To this end, the authors depleted the siRNA pathway Dicer protein, Dicer-2, as well as the miRNA biogenesis factors Drosha and Dicer-1 from shrimp, and then challenged the shrimp with WSSV. While the levels of vp28-siRNA were unaffected in Drosha- and Dicer-1-depleted animals, knockdown of Dicer-2 abolished vp28-siRNA accumulation. The authors also detected vp28-siRNA in the cytoplasm of wild type infected cells using RNA-FISH, but not in Dicer-2-depleted animals. Therefore, the siRNA pathway component Dicer-2, but not

the miRNA pathway components Drosha or Dicer-1, is required for vp28-siRNA biogenesis in WSSV-infected shrimp. To investigate see more whether the vsiRNA functions in the click here context of RISC, Huang and Zhang [20] used an electrophoretic mobility shift assay to demonstrate that synthetic vp28-siRNA interacts with Ago2, but not Ago1, while a control siRNA specifically interacts with Ago1 rather than Ago2. These results suggest that vp28-siRNAs produced during infection are incorporated into an Ago2-containing RISC. However, additional studies, such as immunoprecipitation and sequencing of Ago2-bound small RNAs from infected shrimp, are necessary

to verify this conclusion. It will be essential to determine whether depletion of Ago2 renders shrimp more susceptible to virus infection, since this would demonstrate a role for both the biogenesis and effector steps of the RNAi pathway in antiviral defense. Arguably the most important discovery of Huang and Zhang [20] is their finding that Dicer-2 is required for antiviral defense against WSSV. Depletion of either Dicer-2 or its product, vp28-siRNA, rendered the shrimp more susceptible to WSSV infection, as evidenced by the replication of WSSV being enhanced more than tenfold at 24 and 48 h postinfection in these animals. These results clearly implicate the biogenesis step of the shrimp RNAi pathway in suppressing DNA viral infection in vivo. The work of Huang and Zhang [20] raises several important

questions that will likely guide Ketotifen future efforts to characterize anti-viral responses against DNA viruses. Regarding the biogenesis of vsiRNAs, it is clear that one particular vsiRNA, vp28-siRNA, is generated during WSSV infection, and that it is potently anti-viral. How can one particular vsiRNA provide so much protection? Are other vsiRNAs produced during infection? What are the viral precursors that give rise to these small RNAs? Moreover, how do dsDNA viruses differ from RNA viruses in their recognition and processing by the cell? As mentioned previously, in insects, DNA virus-derived siRNAs can be produced from bidirectional transcription [15] or from structured single-stranded RNAs [16] (Fig. 1A).

1B), although the frequencies of HBcAg-specific IL-21-producing CD4+ T cells were slight higher in IA group than that in IHC group. The findings were also verified by IL-21 ELISA, in which PBMCs from 5 AHB patients produced greater production

of IL-21 in response to HBcAg in culture, compared with that from 8 IHC patients or 14 IA patients (Fig. 2). Chronic hepatitis B patients LDK378 solubility dmso at inactive stage had plasma virus <1000 copies/ml, and IA CHB patients often had higher viral load. In this study, we found there was a significant negative correlation between HBV DNA levels and IL-21-producing CD4+ T cell response to HBcAg in CHB patients at IA stage (R2 = 0.410, P = 0.001, Fig. 3A). In contrast, the frequency of IL-21-producing CD4+ T cells to HBcAg was not correlated with the levels of ALT (R2 = 0.023, P = 0.474) as shown in Fig. 3B. Given the above association between GW-572016 molecular weight IL-21 production by HBcAg-specific CD4+ T cells and HBV virus load in IA patients, we next evaluated whether HBV-specific IL-21+ CD4+ T cells might correlate with HBV-specific CD8+ T cell response. Following HLA-A2 genotype screening, we detected IFN-γ-producing CD8+ T cells of PBMCs stimulated with HBc 18-27 peptide for 24 h by ELISPOT in 14 IA CHB patients. The data showed that HBV-specific IL-21+ CD4+ T cells positively

