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ligand VEGF-E. Endothelium 2006,13(2):63–69.PubMedCrossRef 17. Coultas L, Chawengsaksophak K, Rossant J: Endothelial cells and VEGF in vascular development. Nature 2005,438(7070):937–945.PubMedCrossRef 18. Lyden D, Hattori K, Dias S, Costa C, Blaikie P, Butros L, Chadburn A: Impaired recruitment of bone-marrow-derived https://www.selleckchem.com/products/Ispinesib-mesilate(SB-715992).html endothelial and hematopoietic precursor cells blocks tumor angiogenesis and growth. Nat Med 2001,7(11):1194–1201.PubMedCrossRef 19. Huang PH, Chen YH, Wang CH, Chen JS, Tsai

HY, Lin FY, Lo WY, Wu TC, Sata M, Chen JW, Lin SJ: Matrix metalloproteinase-9 is essential for ischemia-induced neovascularization by modulating bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2009,29(8):1179–1184.PubMedCrossRef 20. Duncan TJ, Al-Attar A, Rolland P, Scott IV, Deen S, Liu DT, Spendlove I, Durrant LG: Vascular endothelial growth factor expression in ovarian cancer: a model Tobramycin for targeted use of novel therapies? Clin Cancer Res 2008,14(10):3030–3035.PubMedCrossRef 21. Hefler LA, Mustea A, Könsgen D, Concin N, Tanner B, Strick R, Heinze G, Grimm C, Schuster E, Tempfer C, Reinthaller A, Zeillinger R: Vascular endothelial growth factor gene polymorphisms are associated with prognosis

in ovarian cancer. Clin Cancer Res 2007,13(3):898–901.PubMedCrossRef 22. Määtta M, Talvensaari-Mattila A, Turpeenniemi-Hujanen T, Santala M: Matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) and -9 (MMP-9) and their tissue inhibitors (TIMP-1 and TIMP-2) in differential diagnosis between low malignant potential (LMP) and malignant ovarian tumours. Anticancer Res 2007,27(4C):2753–2758.PubMed 23. Timmermans F, Plum J, Yöder MC, Ingram DA, Vandekerckhove B, Case J: Endothelial progenitor cells: identity defined? J Cell Mol Med 2009,13(1):87–102.PubMedCrossRef 24. Duda DG, Cohen KS, Scadden DT, Jain RK: A protocol for phenotypic detection and enumeration of circulating endothelial cells and circulating progenitor cells in human blood. Nat Protoc 2007,2(4):805–810.PubMedCrossRef Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Authors’ contributions YS participated in study design, carried out most of the experiments, and drafted the manuscript. LZ participated in collecting samples and manuscript preparation. QW conceived of the study, and participated in its design and coordination. WL assisted with cell culture.

The

pleiotropic effect of rosR mutation was also expressed as an increased sensitivity to detergents, hyper- and hypo-osmotic stress, and antibiotics from the beta-lactam group which affect peptidoglycan synthesis. The Rt2472 mutant also exhibited an increased sensitivity to several osmolytes indicating that RosR is engaged in the regulation of many essential cell processes. These changes in the phenotype indicated a direct or indirect effect of rosR mutation, which, presumably, affects membrane integrity or causes outer membrane instability. This was partially evidenced by SDS-PAGE of membrane and secreted DNA Damage inhibitor proteins isolated from the wild type and rosR mutant (Rt2472). We observed some differences in the protein profiles of both strains, especially when they were cultured on TY rich medium. Out of the several membrane proteins whose concentrations Selleck Apoptosis Compound Library were significantly

decreased in the rosR mutant, three proteins corresponded to outer membrane proteins RopB1 (20.1 kDa), RopA (36 kDA), and RopA1 (38 kDA) of R. leguminosarum [36–38]. Among them, the 20 kDa protein was identified as OmpA-like RopB1. The diminished amount of this protein in the rosR mutant could influence its membrane integrity and sensitivity to surface-active compounds and some antibiotics. Several classes of outer membrane CA3 concentration proteins (OMPs) of R. leguminosarum bv. viciae strain 248 had been described as antigens, and the level of some of them significantly decreased during bacteroid differentiation [36–38]. Recently, a gene family of OMPs (ropB, ropB2, and ropB3)

