Immunological, epidemiological, and clinical evidence suggest that female sex hormones
play an important role in the etiology and pathophysiology of chronic immune/inflammatory …

The sharpness of tips used in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is one factor which
affects the resolution of the STM image. In this paper, we report on a direct‐current (dc) drop‐off …

Dysregulation of apoptosis is associated with the pathogenesis of organ‐specific autoimmune
diseases, through altered target organ susceptibility. Apoptosis signaling pathways can …

Background Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a disorder characterized by immune system
alterations, vasculopathy and fibrosis. SSc-related interstitial lung disease (ILD) represents a …

We investigated the effect of high power ultrasound, at a frequency of 19kHz, on the survival
of bacteria, phytoplankton and zooplankton, in order to obtain estimates of effective …

CTLA-4 molecule, expressed by activated T and B lymphocytes, transduces an inhibitory
signal. Increasing evidence showed CTLA-4 gene as an important susceptibility locus for …

An M2 pre-eminent phenotype has been postulated for SSc monocytes/macrophages. 2 The
aim of the study was to widen a phenotype characterisation (M1, M2 and mixed M1/M2) of …

Introduction Co-stimulatory signal B7(CD80/CD86):CD28 is needed in order to activate T
cells in immune response. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4-immunoglobulin (…

Objective. We evaluated endothelin (ET)-1 plasma levels and some clinical measures in
patients with primary Raynaud’s phenomenon (PRP), and in patients with systemic sclerosis (…

Background Alternatively activated (M2) macrophages are phenotypically characterized by
the expression of specific markers, mainly macrophage scavenger receptors (CD204 and …