correlate with HBc 18-27-specific IFN-γ-producing CD8+ T cells in IA patients (Fig. 3C). To determine whether IL-21 could affect the frequency of HBc 18-27-specific CD8+ T cells from CHB patients, we compared the frequency of HBc 18-27-specific CD8+ T cells in PBMCs with or without IL-21 stimulation. The data showed that ex vivo HBc 18-27-specific CD8+ T cells from CHB patients could be easily sustained and survived if cocultured with IL-21, and the frequency of HBc 18-27-specific CD8+ T cells was similar to that with IL-2 stimulation Alanine-glyoxylate transaminase (Fig. 4A). Next, to determine

whether IL-21 secretion by HBV-specific CD4+ T cells could directly improve the antiviral function of CD8+ T cells through IL-21 signal, we depleted CD8+ T cells of PBMCs from 7 AHB patients with strong IL-21 responses and then stimulate the CD8+ T cell-deleted PBMCs with HBcAg for 1 h. After complete removal of the remaining antigen, we added the HBcAg-stimulated CD8+ T cell-deleted PBMCs from each individual in the bottom chamber of a transwell plate. The isolated CD8+ T cell from PBMCs of IA patient was placed in the upper chamber. After co-incultured for 12 h, it was similar to additional rIL-21-induced IFN-γ mRNA and perforin mRNA expression of CD8+ T cells, which the HBcAg-pulsed CD8-deleted PBMCs of AHB patients induced markedly increased IFN-γ mRNA and perforin mRNA expression in the CD8+ T cells (Fig. 4B), although the levels of IFN-γ mRNA and perforin mRNA expression of CD8+ T cells were lower in HBcAg-pulsed CD8 deleted PBMCs than in CD4-CD8 T cell-deleted PBMCs plus rIL-21.

As far as we know, this is the first case reported of R. mucilaginosa fungaemia in a patient with MM. “
“An outbreak of dermatophytosis caused by Microsporum nanum in a traditional Iberian extensive farm is described. The morbidity was 100% among lactating sows; however, suckling and weaning pigs, as well as boars never developed the lesions seen in the sows. The clinical aspects of porcine ringworm caused by this fungus are discussed and the ecology of the organism is reviewed. “
“A 38-year-old man presented with whitish nail changes on all fingers as the sole symptom. The condition had developed within a few days and led to dystrophy

Maraviroc supplier of the proximal part of the nail plates. As microscopic examination of nail scrapings demonstrated budding hyphae and the patient working as a teacher reported frequent use of a wet sponge, antifungal therapy was initiated. Subsequent cultures and molecular typing

identified Rhodotorula mucilaginosa (formerly R. rubra). This environmental yeast was repeatedly isolated despite of therapy with itraconazole. As no improvement was achieved and testing of the biological activity of the fungus revealed only marginal keratolytic activity, it was considered as a coloniser of a destructed nail matrix. Finally, a biopsy of the nail bed confirmed the diagnosis of nail psoriasis, selleck compound which rapidly responded to treatment with acitretin and topical calcipotriol/betamethasone cream. Fungal growth in destructed nails masqueraded the underlying disease and may have triggered the psoriatic nail reaction. “
“We describe three cases of pulmonary blastomycosis in patients from central New York State (NYS). Two of these cases occurred in 2012, and in patients who resided in the same county. Moreover, two of these cases manifested with acute respiratory distress syndrome and before survived. Interestingly, one of the two received corticosteroids and was extubated within 1 week. To the best of our knowledge, these are

the first cases of human blastomycosis to be reported from NYS and we propose that corticosteroids administration might reduce hospitalisation time and ventilator-associated complications, even though it is not currently recommended in standard treatment. “
“Cryptococcal meningitis is a disease with high mortality and refractory to intravenous antifungal treatments with agents such as amphotericin B and fluconazole. We investigated lumbar puncture catheter drainage with an intrathecal injection of amphotericin B as a treatment for cryptococcal meningitis. All of the 14 patients enrolled in the treatment group survived with no evidence of relapse during 1-year follow-up. Complications included lumbosacral nerve root irritation in seven patients and urinary retention in seven patients. This study demonstrated that the technique used was effective in controlling the symptoms.