in R. leguminosarum bv. viciae VF39SM has been described [46]. A ropB mutant was characterized by an increased sensitivity to detergents, hydrophobic antibiotics, and weak organic acids, which suggested a role of RopB in outer membrane stability [46]. Extracellular protein profile of R. leguminosarum bv. trifolii 24.2 wild type growing in TY was very similar to that of R. leguminosarum bv. viciae 3841 described by Krehenbrink and Downie [22]. Significant differences between TY supernatant protein profiles of the Rt24.2 and the Rt2472 were observed. The main difference ADAMTS5 was essentially diminished the amount of proteins of about 35 kDa in the rosR mutant. In the supernatant of R. leguminosarum bv. viciae 3841, proteins of similar molecular masses (35.6-kDa Leu/Ile/Val-binding protein, 34.1-kDa flagellin, and 34.1-kDa basic membrane lipoprotein) were identified. Moreover, extracellular proteins of the wild type and the rosR mutant differed depending on growth in complex (TY) or minimal (M1) media, similarly to proteins secreted by the R. leguminosarum bv. viciae 3841 prsD mutant [22]. R. leguminosarum bv.

Biochemical studies suggest INSTI’s bind to HIV integrase in a two-step mechanism. this website Mutations may alter the second step and lead to fast INSTI dissociation kinetics that contribute to the development of integrase resistance. In biochemical analyses with wild-type integrase DNA complexes, DTG demonstrated a dissociative t 1/2 of 71 h as compared to 8.8 h for

RAL and 2.7 h for EVG; thus, DTG exhibited an off-rate 5–40 times slower than RAL and EVG (P < 0.0001) (Fig. 1) [20]. This slow dissociation may contribute to DTG’s high barrier to resistance and suggests that prolonged binding plays a role in its unique resistance profile [20, 21]. Single mutations of the major RAL pathway Y143, N155, and Q148 do not increase DTG-fold change, and have variable effect on the off-rate of DTG with half-lives of dissociation from ACY-1215 clinical trial 42 to 60 h for Y143 mutants, 9.6 h for N155H, and 5.2 to 11 h for Q148 mutants. Q148 plus additional mutations do increase the dissociative kinetics and impart a fold change. A fold change ≥3 as measured by change in Smoothened Agonist nmr half-maximal effective concentration (EC50) of mutant versus wild-type HIV-1 was considered resistant for in vitro studies [19, 21]. When mutations Q148H and G140S are present, the dissociative t 1/2 of DTG is reduced to 3.3 h [20] with a 2.6-fold change in EC50 [19]. The VIKING studies (discussed below; NCT01328041, NCT00950859) demonstrate that DTG maintains activity against RAL- and EVG-resistant

virus [22]; however, treatment-experienced participants with Q148 + ≥2 associated mutations had reduced potency when compared to no Q148 mutations at baseline

(P < 0.0001) [23]. The current FDA label cautions that poor virologic response has been observed in subjects with a Q148 substitution plus two or more additional INSTI-resistance substitutions [24] (Fig. 1). These data underpin the danger in maintaining a failing regimen that may lead to further accumulation of resistance mutations that can impact the efficacy of newer drug options. Fig. 1 INSTI pathways of HIV-1 resistance SPTLC1 with associated dissociative t 1/2 and fold change in EC50 [19] compared to wild-type virus. Diss t 1/2 dissociative values previously reported [20, 21]. Major integrase mutations are denoted in black bold: E92Q/V; Y143C/H/R; Q148H/K/R; N155H. Accessory mutations are denoted in gray: E138A/K; G140A/C/S [25]. DTG dolutegravir, EC 50 half-maximal effective concentration, EVG elvitegravir, FC fold change, INSTI integrase strand transfer inhibitor, ND not determined, RAL raltegravir, t 1/2 half-life Evaluation of 3,294 genotypic resistance tests ordered for clinical decision making from 2009 to 2012 at a United States national referral lab revealed that integrase resistance mutations were often paired with PI resistance [25]. Although the treatment regimen was not available, presumably subjects included in the database were receiving RAL based on the timing of FDA approvals.

