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Allies or enemies? The effect of regulatory T cells and related T lymphocytes on the profibrotic environment in bleomycin-injured lung mouse modelsIdiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is characterized by permanent scarring of lung tissue and declining lung function, and is an incurable disease with increase in prevalence over the past decade.
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Mapping Lung Hematopoietic Progenitors: Developmental Kinetics and Response to Influenza A InfectionThe bone marrow is a specialised niche responsible for the maintenance of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells during homeostasis and inflammation. Recent studies however have extended this essential role to the extramedullary and extravascular lung microenvironment. Here, we provide further evidence for a reservoir of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells within the lung from embryonic day 18.5 until adulthood.
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Protection against neonatal respiratory viral infection via maternal treatment during pregnancy with the benign immune training agent OM-85Incomplete maturation of immune regulatory functions at birth is antecedent to the heightened risk for severe respiratory infections during infancy. Our forerunner animal model studies demonstrated that maternal treatment with the microbial-derived immune training agent OM-85 during pregnancy promotes accelerated postnatal maturation of mechanisms that regulate inflammatory processes in the offspring airways.
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Allergen shedding in human milk: Could it be key for immune system education and allergy prevention?In addition to being a source of nutrients for the developing newborn, human milk contains thousands of bioactive compounds, which influence infant health in the short-term as exemplified by its major benefits on infectious disease prevention. Many of the human milk compounds also have the required characteristics to instruct immune development and guide long-term health.
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Neonatal antigen-presenting cells are functionally more quiescent in children born under traditional compared with modern environmental conditionsOne explanation for the high burden of allergic and autoimmune diseases in industrialized countries is inappropriate immune development under modern...
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Attenuation of maternal inflammatory responses during pregnancy to promote normal immune and behavioral outcomes in the offspringThis study will identify how the immune system contributes to neurodevelopmental outcomes and will investigate the use of an agent from traditional medicines.
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Long-term derangement of antigen presenting cell populations in the respiratory tract following Influenza A infectionThis project investigates how different populations of cells within the respiratory tract immune system are altered during a viral infection.
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Immunogenicity, reactogenicity, and IgE-mediated immune responses of a mixed whole-cell and acellular pertussis vaccine schedule in Australian infants: A randomised, double-blind, noninferiority trialIn many countries, infant vaccination with acellular pertussis (aP) vaccines has replaced use of more reactogenic whole-cell pertussis (wP) vaccines. Based on immunological and epidemiological evidence, we hypothesised that substituting the first aP dose in the routine vaccination schedule with wP vaccine might protect against IgE-mediated food allergy. We aimed to compare reactogenicity, immunogenicity, and IgE-mediated responses of a mixed wP/aP primary schedule versus the standard aP-only schedule.
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A pathogenic role for the integrin CD103 in experimental allergic airways diseaseRole for CD103 in the pathogenesis of experimental allergic airways disease in BALB/c mice through local control of CD4+ T cell and DC subset recruitment
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Defective respiratory tract immune surveillance in asthma : A primary causal factor in disease onset and progressionThe relative importance of respiratory viral infections vs inhalant allergy in asthma pathogenesis is the subject of ongoing debate.