5×107 p.f.u. of the serologically distinct A/PR/8/34 H1N1 influenza virus (PR8) in 500 μL of PBS. The X31 and PR8 viruses share the same internal proteins, including NP and PA 40. Spleen and BAL samples were recovered at acute phases of primary and secondary responses (d10 and d8). The BAL samples were incubated on plastic petri-dishes for 1 h at 37°C to remove macrophages, and spleen samples were enriched Crizotinib mouse for CD8+ T cells using goat anti-mouse IgG and IgM Ab (Jackson ImmunoResearch

Labs, PA, USA). Lymphocytes were stained with tetramers conjugated to Strepavidin-APC or PE (Molecular Probes, Eugene, OR, USA) at optimal concentrations (10 μg/mL) for 1 h at room temperature. Cells were washed twice in FACS buffer (10%BSA/0.02% NaAz in PBS), buy CAL-101 and stained with CD8-PerCPCy5.5 (BD Biosciences) for 30 min on ice, washed twice, and analyzed by flow cytometry on a FACS Calibur (BD Immunocytometry). Lymphocytes were stained with the DbNP366 or DbPA224 tetramers. Cells were washed and incubated in the presence of anti-H2Db antibody (28-14-8, BD Biosciences Pharmingen) at 5 μg/mL at 37°C to prevent tetramer rebinding. Cells

were removed at intervals into FACS buffer, placed on ice, stained with anti-CD8α-FITC, and analyzed by flow cytometry. Loss of tetramer+CD8+ T cells at particular time points was calculated in comparison to tetramer staining at t=0 min. Lymphocytes were stained with the PE-conjugated DbNP366 or DbPA224 tetramers. Cells were then incubated with anti-CD8-APC and anti-Vβ mAbs conjugated with FITC (BD Biosciences Pharmingen)

for 30 min on ice. Alternatively, cells were stained with the DbNP366 or DbPA224 tetramers conjugated to Strepavidin-APC, anti-CD8-FITC, and anti-Vα2 mAb conjugated with PE (BD Biosciences Pharmingen). Enriched T-cell populations were stimulated with the NP366 or PA224 peptides (AusPep) for 5 h at 37°C, 5% CO2 in the presence of 1 μg/mL Golgi-Plug (BD Biosciences Pharmingen) and 10 U/mL recombinant human IL-2 (Roche, Germany). Cells were washed twice, stained with CD8-PerCPγCy5.5 for 30 min on Ixazomib price ice, fixed, permeablized, and stained with anti-IFN-γ-FITC (5 μg/mL), TNF-α-APC (2 μg/mL), and IL-2-PE (2 μg/mL) mAb (Biolegend). Samples were acquired using flow cytometry, and total cytokine production was calculated by subtracting background fluorescence for the “no peptide” controls. The CD8+ T cells were stained with PE-conjugated tetramers, followed by two washes in sort buffer (0.1% BSA in PBS), stained with anti-CD8-FITC, washed and resuspended in sort buffer. Lymphocytes were isolated using a FACSAria sorter (BD Biosciences). DbNPCD8+ and DbPACD8+ T cells were sorted and RNA was prepared using Trizol (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA). cDNA was reverse-transcribed using the Omniscript RT kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany), PCR products were cloned into the pCR2.1-TOPO vector (Invitrogen) and single colonies were used for sequencing the TCR regions.