The estimation of the contact area A

is obtained from geometrical consideration for a spheroid of radius R e and a cutting plane of the contact: (3) where Θ is the contact angle for the Ag/SiO2 interface. In another scenario, the molten structure Staurosporine detaches from the substrate, as was shown in several works [11, 17], and solidifies before contacting the substrate again (Figure 1f). The bulb shape will be close to the sphere or ellipsoid, and the contact will be governed by adhesion and elastic forces. Such situation can also occur when ND with frozen droplet-shaped bulbs is displaced from its initial position and rolled to the ‘rounded’ side of the bulbs. The contact area of the sphere-on-plane can be calculated on the Selleckchem BIBW2992 basis of continuum elasticity models for deformable spheres such as JKR [21] or DMT-M model [22], which also gives a good approximation for ellipsoids providing R 1/R 2 ~ 1 [19]. Ricolinostat mw According to Tabor [23], the choice of the most suitable model is determined by the parameter (4) where γ is the work of adhesion and z 0 is the equilibrium spacing for the Lennard-Jones potential of the surfaces. K is the combined elastic modulus of the sphere

and substrate, defined as (5) in which ν 1,2 and E 1,2 are the Poisson ratios and Young moduli of the substrate and sphere, respectively. For small η, the DMT-M theory is more appropriate [24] and will be used below. According to the DMT-M model, the contact area A DMT of

the sphere on a flat surface is (6) Friction force can be expressed as the following simple form: (7) where τ is the interfacial shear stress/strength and A is the contact area [25]. The shear strength is defined as an ultimate shear stress τ before the object is displaced and can be estimated using the relation τ theo = G* / Z, where ν is Poisson’s ratio and G* = [(2 - ν 1) / G 1 + (2 - ν 2) / G 2]-1[25, 26]. Z is an empirical material-dependent coefficient ranging from 5 to 30 [27]. Taking Z = 15 as the typical value for most metals [27], theoretical shear strength for Ag equals τ ≈ 0.59 GPa. Real-time manipulations Nanomanipulation technique inside SEM with simultaneous force registration was used to control the applicability of FDM and DMT-M models for description of ND contact with the substrate surface experimentally. The experiment has shown that in most cases, the Mannose-binding protein-associated serine protease end bulbs of NDs ensure a relatively small contact area and therefore reduced adhesion and friction force. For comparison, displacement of untreated uniform Ag NWs on a flat silicon substrate was almost impossible without severe damage and plastic deformation of NW (Additional file 1: Figure S5). NDs exhibited several regimes of motion in manipulation experiments. The most common scenario was rotation of the ND around one of its ends. Long-range rolling of Ag NDs was rarely observed, while rolling up to approximately 90° was registered frequently.

The most NCT-501 cell line interesting strain was B. animalis subsp. lactis, which was the least sensitive strain in our study. This pH-resistant strain has a great potential for use in foods as a probiotic supplement since a higher number of bacterial cells would survive the passage. However, to use this strain as probiotic, more studies have to be performed in order to achieve the probiotic status according to the definition of Klaenhammer [3]. In our study, the ingestion of a food matrix was simulated in an initial environment of acidified milk and growth medium. The added simulated gastric solution and oxygen during the stomach

phase increased the stress. During the simulated passage to the small intestine the oxygen was replaced by nitrogen and the medium was neutralized to pH 6.3. The addition of the pancreatic solution and bile salts completed the passage into the small intestine. This in-vitro system did not take into account that in in vivo digestion, enzymes are activated and inactivated and other substances, e.g. bile salts are reabsorbed. Sumeri et al. [9] found a partial solution to bypass this problem. They diluted the content of the reactor with a specially designed dilution medium. Another possibility would be to precipitate

the bile salts at the end of simulation of the small intestine to imitate the enterohepatic circuit. This could be performed with calcium ions [28–30]. Removing the bile salts would better simulate the environment of the Trichostatin A chemical structure colon and might even allow bifidobacteria to proliferate.

In our study, the remaining bile salts and pancreatic juice in the simulation led to an additional stress on bacteria which probably altered the true characteristics of the strains in vivo. The www.selleckchem.com/products/AG-014699.html starting cfu in the simulation varied within one log cfu even though the adjustment of OD650 of the inoculum aminophylline was previously tested with the Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis and Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis strains. The bifidobacteria used in this study showed a tendency to form clusters that may result in reduced cfu (visual observations, data not shown). In another study, the formation of clusters could be related to decreasing pH during growth [31]. These clusters are usually counted as one colony on a plate. Figure 6 shows the results of the stomach-intestine passage simulation over 7 h of seven tested Bifidobacterium strains. The concentration of living cells of bifidobacteria decreased immediately after incubation due to the low pH (pH 3.0). However, B. animalis subsp. lactis remained stable. This confirmed the results of previous experiments discussed above (Figure 4). This resistance could be extended to bile salts and pancreatic juice although the cell counts of B. animalis subsp. lactis decreased by about 85% of the initial value (Figure 6). Compared to the other strains used in this study, however, this decrease was almost negligible. All B. longum and B.

