Dendritic cells (DCs) are gatekeepers of the immune system that control induction and
polarization of primary, antigen-specific immune responses. Depending on their …

Investigation of the lung microbiome is a relatively new field. Although the lungs were
classically believed to be sterile, recently published investigations have identified microbial …

Exposure to dogs in early infancy has been shown to reduce the risk of childhood allergic
disease development, and dog ownership is associated with a distinct house dust microbial …

Two distinct, but rapidly converging, areas of research (the hygiene hypothesis and the
study of probiotic/prebiotic effects) have emphasised the need to understand, and ultimately …

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) frequently establishes persistent infections that may be
facilitated by mechanisms that dampen immunity. T regulatory (T reg) cells, a subset of …

In industrialized countries the incidence of diseases caused by immune dysregulation has
risen. Epidemiologic studies initially suggested this was connected to a reduction in the …

Context Inflammation is increasingly recognized as contributing to the pathogenesis of major
depressive disorder (MDD), even in individuals who are otherwise medically healthy. Most …

Dendritic cells are essential for Th2 differentiation of naïve CD4+ T cells in response to
aeroallergens, and in recent years it has been well established that these cells play a pivotal …

Predisposition to allergic disease is a complex function of an individual's genetic
background and, as is the case with multi-gene traits, environmental factors have important …

Intense search has been going on to find factors responsible for the asthma and atopy
epidemic in Western societies. Attention has increasingly been devoted to environmental …