María C Jiménez-Martínez

Instituto de Oftalmología Fundación Conde de Valenciana · Department of Immunology

Corneal infections are frequent and potentially vision-threatening diseases, and despite the significance of the immunological response in animal models of microbial keratitis (MK), it remains unclear in humans. The aim of this study was to describe the cytokine profile of tears in patients with MK. Characteristics of ocular lesions such as size of...

Allergic conjunctivitis (AC) is one of the most common ophthalmological disorders seen in clinical practice. Growing evidence from recent years suggests that a subset of IL-10-expressing B cells is involved in inflammatory allergic diseases. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the potential involvement of blood Bregs cells in perennial allergic con...

Ocular allergic diseases are frequently seen in ophthalmological clinical practice. Immunological damage is mediated by a local Th2 inflammatory microenvironment, accompanied by changes in circulating cell subsets, with more effector cells and fewer T regulatory cells (Tregs). This study aimed to evaluate the involvement of toll-like receptor 4 (TL...

Allergic conjunctivitis (AC) is one of the most common eye disorders in ophthalmology. In mice models, it has been suggested that control of allergic conjunctivitis is a delicate balance between Tregs and inflammatory migrating effector cells. Our aim was to evaluate the frequency of Tregs and the frequency of homing receptors expressing cells in p...

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) involves degenerative and neovascular alteration in the macular region of the retina resulting in central vision loss. AMD can be classified into dry (dAMD) and wet AMD (wAMD). There is no established treatment for dAMD, and therapies available for wAMD have limited success. Diagnosis in early AMD stages is di...

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is usually a lifelong state that disturbs the digestive system. IBS has been linked to low-grade inflammation and the release of inflammatory mediators into the bloodstream. This could be associated with the degree of obesity presented by patients with IBS. Reports imply that IBS is more frequent in obese patients tha...

Vaccines have been recognized as having a central role in controlling the COVID-19 pandemic; however, most vaccine development research is focused on IgG-induced antibodies. Here, we analyzed the generation of IgGs related to SARS-CoV-2 and the changes in B- and T-lymphocyte proportions following vaccination against COVID-19. We included samples fr...

This chapter describes the fundamentals of molecular allergy diagnosis and raises the concept of allergens, allergenic components, and recombinant allergens. In addition, the authors review quality aspects related to the laboratory methodology. In the last part of the chapter, the different singleplex and multiplex platforms currently used for mole...

A key aspect of the inflammatory phenomenon is the involvement of costimulatory molecules expressed by antigen-presenting cells (APCs) and their ability to secrete cytokines to set instructions for an adaptive immune response and to generate tolerance or inflammation. In a novel integrative approach, we aimed to evaluate the kinetic expression of t...

Co-stimulatory molecules are key mediators in the regulation of immune responses and knowledge of its different families, structure, and functions has improved in recent decades. Understanding the role of co-stimulatory molecules in pathological processes has allowed the development of strategies to modulate cellular functions. Currently, modulatio...

Purpose During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers (HCWs) are at a considerable risk of being infected with SARS-CoV-2; among them, HCWs from ophthalmology departments are more prone to develop severe symptoms. In Mexico City, the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among HCWs is 30%. The present work aims to describe the seroprevalence among...

The implementation and validation of anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG serological assays are reported in this paper. S1 and RBD proteins were used to coat ELISA plates, and several secondary antibodies served as reporters. The assays were initially validated with 50 RT-PCR positive COVID-19 sera, which showed high IgG titers of mainly IgG1 isotype, followed by...

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Background: Immune cell counts in blood in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection may be useful prognostic biomarkers of disease severity, mortality, and response to treatment. Objectives: To analyze sub-populations of lymphocytes at hospital admission in survivors and deceased from severe pneumonia due to coronav...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2019/6357256.].

Background: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a global health issue that affects 350 million people of all ages. Although between 2% and 5.6% of affected individuals are adolescents, research on young patients is limited. The inflammatory response contributes to the onset of depression, and in adult MDD patients, symptom severity has been linked...

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a global health issue that affects 350 million people of all ages, and although between 2% and 5.6% of them are adolescents, research on young patients is limited. The inflammatory response contributes to the onset of depression, and in adult MDD patients, symptom severity has been linked to chemokine levels. We m...

Objectives Bacterial components are used to improve immune responses in patients with respiratory infections. Pharmacological formulations of bacterial components include a mixture of bacterial antigens, some of which are complete inactivated bacteria, that is, named bacterial suspensions; while others are fragments of bacteria, which are presented...

Hyper-IgE syndrome (HIES) is a rare primary immunodeficiency characterized by elevated levels of immunoglobulin E (IgE), eczematous dermatitis, cold abscesses, and recurrent infections of the lung and skin caused by Staphylococcus aureus . The dominant form is characterized by nonimmunologic features including skeletal, connective tissue, and pulmo...

