Ralph Steinmann was awarded one half of the Nobel Prize “for his discovery of the DC and its role in adaptive immunity,” since he unraveled their professional antigen-presenting function that shapes adaptive immune reactivity and tolerance. Jules Hoffmann and Bruce Beutler shared the other half

of this Nobel Prize for their discoveries selleck screening library on how Toll (in flies) and TLRs (in mammals) activate innate immunity. Here, I have discussed my view of innate immunity’s path to the Nobel Prize, and pointed out the evolving paradigm shifts in how we have viewed immunity over the past century. Obviously, the Nobel Prize decision highlighted the biological importance of the initial discoveries, but these discoveries now impact tremendously on our understanding of age-related autoinflammatory diseases, intestinal function, and the putative interdependence of the gut’s microbiota and adaptive immunity. We all look forward to this century’s discoveries. The author declares no financial or commercial conflict of interest. “
“Citation Winger EE, Reed JL. Low circulating CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3+ T regulatory cell levels predict find more miscarriage risk in newly pregnant women with a history of failure. Am J Reprod

Immunol 2011; 66: 320–328 Problem  The purpose of this study was to determine whether quantification of peripheral blood Treg cell levels could be used as an indicator of miscarriage risk in newly pregnant women with a history of immunologic reproductive failure. Method of Study  Fifty-four pregnant women with selleck chemical a history of immunologic infertility and/or pregnancy loss were retrospectively evaluated (mean age: 36.7 ± 4.9 years, 2.8 ± 2.5 previous miscarriages; 1.5 ± 1.9 previous IVF failures). Twenty-three of these women experienced another first trimester miscarriage, and 31 of these women continued their current

pregnancies past 12 weeks (‘pregnancy success’). The following immunologic parameters were assessed in the first trimester: NK cell 50:1 cytotoxicity, CD56+ 16+ CD3− (NK), CD56+ CD3+ (NKT), TNFα/IL-10, IFNγ/IL-10, CD4+ CD25−Foxp3+, total CD4+ Foxp3+ (CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3 plus CD25− Foxp3+), and CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3+ levels. Results  Patients with successful ongoing pregnancies experienced a mean (CD4+ CD25+ Foxp3+) ‘Treg’ level of 0.72 ± 0.52%, while those that miscarried in the first trimester experienced a mean Treg level of 0.37 ± 0.29% (P = 0.005). Markers not significantly different between the loss and success groups were NK 50:1 cytotoxicity (P = 0.63), CD56+ 16+ 3+ NK cells (P = 0.63), CD56+ 3+  NKT (P = 0.30), TNFα+IL-10+(P = 0.13), IFNg+IL-10+ (P = 0.63), and CD4+ 25− Foxp3+ cells (P = 0.10), although total CD4+ Foxp3+ levels remained significant (P = 0.02) and CD4+ 25+ Foxp3+ showed the most significant difference (P = 0.005). Mean day of blood draw was 49.2 ± 36.1 days pregnant (median 39.0 days). In addition, patients with a low Treg level (<0.