We thank Evelyn Lailey and Claudia Silva for their excellent technical assistance; the Canadian Foundation for Innovation for providing key infrastructure. Dr K. D. Patel and Dr C. Power are both selleck inhibitor Canada Research Chairs. KDP is an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Scientist and CP is an AHFMR Senior Scholar. Dr V.E.L. Stubbs is supported by fellowships from the Alzheimer Society of Canada, the CIHR Institute of Aging and the

CIHR Strategic Training Program. This research was supported by grants from the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the CIHR. None. “
“Epigenetic deregulation of genes encoded on the X chromosome as reported for CD40L in lupus could explain the female predominance of autoimmune

diseases. We compared CD40L expression on CD4+ T cells from primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) women and healthy controls and investigated DNA methylation patterns of the promoter and enhancer regions of CD40L. The expression of CD40L on activated CD4+ T cells was higher in patients with pSS than controls after phorbolmyristate acetate and ionomycin activation (P = 0.02). CD40L mRNA level in CD4+ T cells did not differ between patients with pSS and controls and was similar in both groups in cultures treated with the demethylating agent 5-azacytidine C. Pyrosequencing analysis revealed no Selleckchem Ku0059436 significant differences in methylation profiles between patients and controls. Inducible membrane-bound CD40L on CD4+ T cells is increased in patients with pSS but was not related to epigenetic deregulation by demethylation patterns of the regulatory regions of CD40L. Primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS) and systemic lupus erythematosus Smoothened (SLE) are two autoimmune diseases that share numerous pathogenic features and

the same strong predominance among women. The reason for the female preponderance is not yet understood but may be related to the X chromosome. In fact, one X chromosome in women is silenced by epigenetic mechanisms, so epigenetic deregulation could contribute to the female predisposition to autoimmunity via overexpression of some X-chromosome-located genes, and thus X-inactivation escape [1]. Numerous genes (e.g. Toll-like receptor 7 and CD40L) involved in adaptive and/or in innate immunity are located on the X chromosome. In a recent study of women with systemic sclerosis (SSc), 40% of patients versus 8% of controls showed skewed X chromosome inactivation (odds ratio 9.3, 95% confidence interval [95% CI] 4.3–20.6) [1]. In two other studies of SLE [2] and SSc [3], the promoter and downstream enhancer regions of CD40 ligand (CD40L) were hypomethylated. In pSS, overexpression of the soluble form of CD40L was reported [4, 5], but data are lacking on membrane-bound CD40L expression on CD4+ T cells. CD40L is a co-stimulation molecule of 260 amino acids located on Xq26.3–27.1. The gene consists of five exons and five introns.

When logistic regression was used to carry out association analysis after modelling the SNP effects as additive, dominant or recessive, SNP6 (rs7749390, located on the splice site of the exon/intron of ifngr1 gene) showed a significant difference in co-dominant (OR: 1.86, 95% CI: 1.04–3.31) and log-additive (OR: 1.35, SB431542 cost 95% CI: 1.02–1.80) models, and P-values were <0.05 after adjustment for sex (Table 4). The log-additive model was accepted as the best inheritance model because of the smaller Akaike information criterion (AIC) value

(565.6). The other SNP showed no association with tuberculosis in any of the five inheritance models (all P > 0.05, data not shown). Pairwise LD between the three SNP of the ifng gene and the other four SNP of ifngr1 was calculated for the cases and controls in the Chinese Han population. The three SNP of the ifng gene had no association with tuberculosis (data not shown). D′ and r for all possible pairs of the SNP in the ifngr1 gene are shown in Table 5. We found strong LD (D′ > 0.75) between the following pairs of the markers in the ifngr1 gene: SNP4/SNP5 (D′ = 0.941), SNP4/SNP6 (D′ = 0.830) and SNP5/SNP6 BKM120 in vivo (D′ = 0.998). Therefore, we constructed SNP4/SNP5/SNP6/SNP7 as haplotype blocks in the ifngr1 gene (because the distance was about 141 bp between SNP6 and