Because proteins homologous to Cj0596 are involved in virulence in other pathogenic bacteria, we nevertheless characterized the role of this protein in C. jejuni physiology and pathogenesis. Similarity of cj0596 sequences among Campylobacter species Because Campylobacter genomes are quite diverse [60, 61], we characterized the conservation of the cj0596 gene in other Campylobacter strains. Using PCR primers designed from the C. jejuni NCTC 11168 genomic sequence and located in the cj0595 and cj0597 genes (Figure 2), we amplified a 2 kb segment encompassing the cj0596 locus from five additional

C. jejuni strains and one C. coli strain. PCR products of the expected size were obtained from each strain, and were subsequently selleck sequenced (total of 4000 bp sequence analyzed for each strain). A search of 17 additional Campylobacter genome sequences (Table 1) was also performed and showed that a cj0596 ortholog was found in every strain. The sequences of these orthologs

were also included in the sequence comparison analysis. The nucleotide sequences between pairs of C. jejuni strains or C. coli D3088 were at least 98% identical. The corresponding sequences from C. coli RM2228 and other Campylobacter species were somewhat lower (84% to 60% identical). The ��-Nicotinamide predicted Cj0596 protein was also highly similar in all C. jejuni strains and C. coli D3088, with an amino acid sequence identity of at least 99%. As with the nucleotide sequences, the degree of identity of proteins from C. coli RM2228 and other non-jejuni Campylobacter strains was lower, with identities ranging from 87% to 45%. Together, these results indicate see more that cj0596 is highly conserved in C. jejuni (16 strains), C. coli (two strains), and one strain each of C. concisus, C. curvus, C. fetus, C. hominis, C. lari, and C. upsaliensis. We focused on Cj0596 from C. jejuni strain 81–176 (the strain 81–176 designation is CJJ81176_0624) for our subsequent work. Figure 2 Construction of a cj0596 mutant

in C. jejuni 81–176. The location of the replacement of Alectinib the cj0596 gene by the rpsL HP /cat construct is shown. Solid arrows represent PCR primers used to amplify the cj0596 region during mutant construction and verification, and for interstrain comparative DNA sequencing. In silico analysis of Cj0596 protein features In the NCTC 11168 genome, the predicted Cj0596 protein had a predicted molecular mass of 30.5 kDa and pI of 9.9 and was annotated as a major antigenic peptide PEB4\cell binding factor 2, similar to peptidyl prolyl cis-trans isomerases found in a variety of organisms [62]. Because some peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerases are located in the periplasm, the SignalP algorithm [48, 63] was used to analyze the 81–176 Cj0596 protein for the presence of an N-terminal signal sequence. A signal sequence with a probable cleavage site between amino acids 21 and 22 of the preprotein (VNA↓AT) was predicted.

Infect Immunity 2003,71(10):5498–5504.CrossRef 30. Liu YQ, Qi GM, Wang SX, Yu YM, Duan GC, Zhang LJ, Gao SY: A natural vaccine candidate strain against Selleckchem ATM inhibitor cholera. Biomed Environ Sci 1995,8(4):350–358.PubMed 31. Chiang SL, Mekalanos JJ: Construction of a Vibrio cholerae vaccine candidate using transposon delivery and FLP recombinase-mediated

excision. Infect Immunity 2000,68(11):6391–6397.CrossRef 32. Cooper KL, Luey CK, Bird M, Terajima J, Nair GB, Kam KM, Arakawa E, Safa A, Cheung DT, Law CP, et al.: Development and validation of a PulseNet standardized pulsed-field gel electrophoresis protocol for subtyping of Vibrio cholerae. Foodborne Pathogens Dis 2006,3(1):51–58.CrossRef 33. Heidelberg JF, Eisen JA, Nelson WC, Clayton RA, Gwinn ML, Dodson RJ, Haft DH, Hickey EK, Peterson JD, Umayam L, et al.: DNA sequence of both chromosomes of the cholera pathogen Vibrio cholerae. BIIB057 Nature 2000,406(6795):477–483.PubMedCrossRef 34.

