The role of the salience of fluency in recognition memory in Alzheimer’s disease

in Proceedings of the First joint meeting of the Belgian Association for Psychological Sciences (BAPS) and the Sociedad Española de Psicología Experimental (SEPEX) (2012)

Role of the socio-economic determinants, life style and health locus of control in the perceived health functional status in chronically ill elderly

in Quality of Life Research (1999), 8

The role of the somatotropic axis in the mammalian metabolism

in Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Farm Animal Endocrinology (2001, October)

The role of the specific immune response on cecal colonization of slow-growing broiler chickens reared on litter contaminated by Campylobacter jejuni

Conference (2009)

The aim of this experiment was to study the relation between the specific immune response and infection of slow-growing broiler chickens reared on straw litter contaminated by Campylobacter jejuni. The 11 ... [more ▼]

The aim of this experiment was to study the relation between the specific immune response and infection of slow-growing broiler chickens reared on straw litter contaminated by Campylobacter jejuni. The 11-weeks experiment was carried out in a 45 m2 broiler house with 500 chickens from 1 day of age, which had access to an open-air range. Litter contamination was performed before the setting up of the chicks by rearing campylobacter-positive cocks. These birds were also used to contaminate the open-air range during one week before the exit of the chickens, at 5 weeks of age. Blood samples were taken weekly on 20 chickens for anti-campylobacter IgG quantitative measurements on serum. Chickens were then euthanized and cecal contents and bile were collected for Campylobacter enumeration and anti-campylobacter IgA quantification, respectively. A high serum anti-campylobacter IgG titer of 110.13 was measured in one-day-old chicks. The IgG antibodies level significantly decreased to 5.60 at 28 days of age which coincided with the onset of Campylobacter infection in the flock. A significant reduction of the cecal colonization from 11 weeks of age was correlated with the increase in biliary IgA titers. These results suggest that the 2-3 week’s delay generally observed in poultry production before flock infection by Campylobacter may be, at least partly, explained by the protective effect of maternal antibodies. The increase of secretory immune response as bird age may help to limit Campylobacter population in the chicken gut. [less ▲]

Role of the supplementary motor area in the automatic activation of motor plans in de novo Parkinson's disease patients

in Neuroscience Research (2013)

The role of the sympathetic nervous system in migraine and cluster headache

in Olesen, J.; Edvinsson, L. (Eds.) Basic Mechanisms of Headache (1988)

The role of the thymus in integrated evolution of the recombinase-dependent adaptive immune response and the neuroendocrine system

in Neuroimmunomodulation (2011), 18

Before being able to react against infectious non-self antigens, the immune system has to be educated in recognition and tolerance of neuroendocrine self-proteins. This sophisticated educational process ... [more ▼]

Before being able to react against infectious non-self antigens, the immune system has to be educated in recognition and tolerance of neuroendocrine self-proteins. This sophisticated educational process takes place only in the thymus. The development of an autoimmune response directed to neuroendocrine glands has been shown to result from a thymus dysfunction in programming immunological self-tolerance to neuroendocrine-related antigens. This thymus dysfunction leads to a breakdown of immune homeostasis with an enrichment of ‘forbidden’ self-reactive T cells and a deficiency in self-antigen specific natural regulatory T cells (nTreg) in the peripheral T-lymphocyte repertoire. A large number of neuroendocrine self-antigens are expressed by the thymic epithelium, under the control of the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene/protein in the medulla. Based on the close homology and cross-tolerance between thymic type 1 diabetes-related self-antigens and peripheral antigens targeted in β cells by autoimmunity, a novel type of vaccination is currently developed for prevention and cure of type 1 diabetes. If this approach were found to be effective in reprogramming immunological tolerance that is absent or broken in this disease, it could pave the way for the design of negative/tolerogenic self-vaccines against other endocrine and organ-specific autoimmune disorders. [less ▲]

The role of the thymus in T cell self-tolerance of neuroendocrine principles and in development of neuroendocrine autoimmunity

in Journal of Neuroimmunology (2001), 118

Role of the thymus in the development of tolerance and autoimmunity towards the neuroendocrine system

in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (2003), 992

The thymus is the unique lymphoid organ inside which a confrontation occurs throughout life between neuroendocrine self-antigens and a recently evolved system with original recombination machinery driving ... [more ▼]

The thymus is the unique lymphoid organ inside which a confrontation occurs throughout life between neuroendocrine self-antigens and a recently evolved system with original recombination machinery driving random generation of immune response diversity. Through transcription of neuroendocrine genes in the thymus stromal network and expression of cognate receptors by immature T cells, the neuroendocrine system regulates early T cell differentiation. In addition and more specifically, intrathymic presentation of neuroendocrine self-antigens by, or in close association with, major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins is responsible for the establishment of central immune self-tolerance of neuroendocrine principles. All members of the insulin gene (INS) family are expressed in the thymus stroma according to a precise hierarchy and cell topography: IGF2 (thymic epithelial cells) > IGF1 (thymic macrophages) much greater than INS (thymic medullary epithelial cells and/or dendritic cells). Given this hierarchical pattern in gene expression, the protein IGF-2 is more tolerated than INS. Igf2 transcription is defective in the thymus of bio-breeding (BB) rat, one animal model of type 1 diabetes (T1DM). This thymus-specific defect in Igf2 expression may explain both the absence of central tolerance to INS-secreting beta cells and the lymphopenia (including lack of regulatory RT6(+) T cells) in diabetes-prone BB rats. INS B:9-23 and the homologous sequence of IGF-2 compete for binding to DQ8, an MHC class II allele conferring major susceptibility to T1DM. In young DQ8(+) T1DM patients, INS B:9-23 presentation by DQ8 elicits a dominant IFN-gamma secretion by isolated PBMCs, whereas presentation of the IGF-2 self-antigen promotes a dominant regulatory interleukin-10 secretion. These data demonstrate that opposite immune responses are driven by MHC presentation of a self-antigen (here, IGF-2) and an autoantigen (INS, as "altered" self). The important tolerogenic properties of thymic self-antigens deserve now to be exploited for prevention and/or cure of devastating autoimmune diseases such as T1DM. [less ▲]

The role of the Toll receptor pathway in susceptibility to inflammatory bowel diseases

in Genes and Immunity (2007), 8(5), 387-397

The intestinal flora has long been thought to play a role either in initiating or in exacerbating the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Host defenses, such as those mediated by the Toll-like receptors ... [more ▼]

The intestinal flora has long been thought to play a role either in initiating or in exacerbating the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Host defenses, such as those mediated by the Toll-like receptors (TLR), are critical to the host/pathogen interaction and have been implicated in IBD pathophysiology. To explore the association of genetic variation in TLR pathways with susceptibility to IBD, we performed a replication study and pooled analyses of the putative IBD risk alleles in NFKB1 and TLR4, and we performed a haplotype-based screen for association to IBD in the TLR genes and a selection of their adaptor and signaling molecules. Our genotyping of 1539 cases of IBD and pooled analysis of 4805 cases of IBD validates the published association of a TLR4 allele with risk of IBD (odds ratio (OR): 1.30, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.15 - 1.48; P = 0.00017) and Crohn's disease (OR: 1.33, 95% CI: 1.16 - 1.54; P = 0.000035) but not ulcerative colitis. We also describe novel suggestive evidence that TIRAP (OR: 1.16, 95% CI: 1.04 - 1.30; P = 0.007) has a modest effect on risk of IBD. Our analysis, therefore, offers additional evidence that the TLR4 pathway - in this case, TLR4 and its signaling molecule TIRAP - plays a role in susceptibility to IBD. [less ▲]