1,720,981 research outputs found
Flow cytometric analysis of monocytes polarization and reprogramming from inflammatory to immunosuppressive phase during sepsis
No full textSepsis outcome is determined by a balance between inflammation and immune suppression. We aimed to evaluate monocytes polarization and reprogramming during these processes. We analyzed 93 patients with procalcitonin level >0.5 ng/mL (hPCT) and suspected/confirmed sepsis, and 84 controls by analysis of CD14, CD16 and HLA-DR expression on blood monocytes using fluorescent labeled monoclonal antibodies and BD FACS CANTO II. Complete blood cell count, procalcitonin and other biochemical markers were evaluated. Intermediate monocytes CD14++CD16+ increased in hPCT patients (including both positive and negative culture) compared to controls (13.6% ± 0.8 vs 6.2% ± 0.3, p<0.001), while classical monocytes CD14++CD16- were significantly reduced (72.5% ± 1.6 vs 82.6% ± 0.7, p<0.001). Among hPCT patients having positive microbial culture, the percentage of intermediate monocytes was significantly higher in septic compared with non-septic/localized-infection patients (17.4% vs 11.5%; p<0.05) whilst the percentage of classical monocytes was lower (68.0% vs 74.5%). Three-four days following the diagnosis of sepsis, HLA-DR expression on monocyte (mHLA-DR) was lower (94.3%) compared to controls (99.4%) (p<0.05). Septic patients with the worst clinical conditions showed higher incidence of secondary infections, longtime hospitalization and lower HLA-DR+monocytes compared to septic patients with better clinical outcome (88.4% vs 98.6%, p=0.05). The dynamic nature of sepsis correlates with monocytes functional polarization and reprogramming from a pro-inflammatory CD14++CD16+ phenotype in non-septic hPCT patients to a decrease of HLA-DR surface expression in hPCT patients with confirmed sepsis, making HLA-DR reduction a marker of immune-paralysis and sepsis outcome. Analysis of monocytes plasticity opens to new mechanisms responsible for pro/anti-inflammatory responses during sepsis, and new im - muno therapies
Evaluation of Immune Responses to seasonal influenza vaccination in healthy volunteers in south Apulia, Italy: a pilot study
No full textBackground: The aim of our pilot study is to investigate different components of the immune response to influenza vaccination in a group of healthy volunteers. We evaluated the cellular immune response (CD4+ T lymphocytes) by flow cytometry. The humoral immune response was assessed by measuring the serum haemagglutination inhibition antibody response.
Methods: Healthy adult donors (n = 18), were vaccinated with a commercially influenza virus vaccine (FLUARIX® GlaxoSmithKline S.p.a. Verona, Italy), peripheral blood was drawn the same day as influenza virus vaccination and one month later in order to enumerate the antigen-specific CD4+ T lymphocytes. Hemagglutination inhibition assay was performed to enumerate the titer of neutralizing antibodies. Samples of nasal-pharyngeal secretions were taken by swabbing, from ILI (Influenza like Illness) subjects among the studied group, in order to verify influenza infections and eventually identify viruses using Real Time PCR.
Results and Conclusions: Parenteral influenza vaccination results in significant increase in the CD4+ Th cell population after vaccination. The number of pre-vaccination CD4+ T cells was 0.018 [the results are presented as number of percent fluorescent cells per 10 000 lymphocytes (fixed cells)], while there was a significantly higher number of CD4+ Th cells one month after vaccination (statistical significance was set at the level of α = 0.01). Twenty-two percent of patients demonstrated protective antibody levels to influenza A H1/N1 serotype. None was diagnosed with influenza type A or B
Profili di sensibilità degli isolati da emocolture di repart ad alto rischio di antibiotico resistenza
No full textOrgan-specific and non-organ-specific autoantibodies in children and young adults with autoimmune polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal dystrophy (APECED)
No full textObjective: The aim of the study was to assess the complex of autoantibodies which can be detected in patients with autoimmune polyendocrinopathy-candidiasis-ectodermal dystrophy (APECED), a rare autosomal recessive disease in which the extent of autoimmunity is still unknown. Design: Antibodies (A) to parathyroid glands, adrenal cortex (AC-A), ovary and testis (steroid cell antibodies, SC-A), pancreatic islet cells (IC-A), gastric parietal cells, and non-organ-specific antigens were investigated in 11 APECED patients living in the Salento region of southern Italy. Further measurements included antibodies to cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes: cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme (CYP11A), 21-hydroxylase (CYP21) and 17α-hydroxylase (CYP17); and to glutamic acid decarboxylase 65-kDa isoform (GAD65), tyrosine phosphatase-like protein IA2, thyroglobulin (TG), thyroperoxidase (TPO), thyrotropin receptor, liver CYP enzymes and intrinsic factor. Methods: Antibodies to organs and subcellular