Grim CJ, Hasan NA, Taviani E, Haley B, Chun J, Brettin TS, Bruce DC, Detter JC, Han CS, Chertkov O, et al.: Genome sequence selleckchem of hybrid Vibrio cholerae O1 MJ-1236, B-33, and CIRS101 and comparative genomics with V. cholerae. J Bacteriol 2010,192(13):3524–3533.PubMedCrossRef 35. Feng L, Reeves PR, Lan R, Ren Y, Gao C, Zhou Z, Ren Y, Cheng J, Wang W, Wang J, et al.: A recalibrated molecular clock and independent origins for the cholera pandemic clones. PloS one 2008,3(12):e4053.PubMedCrossRef 36. Reimer AR, Van Domselaar G, Stroika S, Walker M, Kent H, Tarr C, Talkington D, Rowe L, Olsen-Rasmussen M, Frace M, et al.: Comparative genomics of Vibrio cholerae from Haiti, Asia, and Africa.

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coli [43]. Also, the induction of genes associated with starvation, i.e., a condition that could activate the lytic cycle of prophages [43], was confirmed in the expression analysis. Conclusion The involvement of several regulatory controls has complicated the interpretation of gene expression patterns and functions in Shewanella spp. Results from selleck the above etrA deletion mutant studies suggest a global regulatory role

for EtrA, but one which works in conjunction with other regulators to fine-tune the expression of key genes in anaerobic metabolic pathways in S. oneidensis strain MR-1. Besides confirming and clarifying previous reports on Fnr regulation, we also provide experimental evidence for a positive regulatory role of EtrA in the DMSO reduction pathway of strain MR-1. Furthermore, our whole-genome transcriptional profile shows the effects of EtrA on the expression of genes not previously evaluated (e.g. nqr, fdh-1, phage- and stress-related genes), and differences in the expression pattern of genes previously analyzed (e.g. cydAB and sdhC)[6, 12]. These

observations are consistent with results obtained by Gralnick et al. [4] suggesting a distinctive regulatory system, although very similar to Fnr in E. coli. A stringent sequence analysis of the regulatory region of the genes affected by the mutation suggest direct interaction of EtrA to those in the “”histone deacetylase activity Energy

metabolism”" category, while stress- and phage-related buy HSP990 genes are up-regulated indirectly as a consequence of a secondary perturbation. This and previous work taken together suggest that this regulator is more properly termed Fnr. Methods Bacterial strains and culture conditions The bacterial strains, plasmids, primers and, Galeterone probes used in this study are described in Table 4. S. oneidensis strain MR-1 and its mutant strains were grown in HEPES medium as described [44]. The medium was supplemented with 20 mM lactate and KNO3 was added as electron acceptor in concentrations specified below. Oxygen was removed from the medium by boiling and purging with helium [45]. Cultures of E. coli strain β2155 (auxotroph of diaminopimelic acid [DAP]) were grown in Luria-Bertani (LB) medium supplemented with 100 μg/ml of DAP at 37°C. S. oneidensis strain MR-1 was cultivated in aerobic LB medium at 30°C during the mutagenesis process. Antibiotics used for the selection of MR-1 transformants were added in the following concentrations: 25 μg/ml of kanamycin, 7.5 μg/ml of gentamycin, and 10 μg/ml of tetracycline. Vessels that received no inoculum or no KNO3 served as negative controls. Table 4 Bacterial strains, plasmids, primers and oligonucleotides used in this study.

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P, Hilgert I, Majer P, Slusher BS, Horejsí V, Konvalinka J: Amino acids at the N-and C-termini of human glutamate carboxypeptidase II are required for enzymatic activity and poper folding. Eur J Biochem 2004, 271: 2782–2790.PubMedCrossRef www.selleckchem.com/products/beta-nicotinamide-mononucleotide.html 10. Schmittgen TD, Teske S, Vessella RL, True LD, Zakrajsek BA: Expression of prostate specific membrane antigen and three alternatively spliced variants of PSMA in prostate cancer patients. Int J Cancer 2003, 107: 323–329.PubMedCrossRef 11. Cao KY, Mao XP, Wang DH, Xu L, Yuan GQ, Dai SQ, Zheng BJ, Qiu SP: High expression of PSM-E correlated with tumor grade in prostate cancer: a new alternatively spliced variant of prostate-specific membrane antigen. Prostate 2007, 67: 1791–1800.PubMedCrossRef 12. Lapidus RG, Tiffany CW, Isaacs JT, Slusher BS: Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) enzyme activity is elevated in