Over a period of eight years, were assessed the main types of airborne pollen in Mexico City (a tropical region). We established the airborne pollen calendar and we evaluated the associations between aeroallergens and allergic diseases in children treated at hospitals. A Hirst-type volumetric spore trap was placed in an open area within the Chapult...

Background: Leprosy is a chronic granulomatous infection that affects skin and peripheral nerves. Its prevalence has declined, but is still observed mainly in poor rural areas. Case report: A male city dweller with photophobia and chronic dermatosis in the face: nodular and erythematous lesions, pustules, keratitis and entropion, partial eyebrow...

Purpose Corneal neovascularisation (CNV), with consequent loss of transparency, is due to an imbalance of proangiogenic factors. Cell-surface nucleolin (NCL) has been associated with neo-angiogenesis. There are studies identifying NCL translocation from nucleus to the cell surface, which is essential for endothelial cell proliferation. To find the...

Background: Leprosy is a chronic granulomatous infection that affects skin and peripheral nerves. Its prevalence has declined, but is still observed mainly in poor rural areas. Case report: A male city dweller with photophobia and chronic dermatosis in the face: nodular and erythematous lesions, pustules, keratitis and entropion, partial eyebrows l...

Introduction and objective: Nosocomial invasive fungal infections, particularly aspergillosis, are an increasing problem in immunocompromised patients. The presented study evaluates fungal diversity and the presence of Aspergillus in air samples from two hospitals. Materials and methods: Over the course of one year (rainy and dry seasons), the a...

Amniotic membrane, the inner layer of the placenta, has biological properties (e.g. promotes epithelization, reduces fibrosis, secretes antimicrobial products and inhibits immune responses) which make it a useful option for several ophthalmologic procedures, especially those involving the ocular surface. Its use in eye surgery has been reported by...

Inmunología desde la visión básica a la aplicación clínica. Obra en español, indispensable en la formación de recursos humanos profesionales de la salud.

Objective: To describe the epidemiology, etiology, pathogenesis, clinical characteristics, and management of pemphigus, with an emphasis on ocular involvement. Methods: Literature review. Results: Pemphigus is an autoimmune epithelial blistering disease of the skin and mucous membranes. The typical pathological finding is acantholysis of the epider...

The aim of this study was to identify the types and abundance of airborne bacteria of two health institutions (1 and 2) and to determine the genetic association between environmental and clinical isolates of Staphylococcus spp. Environmental sampling in institutions 1 and 2 was conducted for 1 year (dry and rainy seasons) using M Air T sampler. The...

Bacterial lysates (BL) are used to improve immune response in patients with respiratory infections. BL are constituted by a mixture of bacterial antigens derived from different bacterial species; species included in these lysates are 14 different bacteria: S. pneumoniae, K. pneumoniae, B. catarrahalis, S. aureus, H. influenza, S. alpha, and beta, S...

Background: Vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC) is a severe form of allergic conjunctivitis, in which inflammatory infiltrates of the conjunctiva are characterized by CD3+ and CD30+ cells. Until today, the functional involvement of CD30+ T cells in VKC was unclear. Our aim was to evaluate the functional characteristics of CD30+ T cells after allergen...

The Adverse Event Profile in Patients Treated with Transferon TM (Dialyzable Leukocyte Extracts): A Preliminary Report. Phar-macology & Pharmacy, 6, 65-74 http://dx. Abstract Background: Dialyzable leukocyte extracts (DLE) are heterogeneous mixtures of peptides less than 10 kDa in size that are used as immunomodulatory adjuvants in immune-mediated...

Purpose: The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of 3 subconjunctival bevacizumab injections in patients with an early corneal pterygium recurrence. Methods: This study was a nonrandomized single center trial. Patients with an early corneal pterygium recurrence were selected. All patients received 3 subconjunctival bevacizumab (2.5 mg/0....

Allergic conjunctivitis (AC) is one of the most common eye disorders in ophthalmology. AC is a disorder mediated by Th2 cells, where the eye inflammation is caused by a type I hypersensitivity. It has been suggested that some neuropeptides are increased (CGRP, SP and VIP) in AC contributing to local damage. In other hand, α-MSH plays an immunomodul...

PurposeTo describe the clinical characteristics of ocular involvement in patients with pemphigus at an ophthalmological referral center.MethodsA retrospective review was conducted on patients with the immunopathological diagnosis of pemphigus examined between 1 January 2000 and 1 April 2010. Uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA), best corrected...

