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Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease of the supporting structures of the teeth and is caused by, among other agents, Porphyromonas gingivalis. P. gingivalis is very resistant to killing by human complement, which is present in a gingival fluid at 70% of the serum concentration. We found that the incubation of human serum with purified cysteine proteases of P. gingivalis (gingipains) or P. ging
A previous study compared two student groups that played a mathematics game based on a teachable agent. One group played with, and the other without, the inclusion of a social conversation module: a chat between the student and the teachable agent. Results were that students who used the game with the chat included had a more positive experience of the game and learned more in the sense of teachin
Popular Abstract in Swedish Sjögrens syndrom är en autoimmun sjukdom, vilket betyder att immunsystemet felreagerar och angriper kroppens egen vävnad. Nittio procent av dem som får diagnosen är kvinnor, av vilka de flesta är mellan 40 och 60 år. Vid Sjögrens syndrom, som tillhör en av våra vanligaste reumatiska sjukdomar, är det framförallt tår- och spottkörtlar som angrips och blir inflammerade. DPrimary Sjögren’s syndrome (SS) is a chronic autoimmune disease of unknown etiology. The disease primarily involves lachrymal and salivary glands, leading to dryness of the eyes and mouth, but a wide spectrum of exocrine and non-exocrine disease manifestations may be seen. A characteristic property of primary SS is the production of autoantibodies directed against intracellular, often DNA/RNA-modi
Wear in forming tools and contact problems between sheet-metal and tool-material are common problems in manufacturing industries and sheet-metal-parts production. In this paper recent tool material experiences are presented. Quantitative determination of wear has been performed using micro hardness indentions made on the tool surface prior to pressings and thereafter measured. Wear tests are perfo
Antibody-based microarrays have emerged as an established proteomic technology allowing multiplexed and sensitive profiling of complex proteomes, in a high-throughput and miniaturized manner. Recently, numerous applicative efforts have been pursued generating disease-associated protein signatures that now could be further explored for improved disease diagnostics, prognostics and classification.
We present an estimate for the convergence rate of the Dirichlet-Neumann iteration for the discretized unsteady transmission problem. Specifically, we consider the coupling of two heat equations on two identical squared domains. The Laplacian is discretized by second order central finite differences and the implicit Euler method is used for the time discretization. For the semidiscrete case, Hensh
Dendritic cells (DC) are a heterogeneous lineage of bone-marrow-derived leukocytes that serve as the link between innate and adaptive immunity. They are professional antigen-presenting cells that play an important protective and regulatory role in both health and disease. This thesis is based upon six original papers that deal with the function and transcription of human DCs, with focus on their r
Popular Abstract in Swedish Upptäckten av Helicobacter pylori (Hp) (1982) har revolutionerat synen på uppkomsten av såväl magsår, magkatarr som magsäckskancer. Idag vet vi att Hp är en mycket starkt bidragande orsak till samtliga dessa sjukdomar och är en av våra vanligaste sjukdomsframkallande bakterier. Epidemiologiska studier har visat att mellan 50 och 80% av jordens befolkning är smittad. I SHelicobacter pylori and Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. can cause chronic infections by evading the immune system. These two human pathogens express a number of immunogenic cell surface proteins. The aims of this study were to gain further knowledge about these antigens and to analyse the serum antibody response in infected individuals. Both invasive and non-invasive diagnostic methods are available for
Interactions between danger and pathogen-associated molecular patterns (DAMP and PAMP) and pattern recognition receptors such as Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are critical for the regulation of the inflammatory process via activation of NFκB and cytokine secretion. In this report, we investigated the capacity of LPS-free S100A9 (DAMP) protein to activate human and mouse cells compared to lipoprotein-
The human pathogen Haemophilus influenzae causes mainly respiratory tract infections such as acute otitis media in children and exacerbations in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We recently revealed the crystal structure of H. influenzeae protein E (PE), a multifunctional adhesin that is involved in direct interactions with lung epithelial cells and host proteins. Based upon th
Serine proteases of the S1 family have maintained a common structure over an evolutionary span of more than one billion years, and evolved a variety of substrate specificities and diverse biological roles, involving digestion and degradation, blood clotting, fibrinolysis and epithelial homeostasis. We here show that a wide range of C-terminal peptide sequences of serine proteases, particularly fro
In order to identify cellular factors that regulate human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) gene expression, cervical cancer cells permissive for HPV16 late gene expression were identified and characterized. These cells either contained a novel spliced variant of the L1 mRNAs that bypassed the suppressed HPV16 late, 5'-splice site SD3632, produced elevated levels of RNA-binding proteins SRSF1 (ASF/SF
P>Lyme borreliosis, caused by spirochaetes of the Borrelia burgdorferi genospecies complex, is the most commonly reported tick-borne infection in Europe and North America. The non-specific nature of many of its clinical manifestations presents a diagnostic challenge and concise case definitions are essential for its satisfactory management. Lyme borreliosis is very similar in Europe and North Amer
This paper reports on a joint numerical and experimental investigation of the release of potassium from biomass during gasification process. In this work, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was adopted to measure quantitatively the concentration of potassium from gasifying biomass. The effect of temperature on the potassium release is investigated in hot gas mixture of CO2, H2O with diffe
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a frequent problem in hemodialysis units. The prevalence and incidence of HCV infection over a decade were studied in a nephrology unit affected by previous nosocomial HCV transmission. The HCV non-structural 5B protein gene was sequenced to achieve phylogenetic analysis of a new (incident) case of infection. Proportions of patients who were and were not infect
Natural killer (NK) cells are cytotoxic lymphocytes and play a vital role in controlling viral infections and cancer. In contrast to B and T lymphopoiesis where cellular and regulatory pathways have been extensively characterized, the cellular stages of early human NK cell commitment remain poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that a Lin(-)CD34(+)CD38(+)CD123(-)CD45RA(+)CD7(+)CD10(+)CD127(-) pop
The use of induction therapy may reduce the risk of acute rejection after heart transplantation. This study assessed the association between basiliximab (BAS) vs anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG) induction and long-term survival after heart transplantation.
The anaphylatoxic peptide C3a is a pro-inflammatory mediator generated during complement activation, whose specific G protein coupled receptor is expressed on granulocytes, monocytes, mast cells, activated lymphocytes, and in the nervous tissue. We have generated RBL-2H3 cell clones stably expressing mutants of the human C3a-receptor (C3aR) with combined alanine (Ala) substitutions of ten C-termin
Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and acute poststreptococcal glomerulonephritis (APSGN), two important sequelae of streptococcal throat or skin infections, according to current concepts may be elicited by autoimmune mechanisms due to molecular mimicry between group A streptococci (GAS) and human tissue. In the case of APSGN, however, Our experimental data have indicated that GAS immunoglobulin-binding
