7,271 research outputs found
Variation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis antigen-specific IFN-γ and IL-17 responses in healthy tuberculin skin test (TST)-positive human subjects.
ObjectiveTo determine the variation of IFN-γ and IL-17 responses to M. tuberculosis antigens in healthy TST+ humans.MethodsWe isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 21 TST+ healthy adults, stimulated them with phytohemagglutinin (PHA), PPD, Ag85B, ESAT-6, and live M. bovis BCG, and assayed IFN-γ and IL-17 secretion by ELISA in supernatants after 24 or 72 hours of incubation respectively.ResultsAs in other studies, we found a wide range of IFN-γ responses to M. tuberculosis antigens; the variation significantly exceeded that observed in the same donors to the polyclonal T cell stimulus, phytohemagglutinin (PHA). In addition, we assayed IL-17 secretion in response to the same stimuli, and found less subject-to-subject variation. Analysis of the ratio of IFN-γ to IL-17 secretion on a subject-to-subject basis also revealed a wide range, with the majority of results distributed in a narrow range, and a minority with extreme results all of which were greater than that in the majority of subjects. The data suggest that study of exceptional responses to M. tuberculosis antigens may reveal immunologic correlates with specific outcomes of M. tuberculosis infection.ConclusionVariation of IFNγ and IFN-γ/IL-17 responses to mycobacterial antigens exceeds that of responses to the polyclonal stimulus, PHA, in TST positive healthy humans. This indicates a quantitative spectrum of human immune responses to infection with M. tuberculosis. Since the outcome of human infection with M. tuberculosis varies greatly, systematic study of multiple immune responses to multiple antigens is likely to reveal correlations between selected immune responses and the outcomes of infection
Probing Transverse Momentum Broadening via Dihadron and Hadron-jet Angular Correlations in Relativistic Heavy-ion Collisions
Dijet, dihadron, hadron-jet angular correlations have been reckoned as
important probes of the transverse momentum broadening effects in relativistic
nuclear collisions. When a pair of high-energy jets created in hard collisions
traverse the quark-gluon plasma produced in heavy-ion collisions, they become
de-correlated due to the vacuum soft gluon radiation associated with the
Sudakov logarithms and the medium-induced transverse momentum broadening. For
the first time, we employ the systematical resummation formalism and establish
a baseline calculation to describe the dihadron and hadron-jet angular
correlation data in and peripheral collisions where the medium effect
is negligible. We demonstrate that the medium-induced broadening and the so-called jet quenching parameter can be
extracted from the angular de-correlations observed in collisions. A
global analysis of dihadron and hadron-jet angular correlation data
renders the best fit for a
quark jet at RHIC top energy. Further experimental and theoretical efforts
along the direction of this work shall significantly advance the quantitative
understanding of transverse momentum broadening and help us acquire
unprecedented knowledge of jet quenching parameter in relativistic heavy-ion
collisions.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
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