Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 10, Issue 8, 2004

Humans, like other complex aerobic organisms, possess highly evolved systems for the delivery of dioxygen to all the cells of the body. These systems are regulated since excessive levels of dioxygen are toxic. In animals hypoxia causes an increase in the transcription levels of specific genes, including those encoding for vascular endothelial growth factor and erythropoietin. At the transcriptional level, the hypoxic respo Read More

B-lymphocytes are exposed to a reduction / oxidation environment during activation or inflammatory process, and the antioxidant systems are functional to protect themselves against harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS). The crucial roles of thioredoxin-2 (Trx-2) and a DNA repair enzyme APE / Ref-1 in mitochondria are reported in B-lymphocytes. Furthermore, ROS stimulate different signaling pathways in many cellular res Read More

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are produced in all mammalian cells as a result of normal cellular metabolism and due to the activation of oxidant-producing enzymes in response to exogenous stimuli. The balance between ROS production and antioxidant defenses determines the degree of oxidative stress. Generation of ROS has been associated with cell signaling, stress responses, cell proliferation, aging and cancer develo Read More

The ability to target and accumulate monocytes and macrophages in areas of tissue inflammation plays an important role in innate and humoral immunity. However, when this process becomes uncontrolled, tissue injury and dysfunction may ensue. This paper will focus on understanding the role and action of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) in regulating the molecular and biochemical pathw Read More

Peroxynitrite, the product of the reaction between nitric oxide and superoxide, is spontaneouly formed within most mammalian cells under physiological conditions. Initial work addressing the pathophysiology of peroxynitrite afforded the generally accepted notion that this compound would be the long-term neurotoxic nitric oxide-derivative. However, over the past six years a number of interesting studies have reporte Read More

In the last decade, it has become recognized that reactive oxygen species (ROS) play important roles in the multiple biological processes involved in the pathophysiology of chronic inflammation such as cell proliferation, adhesion molecule expression, cytokine and chemoattractant production and matrix metalloproteinase generation. Intracellular redox homeostasis is maintained by balancing the production of ROS with their re Read More

MHC class II molecules are expressed on the surface of antigen presenting cells and are loaded with peptides processed from the phagosomal compartment of these cells. Such complexes interact with the CD4 positive T lymphocyte receptor for antigen and a strong interaction is followed by T cell activation and proliferation. As class II expression is critical for antigen specific immunity its expression mostly restricted to a fe Read More

Helper T-lymphocytes have been shown to differentiate into two mutually regulatory subsets. Cells primarily secreting interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon-g are known as Th1 cells and mediate classical cell-mediated immune responses such as delayed-type hypersensitivity. Cells secreting interleukin-4 (IL-4) are known as Th2 cells and promote humoral immune responses, in particular the production of IgE and IgG4 (huma Read More

Increasing evidence points to the role of oxidized phospholipids as modulators of inflammatory processes. These modified phospholipids are derived from lipoproteins or cellular membranes and accumulate at sites of inflammation such as atherosclerotic lesions. It has been shown that oxidized phospholipids influence a variety of cellular functions such as chemokine production and expression of adhesion molecules. Furt Read More

Inflammation represents the interaction of the immune and coagulation systems in an attempt to restore normal hemostasis following injury. The underlying basis of the interrelationship between these two physiological systems revolves around the following: a) the activation of coagulation by inflammation, b) the augmentation of the inflammatory response by coagulation, c) the significant attenuation of inflammation by the a Read More

Autoimmunity results when the immune system fails to distinguish between self and non-self factors in the body. The cellular and biochemical mechanisms that underlie development of autoimmunity are only partly understood. One current theory is that autoimmunity can result when there is a failure to clear dying cells from a tissue before they undergo lysis of the plasma membrane. That is, cells that die by apoptosis Read More