Allergic conjunctivitis (AC) is an inflammation of the conjunctiva secondary to an immune response to exogenous antigens, usually called allergens. In fact, AC is as a syndrome that involves the entire ocular surface, including conjunctiva, lids, cornea, and tear film. The signs and symptoms of AC have a meaningful effect on comfort and patient hea...

En este capítulo se describen las funciones del sistema inmunitario implicadas en la defensa ante diversas agresiones a los tejidos oculares, los mecanismos de regulación que participan en el inmunoprivilegio ocular y las interacciones entre el sistema inmunológico-sistema nervioso, que podrían estar involucradas en algunos procesos normales y pato...

The ocular surface is a functional unit mainly formed by the conjunctival and corneal epithelium (structural component), and tear film (soluble component). Microorganisms and environmental allergens can interact with the tear film, reach the structural component and generate an immune response against them. Understanding the cellular and soluble me...

Allergic conjunctivitis (AC) is a frequent disease that affects the ocular surface, The study of immune physiopathology of allergic conjunctivitis is focused on T helper cells. Recently it has been suggested that γδ T lymphocytes are necessary for the maintenance of the ocular allergic response, however there are not studies in humans about the rol...

Atopic dermatitis(AD) is a T cell-mediated skin disease associated with a Th2 local response and skin inflammation is associated with CLA expression. In this work we evaluated expression of CLA on CD4 and CD8 T cells in 2 groups of patients one of them received metilprednisolone(mP-Advantan-) as treatment(Group 1) and second group received mP and d...

Aim: To describe clinical and immunological characteristics of human microbial keratitis. Methods. 28 patients with bacterial and fungal keratitis were included. Characteristics of ocular lesions such as size of corneal ulcer (epithelial defect), infiltration, hypopyon, were considered; immunological evaluation included determination of IL-1b, IL-6...

O-glycosidically-linked glycans have been involved in development, maturation, homing, and immune regulation in T cells. Previous reports indicate that Amaranthus leucocarpus lectin (ALL), specific for glycans containing galactose-N-acetylgalactosamine and N-acetylgalactosamine, recognizes human naïve CD27(+)CD25(+)CD4(+) T cells. Our aim was to ev...

Mesenchymal stromal stem cells (MSC) are non-hemopoietic cells with the capacity to self-renewal and to differentiate into various cell lineages of mesenchymal origin. More recently, the immune regulatory potential of MSC has been focused on. Furthermore, mesenchymal stem cells obtained from diverse tissues possess immunomodulatory properties and i...

The aim of this work was to determine the presence of galectin-10 in nasal lavage fluid (NLF) of patients with aspirin-sensitive respiratory disease (ASRD) before and after challenge with L-ASA (aspirin) by ELISA. Fifteen ASRD patients, ten aspirin-tolerant asthmatics (ATA), and fifteen healthy controls (HC) were studied. The baseline presence of G...

Background Despite success of sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) in the treatment of allergy diseases, more research is needed related to ocular allergy. Thus, the aim of this work was to analyze the ocular microenvironment provided by tear cytokines in allergic conjunctivitis (AC) patients treated with SLIT and to correlate tear and serum cytokines w...

The genetic and immunophenotypic characteristics of a 3-year-old patient with Blau syndrome (BS), an early onset sarcoidosis caused by mutations in NOD2, were investigated. Molecular analysis of NOD2 gene was achieved by PCR and direct nucleotide sequencing. Immunophenotyping included cytometric analysis of memory-effector markers on T-cells, and c...

Although various mechanisms involving antibodies and various cell types participate, a Thl and Th2 cells imbalance seems to play a central role for allergy development. Other lymphocyte subpopulations, such as Th17, CD4 FOXP3, and Th9 positive regulatory T lymphocytes may also be involved in the allergic response. Regulatory processes are an appeal...

Unlabelled: Amniotic membrane (AM) is the inner layer of the placenta, which is in contact with the fetus; it has been used for transplantation in ocular surface diseases. It has been reported that amniotic membrane promotes epithelialization, inhibits angiogenesis and diminishes ocular inflammation. A persistent epithelial defect is the delay in...

Introduction: Human Limbal Epithelial Cells (hLEC) are stem cells that give rise to corneal epithelium. After corneal damage, hLEC produce large amounts of IL-8 and IL-6, inducing inflammation in cornea and conjunctiva. Despite inflammation is necessary to repair the ocular surface since this process may be potentially harmful and could lead to co...

Blau syndrome is a rare autosomal dominant disorder characterized by early onset granulomatous arthritis, uveitis, skin rash and camptodactyly. We report a familial case of Blau syndrome associated with a CARD15/NOD2 mutation. PCR amplification and automated DNA sequencing of the complete CARD15/NOD2 coding sequence was performed. Molecular analysi...