SNP7, SNP7 was list to the haplotype analysis). The frequencies of the estimated haplotypes are presented in Table 6. The association analysis of the haplotypes with tuberculosis is shown in Table 6. The haplotype of SNP4/SNP5/SNP6/SNP7 showed significant association with the disease (P = 0.00079). The VAV2 C-A-A-TT haplotype was observed more frequently in the cases than in the controls (OR: 3.96, 95% CI: 1.90–8.21). The association analysis of haplotypes was adjusted also by sex. In China, tuberculosis is still prevalent with about 5 million cases every year. As only about 10% of the population that

is infected by M. tuberculosis will develop clinical tuberculosis, differences in host immunity and genetic factors may account for the development of tuberculosis after infection [3]. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the ifng and ifngr1 genes play a role in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis. Seven SNP in these two genes were selected as the gene markers for association analysis. It is accepted generally that IFN-γ plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of tuberculosis [7]. Abnormality of the ifng gene is considered as one of the causative factors [8]. An initial study of the association of the ifng gene with tuberculosis indicated that allele A of the +874 A/T in the first intron region was a susceptibility factor for M. tuberculosis infection, both by population- and family-based analysis.

This was not the case: infants took an average of 15.6 (SD = 5.07) trials to reach habituation criterion in Experiment 3, while they averaged 16.6 (SD = 6.37) trials in Experiment 1 and 17.6 (SD = 6.02) in Experiment 2. Note that as trials were not terminated

due to lack of attention, this means that infants in Experiment 3 averaged 15.6 × 7 = 109.2 tokens of the words compared with 116.2 in Experiment 1 and 123.2 in Experiment 2. These differences were not significant (F < 1), and if anything the infants in Experiments 1 and 2 received more exposure. Consequently, the learning observed here can not be attributed to the number of words heard by the infants. Instead, it must be that the acoustic variability along noncriterial dimensions affected infants’ learning. A second concern was that we operationally defined the contrastive cues for voicing as the absolute VOT, this website rather than the relative duration of the aspiration and voiced period. As a timing cue, VOT varies as a function of the speaking rate, which can be approximated as the duration of the vowel. If infants perceive voicing using VOT relative to the vowel length, then there may be some contrastive variability embedded in this set. Any effect of speaking rate (vowel length) will

be necessarily small: a 100-msec difference in vowel can only shift the VOT boundary by 5–10 msec in synthetic speech (McMurray, learn more Clayards, Tanenhaus, & Aslin, 2008; Summerfield, 1981), and barely at all in natural speech Decitabine (Toscano & McMurray, 2010b; Utman, 1998). Moreover, McMurray et al. (2008) demonstrate that listeners are capable of using VOT before they have heard the vowel length, suggesting the two function as independent cues to voicing, not as a

single relative cue (see Toscano & McMurray, 2010a). Nonetheless, it is important to determine whether, even when VOT is treated as a relative cue, we reduced the variability in contrastive cues from Rost and McMurray (2009). One way to operationalize this relative measure is the ratio of VOT to vowel length. Analysis of the relationship between the original items reported in Rost and McMurray (2009) and the modified versions of those stimuli used in the experiment reported here indicated that our stimulus construction minimized, rather than contributed to, variability in this measure. For reference purposes, this measure lead to a mean ratio of .012 for /b/ in the modified set (.063 in the original), and .45 for /p/ (.51 original). Computing the standard deviations of this ratio measure of voicing showed a substantial decrement between the experiments for both /buk/ (SDoriginal = .027, SDmodified = .0085) and /puk/ (SDoriginal = .227; SDmodified = .18).3 We can also operationalize this relative measure by using linear regression to partial out the effect of vowel length from VOT. An analysis of these residuals after linear regression also showed that the present stimuli have lower variance by an order of magnitude.

