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Updated: Mar 21, 2026

Isolation of Tonsillar Mononuclear Cells to Study Ex Vivo Innate Immune Responses in a Human Mucosal Lymphoid Tissue
Published on: June 14, 2020
Standard and immunoproteasome expression in pediatric tonsillectomy patients
Massimiliano Bergallo1,2, Elisa Loiacono3,4, Stefano Gambarino3,4
1Department of Public Health and Pediatric Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Turin, Turin, Italy - massimiliano.bergallo@unito.it.
Background:
Pro-inflammatory cytokines including TNF-α and IFN-γ, play an important role during the recurrent tonsillitis illness and proteasome and immunoproteasome stimulation.
Methods:
mRNA expression analysis of proteasome and immunoproteasome subunits was performed by PBMC whole blood isolation from children tonsillectomy patients. Total RNA was extracted from PBMC and retro-transcribed in cDNA. A real-time PCR with TaqMan probe was then performed.
Results:
PBMC of children with tonsillectomy showed, a significantly increased expression of proteasome constitutive subunit β2 encoding (1.52±0.61 vs. 0.88±0.5, P<0.0001) compared to healthy controls (HC). The same results were observed for immunoproteasome inducible subunit LMP2 (2.55±1.95 vs. 0.73±0.49, P<0.001), LMP7 (1.94±1.18 vs. 0.79±0.41, P<0.001), MECL1 (1.97±1.20 vs. 0.79±0.41, P<0.001). No differences were observed for proteasome subunit β1. Conversely a significantly decreased expression of proteasome constitutive subunit β5 encoding mRNA (0.96±0.39 vs. 1.28±0.65, P=0.0291) was observed.
Conclusions:
In children with recurrent tonsillitis was observed an increased expression of β2, the corresponding iPS, β1i and β5i compared to healthy controls. Contrariwise β5 subunit mRNA expression was significantly decreased.

