Alternatively activated macrophages (AAM) play a crucial role in type 2 immunity. Mice deficient in ST2, a receptor for the latest member of the IL-1 family, IL-33, have impaired type 2 immune responses. We therefore reasoned that IL-33/ST2 signaling may be involved in the differentiation and activation of AAM during airway inflammation. We report here that IL-33 changed the quiescent phenotype of alveolar macrophages toward an AAM phenotype that expressed mannose receptor, IL-4Rα, and produced high levels of CCL24 and CCL17 in an IL-13-dependent manner during IL-33-induced airway inflammation. Neutralization of AAM-derived CCL24 led to an amelioration of IL-33-induced eosinophilia in the lungs. Moreover, depletion of alveolar macrophages reduced IL-33-induced airway inflammation. Additionally, the attenuated OVA-induced airway inflammation in ST2−/− mice was associated with a decrease in AAM differentiation. In vitro, IL-33 amplified IL-13-induced polarization of alveolar- and bone marrow-derived macrophage toward an AAM phenotype by increasing the expression of arginase I, Ym1, as well as the production of CCL24 and CCL17. IL-13/IL-4Rα signaling was crucial for IL-33-driven AAM amplification by inducing the expression of ST2L. Finally, we showed that IL-33 was more abundantly expressed in the lung epithelial cells of asthma patients than those from healthy controls, suggesting that IL-33 may be involved in lung macrophage activation in clinical asthma. Taken together, we demonstrate here that IL-33/ST2 plays a significant role in the amplification of AAM polarization and chemokine production which contribute to innate and Ag-induced airway inflammation.

Abstract-We will show that ocean-reflected signals from the global positioning system (GPS) navigation satellite constellation can be detected from a low-earth orbiting satellite and that these signals show rough correlation with independent measurements of the sea winds. We will present waveforms of ocean-reflected GPS signals that have been detected using the experiment onboard the United Kingdom's Disaster Monitoring Constellation satellite and describe the processing methods used to obtain their delay and Doppler power distributions. The GPS bistatic radar experiment has made several raw data collections, and reflected GPS signals have been found on all attempts. The down linked data from an experiment has undergone extensive processing, and ocean-scattered signals have been mapped across a wide range of delay and Doppler space revealing characteristics which are known to be related to geophysical parameters such as surface roughness and wind speed. Here we will discuss the effects of integration time, reflection incidence angle and examine several delay-Doppler signal maps. The signals detected have been found to be in general agreement with an existing model (based on geometric optics) and with limited independent measurements of sea winds; a brief comparison is presented here. These results demonstrate that the concept of using bistatically reflected global navigation satellite systems signals from low earth orbit is a viable means of ocean remote sensing.

These results suggest that Th17 cells play a destructive role in the immune balance of periodontitis, and the effect of Th1 cells is not significant, while Th2 cells have a protective effect.