Breaching of the cell membrane is one of the earliest and most common causes of cell injury, tissue damage, and disease. If the compromise in cell membrane is not repaired quickly, irreversible cell damage, cell death and defective organ functions will result. It is therefore fundamentally important to efficiently repair damage to the cell membrane...
While the central nervous system (CNS) is generally thought of as an immunopriviledged site, immune-mediated CNS white matter damage can occur in both the perinatal period and in adults, and can result in severe and persistent neurological deficits. Periventricular leukomalacia (PVL) is an inflammatory white matter disease of premature infants that...
The primary tumor represents a potential source of antigens for priming immune responses for disseminated disease. Current means of debulking tumors involves the use of cytoreductive conditioning that impairs immune cells or removal by surgery. We hypothesized that activation of the immune system could occur through the localized release of tumor a...
Coagulation activation by tissue factor (TF) is implicated in cancer progression, cancer-associated thrombosis and metastasis. The role of direct TF signaling pathways in cancer, however, remains incompletely understood. Here we address how TF contributes to primary tumor growth by using a unique pair of isotype-matched antibodies that inhibit eith...
Acne is prevalent among adolescents and adults with significant psychological effects. Standard oral and topical therapies can have significant side effects including skin irritation, gastrointestinal upset, and the development of drug-resistant bacteria. The use of botanicals and phytochemicals in dermatological products is increasingly popular, a...
Although the dermatologic community rarely uses "Weber-Christian Disease" as a diagnosis, it still appears in the internal medicine literature. Herein we present a patient with recurrent cutaneous and subcutaneous nodules who was initially treated with aggressive immunosupression for a presumptive diagnosis of Weber-Christian Disease. After more th...
It is not clear why the N-terminal autoantigenic determinant of myelin basic protein (MBP), Ac1-9, is dominant in the B1O.PL (H-2(u)) mouse, given its weak I-A(u)-MHC binding affinity. Similarly, how do high-affinity T cells specific for this determinant avoid negative selection? Because the MBP:1-9 sequence is embryonically expressed uniquely in t...
