzo(a)pyrene(B(a)P), an extensively studied polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon(PAH), is a common contaminant produced through the burning of fossil fuels, particularly coal, and from the exhaust products of internal combustion engines. It produces a wide range of toxicities, including carcinogenicity in experimental animals. B(a)P has been shown to suppress systemic immunity in experimental animals, which may contribute to the growth of the chemical-induced tumors. Using colorimetric MTT assay natural killer(NK) cell-mediated growth inhibition of tomor cell was measured in normal and B(a)P-exposed C57BL/6 mice. Non-adherent splenocytes of normal or B(a)P-exposed mice were cultured with Yac-1 cells at four different effector/target(E/T) cell ratios ranging from 200/1, 100/1, 50/1, and 25/1 in an assay volume of 0.1 ml. After the optical density of culture wells containing MTT solution was measured at a wavelength of 540 nm, the percentage of dead cells relative to the control target cell number was calculated. The NK activity of B(a)P-exposed mice was markedly lower than that of non-exposed mice group at all E/T ratios. These results indicated that suppression of NK cell activity may play a role in allowing for the growth of tumors.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.307-313
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• 1994

We have previously shown that crude water extract of Euonymus alatus (EA) had strong prophylactic effect against chemically induced-and tumor cell implanted-cancer, and that the mechanisms responsible for its antitumor effects were due to nonspecific enhancement of the NK cell activities and the cell mediated immunity. However, it was unknown that any components of crude extract did work so, since it consisted of several components. In this paper, we fractionated the crude watar EA-extract into several fraction such as hexane-, ethylether-, ethyl acetate-, n-butanol- and water soluble-fraction, and screened the immune regulating activities of each fraction by the evaluation of lymphokine production and activated lymphocyte proliferation. As a result of the component fraction of EA-extract, it was found that n-butanol fraction was a potent immunostimulator, and the remained water soluble fraction also contained some stimulator, But, other fraction did not showed any remarkable effect. It is therefore suggested that EA-glycosides in n-butanol fraction may be new one of the potent biological response modifiers. The present study was also undertaken in an efforts to investigate the effects of elm-bark(EB, Ulmus clavidiana var japonica), which has been used for curing ulcer and inflammation as a folk medicine without any kind of experimental evidence to support this, on the cellular- and humoral-immune responses, lymphocyte function and NK cell activities in mice. Regardless of time and duration of EB-treatment, Arthus reaction and antibody response to SRBC were not modified by EB, but delayed hypersensitivity to SRBC was significantly enhanced only when EB was treated prior to SRBC-sensitization. EB slightly inhibited the proliferation responses of splenocytes to PHA-stimulation, but it significantly augmented the responses of these cells to S aureus Cowan 1 and Con A-activation, and these effects were manifested only when EB was added at culture initiation. EB did not influence Ig secretion of spleen cells but it significantly augmented the Con A-induced 1L 2 and MIF production of splenocytes. NK cell activities of splenocytes were markedly riled when effector cells were pretreated with EB and this augmentation was dine to the increase of binding affinity of effector cells to target cells and the target cell lytic activities of effector cells. These results led to the conclusion that EB triggers increase of cellular immune responses, such as delayed hypersensitivitiy, lymphokine production and NK cell activities. Also these results suggested that EB contains potent immune stimulants, which may provide the rational basis for their therapeutic use as one of the new biological response modifiers.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.71 no.6
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• pp.454-458
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• 2011

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common type of leukemia occurring in Western nations. In CLL it is well known that the risk of a secondary malignancy is higher than in the normal population. But in Korea, CLL is a rare type of leukemia, so there have been only a few reported cases with a secondary malignancy. CLL is characterized by progressive defects in both cell-mediated and humoral immunity. It is known that defects in the immune system of patients with CLL contribute to the development of a secondary malignancy. We experienced a case of a 71-year-old man who suffered from a chronic cough and was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer coexisting with CLL. Until this case, there was no reported case in Korea of small cell lung cancer coexisting with CLL. We now report a case of small cell lung cancer coexisting with CLL and present a literature review.

• IMMUNE NETWORK
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2014

Follicular helper T ($T_{FH}$) cells are recently highlighted as their crucial role for humoral immunity to infection as well as their abnormal control to induce autoimmune disease. During an infection, na$\ddot{i}$ve T cells are differentiating into $T_{FH}$ cells which mediate memory B cells and long-lived plasma cells in germinal center (GC). $T_{FH}$ cells are characterized by their expression of master regulator, Bcl-6, and chemokine receptor, CXCR5, which are essential for the migration of T cells into the B cell follicle. Within the follicle, crosstalk occurs between B cells and $T_{FH}$ cells, leading to class switch recombination and affinity maturation. Various signaling molecules, including cytokines, surface molecules, and transcription factors are involved in $T_{FH}$ cell differentiation. IL-6 and IL-21 cytokine-mediated STAT signaling pathways, including STAT1 and STAT3, are crucial for inducing Bcl-6 expression and $T_{FH}$ cell differentiation. $T_{FH}$ cells express important surface molecules such as ICOS, PD-1, IL-21, BTLA, SAP and CD40L for mediating the interaction between T and B cells. Recently, two types of microRNA (miRNA) were found to be involved in the regulation of $T_{FH}$ cells. The miR-17-92 cluster induces Bcl-6 and $T_{FH}$ cell differentiation, whereas miR-10a negatively regulates Bcl-6 expression in T cells. In addition, follicular regulatory T ($T_{FR}$) cells are studied as thymus-derived $CXCR5^+PD-1^+Foxp3^+\;T_{reg}$ cells that play a significant role in limiting the GC response. Regulation of $T_{FH}$ cell differentiation and the GC reaction via miRNA and $T_{FR}$ cells could be important regulatory mechanisms for maintaining immune tolerance and preventing autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Here, we review recent studies on the various factors that affect $T_{FH}$ cell differentiation, and the role of $T_{FH}$ cells in autoimmune diseases.