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ABSTRACT Lepromatous leprosy is a model of immune evasion wherein pathogen-specific IL-10-secreting T cells and concomitant failure of Th-1 immunity permit uncontrolled proliferation of the intracellular pathogen, Mycobacterium leprae (M. [...]

Leprosy presents as a clinical and immunological spectrum of disease. With the use of gene expression profiling, we observed that a distinction in gene expression correlates with and accurately classifies [...]

A novel mechanism by which T cells contribute to host defense against microbial pathogens is release of the antimicrobial protein granulysin. We investigated the role of granulysin in human infectious disease using leprosy as a model. Granulysin-expressing T cells were detected in cutaneous leprosy lesions at a six-fold greater frequency in patients with the localized tuberculoid as compared with the disseminated lepromatous form of the disease. In contrast, perforin, a cytolytic molecule that colocalizes with granulysin in cytotoxic granules, was expressed at similar levels across the spectrum of disease. Within leprosy lesions, granulysin colocalized in CD4[sup.+] T cells and was expressed in CD4[sup.+] T-cell lines derived from skin lesions. These CD4[sup.+] T-cell lines lysed targets by the granule exocytosis pathway and reduced the viability of mycobacteria in infected targets. Given the broad antimicrobial spectrum of granulysin, these data provide evidence that T-cell release of granulysin contributes to host defense in human infectious disease., Author(s): Maria-Teresa Ochoa [1, 9]; Steffen Stenger [4]; Peter A. Sieling [1]; Sybille Thoma-Uszynski [1]; Shereen Sabet [1]; Sungae Cho [1]; Alan M. Krensky [5]; Martin Rollinghoff [4]; Euzenir Nunes [...]

In this paper we introduce the research plan for the preparation of a searchable electronic repository of the earliest extant legal oaths from medieval Poland drawing on the expertise in historical corpus-building developed for the history of English. The oaths survive in the overwhelmingly Latin land books from the period between 1386 and 1446 for six localities Greater Poland, in which the land courts operated: Poznan, Koscian, Pyzdry, Gniezno, Konin and Kalisz. A diplomatic edition of the oaths was published in five volumes by Polish historical linguists (Kowalewicz & Kuraszkiewicz 1959-1966). The edition is the only comprehensive resource of considerable scope (over 6300 oaths from the years 1386-1446) for the study of the earliest attestations of the Polish language beyond glosses. Recognising some limitations, but most of all its unparalleled coverage of the coexistence of Latin and the vernacular, the ROThA project embarks on transforming the edition into an open up-to-date digital resource. We thus aim to facilitate research into the history of Polish and Latin as well as of the legal system and the related social and linguistic issues of the period. Key words multingualism, Polish-Latin code-switiching, mediaeval court oaths, Greater Poland, Old Polish, historical written code-switching, 1. Introduction Professor Fisiak's international recognition is mostly due to his work on English historical linguistics, however the scope of his scholarly interests exceeds both the discipline and the realm [...]