Interestingly, PAI-1 levels correlated significantly with both disease severity and blood eosinophilia, which is found frequently in the blood stream of patients with active BP [4]. Considering that the evaluation of disease severity in BP has only recently been standardized [29], and that

in the patients of the present study there was no mucosal involvement, for evaluating the disease extent we adopted an easy system based on the percentage of involved Selleckchem AZD2281 body surface area, also used by other groups [30, 31]. Anti-BP180 autoantibody levels correlated with coagulation activation markers but not with PAI-1, probably because PAI-1 expression is more affected by inflammation than by autoantibody production. Although Ixazomib mw some studies indicated a correlation between disease severity and anti-BP180 autoantibody serum levels [32], other studies failed to find such a correlation [33], in accordance with our present data. A clear explanation for the discrepancy between autoantibody titres and BP severity is still lacking; however, some hypotheses have been proposed, including the phenomenon of ‘epitope spreading’, the switch between IgG subclasses and the production of non-pathogenic antibodies by long-lived plasma cells [33]. We provide evidence that the beneficial clinical effects induced by systemic corticosteroid treatment are associated with a significant decrease in PAI-1 levels. This finding supports the view that the normalization of fibrinolysis

is probably related to the others reduction in skin inflammation and blister formation observed in BP patients. We also found that the markers of coagulation activation decreased significantly during the clinical remission induced by immunosuppressive treatment, thus confirming our previous data [4]. The limitation of the

present study is the relatively small number of patients, which is due to the low incidence of cases of BP (one in 100 000 per year in Italy [34]), but it may be counterbalanced by the clear-cut differences observed. Overall, the reduction in fibrinolysis inhibition and coagulation observed after treatment may not only contribute to the healing of the cutaneous manifestations, but also reduce thrombotic risk as a whole. The study was supported by ‘Fondo Interno per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica’, University of Milan. None. “
“Interleukin-10 (IL-10) plays a key role in regulating proinflammatory immune responses to infection but can interfere with pathogen clearance. Although IL-10 is upregulated throughout HIV-1 infection in multiple cell subsets, whether this is a viral immune evasion strategy or an appropriate response to immune activation is unresolved. Analysis of IL-10 production at the single cell level in 51 chronically infected subjects (31 antiretroviral (ART) naïve and 20 ART treated) showed that a subset of CD8+ T cells with a CD25neg FoxP3neg phenotype contributes substantially to IL-10 production in response to HIV-1 gag stimulation.