fractions were detected by immunofluorescence. Radiobinding, immunoradiometric, and immunoblotting assays were used for the other measurements. Results: AC-A and SC-A were positive in all sera; among antibodies to adrenal CYP enzymes, only CYP21-A were present in all the patients with Addison's disease of short-medium duration (15 years), two tested positive for antibodies to all three CYP enzymes, and the other for only CYP11A-A. In all sera CYP11 A-A and/or CYP17-A were found. Two patients tested positive for both IC-A and GAD65-A, one for both IC-A and IA2-A, and one for GAD65-A; the fasting C-peptide assay showed no statistical difference between these four subjects and the others. All four hypothyroid patients were positive for TPO-A, while two of them were positive and two were negative for TG-A; two euthyroid subjects had positivity for TG-A. Liver-kidney microsomal antibodies reacting against the CYP2A6 were detected in two patients with autoimmune hepatitis. All but one sera contained anti-nuclear antibodies at a titre ranging between 1:20 and 1:80; however, only two patients had a connective tissue disease (Sjogren's syndrome). Conclusions: Several autoantibodies may be detected in any APECED patient. Our data confirm that CYP21-A and TPO-A are major autoantibodies involved in APECED-associated Addison's disease and hypothyroidism respectively, while CYP11A-A and CYP17-A correlate with positivity for SC-A. Markers of islet cell autoimmunity are frequent, but prevalence and modalities of progression to overt β-cell failure have to be clarified. Low-titre non-organ-specific autoantibodies are a feature of autoimmunity in APECED, but their role has yet to be fully explained
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Performance of ESAT-6 and CFP-10 in diagnosis of tubercular infection
No full textBackground
Diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is currently
based on the tuberculin skin test. The Enzyme-linked immunospot
assay (ELISPOT) is a new blood test to diagnose
LTBI. Genomic analyses have enabled the identification of
specific M. tuberculosis proteins (ESAT-6 and CFP-10). The
use of such proteins in vitro makes it possible to detect the
presence of T lymphocytes circulating as a result of a specific
stimulus. The aim of this study is to compare the ELISPOT
and the tuberculin skin test for detecting LTBI in patients with
tuberculosis.
Patients and Methods
452 blood samples were taken: 150 subjects as control
groups and 302 subjects with TB-like symptoms and
analysed. The T effector lymphocyte assay was performed by
T-SPOT TB (Oxford Immunotec).
Results
Among 150 healthy subjects (control groups) the Mantoux
test and the in vitro test identified 0 subjects, 23 (15,3%) were
still positive in the Mantoux test, but were negative in the in
vitro assay. While, 127 (84,7%) were negative in both
immunological tests. Of the group of 302 patients with unidentified
fever, 126 (41.7%) were positive in both immunological
tests. Lastly 126 (41.7%) were negative for both tests. 25
cases were positive in the Mantoux test alone (8.3%).
Conclusions
Compared with the tuberculin skin test, the ELISPOT appears
to be at least as sensitive for diagnosis of LTBI in patients with
tuberculosis
Free and total vitamin D in psoriatic patients treated with biological drugs
No full textData regarding the association between psoriasis and vitamin D lev- els are controversial, may be due to the choice of dosing serum total 25(OH)D in order to assess the vitamin D nutritional state both at its basal levels and after supplementation. In the present study, we used the direct immunometric mea- surement of the levels of free 25(OH)D as a biomarker of the basal vitamin D status. In our study, the low free vitamin D levels reg- istered in psoriatic patients support the evidences of the pleiotropic effect of vitamin D and its likely pathogenetic role in psoriasis. Lower levels of the free fraction of vitamin D in psoriatic patients could be at least partially responsible for the altered control of kera- tinocytes proliferation and differentiation, as well as for the modu- lation of the inflammatory and immune processes. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that free 25(OH)D levels, measured with an ac- curate direct analytic method, can be a useful biomarker of vitamin D status in psoriatic patients treated with biological drugs
Sieroepidemiologia da Helicobacter pylori nella provincia di Lecce
No full textNella provincia di Lecce è stata condotta una indagine sieroepidemiologica sull’infezione da Helicobacter pylory in popolazione generale adulta (51.4% maschi e 48.6% femmine, età 0 mesi->80 anni) non selezionata. Gli anticorpi anti- Helicobacter pilory, di tipo IgG e IgA, sono stati determinati con metodica ELISA. Complessivamente sono risultati sieropositivi per IgA il 21,5% (8,4% maschi e 13,1% femmine) e positivi per IgG il 43% (18,7% maschi e 24,3% femmine) dei campioni analizzati. I valori più elevati di sieroprevalenza sono stati riscontrati, per ambedue i sessi, nella fascia di età 41-80 anni
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