In addition, the immune cross reaction between rCp23 and rCp15–23 was observed. To examine the generation of the specific cellular immune responses to rCp15–23 fusion protein, rCp23 protein and crude extract of C. parvum, single spleen cell suspensions from different protein immunized or control (adjuvant-immunized) mice collected 14 days after the final immunization were prepared and used for T cell characterization analysis. The antigen-specific lymphocytes were examined by direct staining with antibodies for surface expression of cluster of differentiation CD4+ and CD8+. The results showed that the number of

CD4+ and CD8+ T cells was increased in all three immunized groups compared with adjuvant control group (P < 0·01), whereas the number of CD4+ T cells was much more than that of CD8+ T cells. In addition, the stimulation of cells from rCp15–23 fusion

protein immunized mice generated higher CD4+, anti-PD-1 antibody CD8+ T cells and the ratio of CD4+/CD8+ than either selleckchem crude extract or rCp23 protein groups (P < 0·01) (Figure 5). ELISA was used to detect the concentrations of cytokines in the supernatants of in vitro activated lymphocytes at day 14 after the third doses of vaccine. In the spleen cells, significantly higher concentrations of IFN-γ or IL-12 were found in all antigen immunized groups, whereas no IFN-γ or IL-12 was detected in the adjuvant control group. The IFN-γ and IL-12 levels were found to be significantly higher in rCp15–23 fusion protein immunized mice compared with the

crude extract immunized mice (P < 0·05) (Figure 6). No significant difference was observed in crude extract immunized mice compared with adjuvant control group mice. Very low level of IL-4 was found in our study in all the groups and no difference was found between different groups. To examine differences in protection of C. parvum selleck kinase inhibitor infection after different protein immunization, faecal oocyst shedding was detected. The faecal oocyst shedding was noted between days 3 and 7 post-infection in both the crude extract protein immunized group and adjuvant control group, in the rCp23 protein immunized group between days 4 and 8 post-infection, in the rCp15–23 fusion protein immunized group between days 5 and 9 post-infection. The manifestations of C. parvum infection, i.e. oocyst shedding was not noted or was minimal on days 10 and thereafter. The prepatent period of oocysts shedding was longer after immunization with both rCp23 protein and rCp15–23 fusion protein. However, the increase in the prepatent period in mice immunized with rCp15–23 fusion protein was obvious compared with those in mice immunized with either crude extract or rCp23 protein (Figure 7). In addition, the oocyst shedding number was reduced in C. parvum challenged mice following immunization. In rCP15–23 recombinant protein immunized group, the oocyst shedding number was reduced 31·4% compared with the adjuvant control group (P < 0·05).

Indeed, when PBMCs derived from IFN-β-treated patients were depleted of monocytes, the strong induction of IL-6 observed in total PBMCs was completely lost. In addition, a strong reduction of BAFF expression was observed in in vivo IFN-β-conditioned PBMCs after the depletion of monocytes. In a similar fashion, in the absence of monocytes, there was no induction of TLR7-driven IgM and IgG production, indicating that IFN-β treatment could exert its therapeutic effects selleck chemicals llc by fine-tuning monocyte functions, in the context of TLR7 stimulation, that act through bystander mechanisms on the differentiation of

B lymphocytes. Taking into account that TLR7 is crucial for type I IFN release from pDC [41] and is, at the same time, an IFN-inducible gene [22], we can envisage the existence of a tight relation between IFN-β response and TLR7 responsiveness of MS monocytes, whose full comprehension deserves further investigation. In line with this view, recent data obtained by Molnarfi and collaborators showed that monocytes from RRMS patients exhibited a reduced ability to produce HGF, a neuroprotective and neuroinflammation-suppressive mediator, when compared with HD [42]. Treatment with IFN-β significantly enhanced