prostate cancer cells. Prostate 2000, 45: 350–354.PubMedCrossRef 13. Anilkumar G, Rajasekaran SA, Wang S, Hankinson O, Bander NH, Rajasekaran AK: Prostate-specific membrane antigen association with filamin A modulates its internalization and NAALADase activity. Cancer Res 2003, 63: 2645–2648.PubMed 14. Sokoloff RL, Norton KC, Gasior CL, Marker KM, Grauer LS: A dual-monoclonal sandwich assay for prostate-specific membrane antigen: levels in tissues, seminal fluid and urine. The Prostate 2000, 43: 150–157.PubMedCrossRef Smoothened 15. Carter RE, Feldman AR, Coyle JT: Prostate-specific membrane antigen is a hydrolase with substrate and pharmacologic characteristics of a neuropeptidase. Proc Natl Acad Sci 1996, 93: 749–753.PubMedCrossRef 16. Veronica Y, Clifford EB, Joseph KC, O’Keefe DS, Bacich DJ: Expression of Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA), Increases Cell Folate Uptake and Proliferation and Suggests a Novel Role for PSMA in the Uptake of the Non-Polyglutamated Folate, Folic Acid. Prostate 2010, 70: 305–316. 17. Perner S, Hofer MD, Kim R, Shah RB, Li H, Möller P, Hautmann RE, Gschwend JE, Kuefer R, Rubin MA: Prostate-specific membrane antigen expression as a predictor of prostate cancer progression. Hum Pathol 2007, 38: 696–70.PubMedCrossRef 18.

DHD-K12 transfected cells (2 × 104/well) ABT-263 nmr were cocultured with 2 × 105/well PBMC. The panel shows the image of the different spots left on the wells at the end of assay: 1) pure red spots LCL161 nmr indicate cell lysis by IFN-γ non-producing

cells; 2) pure blue spots indicate IFN-γ secreting cells; 3) violet spots indicate cell lysis by IFN-γ producing cells. Dark and light grey bars represent number of spots from DHD-K12-inoculated rats or from control rats respectively. Discussion The development of sensitive assays to assess specific T cell responses against cancer represents a key tool for both experimental and clinical immunology as well as in the pre-clinical and clinical settings [9, 22, 23]. In recent years, the increase in the understanding the biology of tumor cells and the identification of tumor antigens capable to elicit potent and effective T cell immune responses, opened an avenue of possibilities for the design of specific vaccination strategies based on the use of peptide antigens [24, 25]. Is therefore of utmost relevance the development of assays that can provide qualitative and quantitative measurement of the anti-tumour immune responses. Several techniques for immune monitoring of specific T-cell responses are now available including assays

which provide information about the specific T cell recognition of cancer antigens, irrespective Defactinib mw of their functional Sulfite dehydrogenase activity, such as those based on the use of tetramers [26], assays aimed at detecting T-cell precursors by amplifying cells that proliferate in response to the antigenic stimulation [27], as well as assays that measure the secretion of a particular cytokine [28] All these test do not provide information about the anti-tumour lytic activity of the immune cells [9, 28]. On the other hand,

the assessment of cytotoxicity, is generally measured on the basis of the Chromium or Europium release assay, Such cytotoxicity assays measure the percentage of targets lysed by a bulk population of effectors, but they do not provide any information about the frequency of cyotoxic T cells. The biologic relevance of these methods is therefore limited to the specific information about cytokine secretion, extent of cell-mediated cytotoxicity and/or proliferation in response to tumour antigens. Nevertheless, antigen-activated T cells do not necessarily secrete the same set of cytokines, neither cytotoxicity always correlates with cytokine secretion in a bulk T cell population [12, 14, 29]. It is well recognised that activated CD8+ T cells mediate their functions by secretion of different cytokines, including IFN-γ, that initiate a “”lytic program”" ending with a direct perforin-mediated transfer of lytic enzymes (granzyme) capable of inducing apoptosis in target cells [10, 30–32].