The role of hormones in ILC2-driven allergic airway inflammation.

Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) are a type of innate immune cells that produce a large amount of IL-5 and IL-13 and two cytokines that are crucial for various processes such as allergic airway inflammation, tissue repair and tissue homeostasis. It is known that damaged epithelial-derived alarmins, such as IL-33, IL-25 and thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), are the predominant ILC2 activators that mediate the production of type 2 cytokines. In recent years, abundant studies have found that many factors can regulate ILC2 development and function. Hormones synthesized by the body's endocrine glands or cells play an important role in immune response. Notably, ILC2s express hormone receptors and their proliferation and function can be modulated by multiple hormones during allergic airway inflammation. Here, we summarize the effects of multiple hormones on ILC2-driven allergic airway inflammation and discuss the underlying mechanisms and potential therapeutic significance.

Simulations of ion transport in a collisional radio-frequency plasma sheath.

A hybrid theoretical model, capable of describing the characteristics of a collisional sheath driven by a sinusoidal current source and determining the energy and angular distributions of ions incident onto the substrate, is proposed. The model consists of one-dimensional time-dependent fluid equations coupled with the Poisson equation determining spatiotemporal evolution of the sheath and the Monte Carlo simulation predicting the energy and angular distributions of ions striking the electrode, in which charge-exchange collisions between ions and neutrals are included. Additionally, an equivalent circuit model in conjunction with the fluid equations is adopted to self-consistently determine the relationship between the instantaneous potential at a rf-biased electrode and the sheath thickness. It is found that the collisional effects would influence the height of the energy peaks in the ion energy distributions and the ion angular distributions.

Multiple ion dynamics model for the collisionless rf sheaths and the ion energy distributions at rf-biased electrodes in fluorocarbon plasmas.

With a one-dimensional multiple ion dynamics model, we study characteristics of the collisionless radio-frequency (rf) sheaths in fluorocarbon plasmas and calculate the ion energy distributions impinging on rf-biased electrodes. All the time-dependent terms in the ion fluid equations are included and the relationship between the instantaneous sheath voltage and sheath thickness is determined self-consistently by an equivalent circuit equation. The numerical results show that, due to the existence of multi-ion species, the sheath structure in the present work is different from those of single-ion species plasmas, and multiple peaks appear in the ion energy distributions. It is also shown that some parameters such as the bias frequency, bias power, bulk plasma density, and electron temperature are crucial for determining the shape of the ion energy distribution in multicomponent plasmas.

Spatiotemporal characteristics of the collisionless rf sheath and the ion energy distributions arriving at rf-biased electrodes.

A self-consistent fluid model is proposed for describing collisionless radio-frequency (rf) sheaths driven by a sinusoidal current source. This model includes all time-dependent terms in ion fluid equations, which are commonly ignored in some analytical models and numerical simulations. Moreover, an equivalent circuit model is introduced to determine self-consistently the relationship between the instantaneous potential at a rf-biased electrode and the sheath thickness. The time-dependent voltage wave form, the sheath thickness and the ion flux at the electrode as well as the spatiotemporal variations of the potential, the electric field and the ion density inside the sheath are calculated for various rf powers and ratios of the rf frequency to the ion plasma frequency. The ion energy distributions ( IEDs) impinging on the rf-biased electrode are also calculated with the ion flux at the electrode. The numerical results show that the frequency ratio is a crucial parameter determining the spatiotemporal variations of the rf sheath and the shape of the IEDs.