HGF CDK inhibitor synthesis and secretion by blood monocytes, contributing to the clinical benefit of IFN-β in RRMS via the combined HGF-mediated neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory mechanisms. In this context, it is also important to remind that monocytes are abundant in inflammatory MS brain lesions and displayed also altered functions and an activated innate immune signature L-NAME HCl in MS patients with clinically more severe course [43]. In particular,

the type I IFN pathway is dysregulated in these monocytes, which may contribute to more active disease. In addition to that, conditional genetic knockout of IFNAR1 in monocytes, but not in T cells, B cells, or central nervous system cells, leads to enhanced disease severity in the animal model of MS [44]. All these evidences indicate that perturbations of the type I IFN signaling pathway and response in monocytes could represent crucial events in MS immunopathology and, at the same time, a key target of IFN-β therapy. On the other hand, we cannot exclude that the replenished TLR7 responsiveness in PBMCs and monocytes of IFN-β-treated MS patients could be related to the rescue or prevention of TLR7 tolerance, that is generally induced by specific ligands of this receptor and leads to a reduced cytokine and Ig production [45]. Indeed, Poovassery and Bishop [45] recently demonstrated that IFN-β controls TLR7 tolerance and activation through the PI3K/Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin signaling pathway but also enhancing TLR7 expression in human B cells.

Therefore, we have hypothesized SAHA HDAC that the combination of these two drugs in donor animals could have a synergetic effect to decrease necrosis and apoptosis. Male Wistar rats weighing 280–350 g were used for both organ donors and recipients of the kidney graft. Animals were submitted to a 12-h day/night

cycle with access to water and standard laboratory chow ad libitum. All animal experiments were performed according to guidelines set by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH publication no. 28, revised 1996). We used tacrolimus (Prograf, Gador, Bs As, Argentina), medical grade, donated by Gador Argentina, and rapamycin (Sirolimus, Wyeth, Bs As, Argentina), medical grade, donated by Wyeth Argentina. Donor rats were anaesthetized KU-57788 chemical structure with intraperitoneal (i.p.) atropine 0·01 mg/kg, buprenorphine 0·04 mg/kg, diazepam 10 mg/kg

and, 10 min later, with ketamine 100 mg/kg body weight. The donors’ blood vessels and ureter were fully separated. Subsequently, the kidney was flushed via the aorta with 3 ml of 4°C cold Ringer lactate solution until it turned homogeneously pale. The left kidney was then removed with its vascular and ureteral pedicle and stored for 180 ± 15 min in cold Ringer lactate solution at 4°C. Recipients animals were nephrectomized bilaterally and underwent transplantation as described elsewhere [31,32]. Briefly, after flushing grafts with 5 ml normal Ringer’s solution, arterial and venous anastomoses were performed as end-to-side anastomoses to the aorta and inferior vena cava, respectively. Finally, the anastomosis of the ureter with the urinary bladder was constructed. The rat’s body temperature

was monitored and kept constant between 35 and 37°C in all cases. Rats were allowed to recover on a warm blanket with free access to water and standard laboratory chow ad libitum. Twenty-four hours after the transplant procedure, blood samples were C59 datasheet obtained for analysis, then animals were sacrified and kidneys were removed for histological evaluation. One dose of immunosuppressive drugs was administered to donor animals 12 h before nephrectomy. Doses and administration route were chosen according to previous reports [17]. Donor rats were divided randomly into four groups: Group 1 (control, n = 6): no immunosuppression was administered. Group 2 (rapa, n = 6): rapamycin (2 mg/kg, Sirolimus, Wyeth, Argentina) by gavage. Group 3 (FK506, n = 6): tacrolimus (0, 3 mg/kg, Prograf, Gador, Argentina) by gavage. Group 4 (rapa+ FK506, n = 6): tacrolimus (0, 3 mg/kg) + rapamycin (2 mg/kg) by gavage. None of the recipient animals received any immunosuppressive drug after transplantation. In addition, six rats underwent a sham procedure. Twenty-four hours before and after transplant the following blood determinations were performed: blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine and C3 complement fraction (C3). C3 was measured by radial immunodiffusion and BUN and creatinine by ultraviolet kinetic and colorimetric-kinetic, respectively (Mindray 300).