The role of chemokines and chemokine receptors in eosinophil activation during inflammatory allergic reactions

Chemokines are important chemotactic cytokines that play a fundamental role in the trafficking of leukocytes to sites of inflammation. They are also potent cell-activating factors, inducing cytokine and histamine release and free radical production, a fact that makes them particularly important in the pathogenesis of allergic inflammation. The action of chemokines is regulated at the level of agonist production and processing as well as at the level of receptor expression and coupling. Therefore, an analysis of the ligands must necessarily consider receptors. Eosinophils are target cells involved in the allergic inflammatory response since they are able to release a wide variety of mediators including CC and CXC chemokines and express their receptors. These mediators could damage the airway epithelial cells and might be important to stimulate other cells inducing an amplification of the allergic response. This review focuses on recently emerging data pertaining to the importance of chemokines and chemokine receptors in promoting eosinophil activation and migration during the allergic inflammatory process. The analysis of the function of eosinophils and their chemokine receptors during allergic inflammation might be a good approach to understanding the determinants of asthma severity and to developing novel therapies.

O lirismo em György Lukács

The paper aims to examine the treatment of lyrical in the aesthetics work of the young Lukacs. In The Soul and the Forms the author examines the poetry of Stefan George, finding on it formal elements that point out to the emergence of a new lyricism. This "significant form" allows the author to introduce an approach of the concept of modernity, in critical and phenomenological bias. Work that will be completed in The theory of Love, when the lyric trend will be exacerbated, contaminating and altering the settings of the other genera.

A recepção das ideias estético-literárias de Lukács em Leandro Konder e Carlos Nelson Coutinho: análise de suas produções teórico-críticas

Pós-graduação em Ciências Sociais - FCLAR

Fundamentos éticos e formação moral na pedagogia histórico-crítica

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A presença de Kierkegaard na Teoria do Romance do jovem Lukács

Pós-graduação em Filosofia - FFC

O Programa Mídias na Educação: relações de aproximação e distanciamento entre o trabalho docente e a mídia

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Generidade e politicidade no último Lukács

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Stem cell factor: a hemopoietic cytokine with important targets in asthma

We review evidence that Stem Cell Factor (SCF) plays an important role in the pathophysiology of asthma. SCF is produced by a wide variety of cells present in asthmatic lung, including mast cells and eosinophils. Its receptor, c-kit, is broadly expressed on mature mast cells and eosinophils. SCF promotes recruitment of mast cell progenitors into tissues, as well as their local maturation and activation. It also promotes eosinophil survival, maturation and functional activation. SCF enhances IgE-dependent release of mediators from mast cells, including histamine, leukotrienes, cytokines (TNF-alpha, IL-5, GM-CSF) and chemokines (RANTES/CCL5, MCP-1/CCL2, TARC/CCL17 e MDC/CCL22); it is required for IL-4 production in mast cells. SCF, acting in concert with IgE, also upregulates the expression and function of CC chemokine receptors in mast cells. Structural and resident airway cells express increased levels of SCF in the bronchus of asthmatic patients. In a murine model of asthma, allergen exposure increased production of SCF by epithelial cells and alveolar macrophages, which was transient and paralleled by histamine release. SCF induced long-lived airway hyperreactivity, which was prevented by local neutralization of SCF, as well as by inhibitors of the production or activity of cysteinyl-leukotrienes. Together, these observations suggest that SCF has an important role in asthma.