Cellular Bone Marrow Interactions Extracellular Matrix

Although it is commonly imagined that hematopoiesis takes place in a liquid environment resembling the blood, with progenitors responding mainly to soluble hormone-like cytokines, this is in fact not the case at all. It is much more accurate to think of the bone marrow as a solid tissue in which different types of hematopoietic cells develop in physically different locations. These microenvironments are visible in histologic sections of bone marrow, which reveal a patchwork of microscopic foci, each devoted to the production of a particular cell type (Figure bellow). The bone marrow microenvironment is set up and maintained by bone marrow stromal cells. Within each microenvironment, contact of cells with one another or with proteins and other substances that make up the extracellular matrix (ECM) greatly facilitates cell division and differentiation. (more…)

Immunoglobulin E (IgE) Regulation and Biology

immunoglobulin e
Normally present at very low levels in plasma, antibodies of the immunoglobulin E (IgE) isotype were first discovered in 1967, decades after the description of IgA, IgG, and IM. IgE antibodies are produced primarily by plasma cells in mucosal-associated lymphoid tissue and their levels are uniformly elevated in patients suffering from atopic conditions like allergic rhinitis, asthma and atopic dermatitis. Production of allergen-specific IgE in atopic individuals is driven both by a genetic predisposition to the synthesis of this isotype as well as by environmental factors, including chronic allergen exposure. (more…)

Antigen-Specific Cd4 T Cells Drive Airways Smooth Muscle Remodeling In Experimental Asthma

Cd4 T Cells
Airway hyper-responsiveness in asthma may involve smooth muscle growth, a manifestation of airway remodelling. The involvement of inflammatory cells in the induction of airway smooth muscle growth was studied in vivo and ex vivo in a brown Norway rat model of asthma. Transfer of CD4 + T lymphocytes from ovalbuminsensitized animals induced an increase in airway smooth muscle mass in naive animals upon repeated ovalbumin challenge. Ex vivo, coculture of antigen-stimulated CD4 + T cells and airway smooth muscle cells led to myocyte proliferation and prolonged T-cell survival. (more…)

Allergy Testing: Physical Examination Allergic Patients

An allergic patient’s history may point the clinician’s assessment to a specific area or organ system during allergy testing. In general, physical examination may be standard; shortage of findings isn’t going to rule out allergy.

Essential indicators are a starting point in any physical examination of allergic patients. Respiratory rate is essential as well, but hyperventilation is more a representation of minute ventilation (respiratory rate × tidal volume) than respiratory rate on it’s own. (more…)

Gastrointestinal Allergy Symptoms and Food Intolerance

gastrointestinal allergy symptoms
Gastrointestinal allergy can be classified according to the triggering antigen, the mechanism of immune reaction, or the anatomic site of reaction.

Gastrointestinal allergy may be triggered by food components (e.g. food proteins or glycoproteins), and by other antigen antibody reaction to (e.g. bacterial disease, viral, fungal, and worm antigen), drugs and chemicals, (more…)

Drug Allergy Reaction Classification – Immune Reactions

drug allergy reaction
Drug allergy reactions may be classified, at least theoretically, according to one of four implicated immunologic mechanisms, according to the scheme of Gell and Coombs:

Type I Drug Allergy Reactions

Type I reactions are the result of an IgE antibody reaction, which induces immediate-type hypersensitivity reactions. (more…)

Oral Tolerance and Antigenic Proteins Founds in Food

gut-associated-lymphoid-tissueHuman body treated all of the food that we ate, either plants or animals, as foreign substances. It is body immune system’s function to protect us from foreign material’s intrusion which may causes harmful to us. Then why does our immune system not oppose and refuse foreign materials that we consume as food?”

Naturally, if our body totally reject those foods which get into our body, we could not survive! Then, what is it that allows for food to plainly evade the roadblock of immune cells and be taken up into our bodies? In the final process, food become an integral part of our tissues and organs, and then be used as fuel for essential body processes. Research has begun to reveal part of the answer to this important issue in our body complex immune system question: the complex series of events known as oral tolerance. (more…)

Food Allergies and Intolerance — Basic Mechanisms

food-allergy-food-intoleranceOur current knowledge for trigger factor and food allergy intolerance is still in it infancy level. We already known that the allergic intolerance are different for groups of people. Some individuals are less resistant in developing allergy than others. Allergic sensitivity or atopic allergic disease are heritable and this means that genetic factors is playing a critical role. But the latest researches reveal that it is not merely heredity factors, environmental also have significant impact for someone to develop allergy.

Allergy trigger in the form of food allergen are mostly fallen to some certain foods like milk, egg, peanuts, fish, soya and nuts. We are curios on what is so peculiar about allergens in food? (more…)

Anatomy of Immune System and Cellular Immune Response

lymphoid-tissue-cellular-imune-responseCells participating in the cellular immune response are organized into discrete associated lymphoid tissues and organs which are spread through the connective tissues of non lymphoid organs. Lymphocyte cell are responsible for the specificity of the cellular immune response. Approximately 2 x 1012 lymphocytes constitute the mature lymphoid system in humans together with a variety of ‘accessory’ cells which include epithelial cells, monocyte or macrophages cells and other antigen-presenting cells. Accessory cells are neede both for the maturation and for the effector cells functions of lymphocytes. (more…)