Publications by authors named "Bart Legein"

Background And Aims: Dendritic cells (DCs), professional antigen-presenting cells, play an important role in pathologies by controlling adaptive immune responses. However, their adaptation to and functionality in hypercholesterolemia, a driving factor in disease onset and progression of atherosclerosis remains to be established.

Methods: In this study, we addressed the immediate impact of high fat diet-induced hypercholesterolemia in low-density lipoprotein receptor deficient (Ldlr) mice on separate DC subsets, their compartmentalization and functionality.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • This study investigates how high levels of lipids and proteins related to cardiometabolic diseases affect the immune function of plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs).
  • The researchers found that exposure to oxidized low-density lipoproteins (oxLDL) causes lipid accumulation in pDCs, hindering their maturation and activation, which is crucial for effective immune responses.
  • Ultimately, the research highlights how dyslipidemia negatively impacts pDC responses to pathogens, suggesting a potential link between metabolic disorders and compromised immune defense.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The costimulatory molecule CD40 is a major driver of atherosclerosis. It is expressed on a wide variety of cell types, including mature dendritic cells (DCs), and is required for optimal T-cell activation and expansion. It remains undetermined whether and how CD40 on DCs impacts the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Clinical complications of atherosclerosis are almost exclusively linked to destabilization of the atherosclerotic plaque. Batf3-dependent dendritic cells specialize in cross-presentation of necrotic tissue-derived epitopes to directly activate cytolytic CD8 Tcells. The mature plaque (necrotic, containing dendritic cells and CD8 Tcells) could offer the ideal environment for cross-presentation, resulting in cytotoxic immunity and plaque destabilization.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Identifying pathways for β-cell generation is essential for cell therapy in diabetes. We investigated the potential of 17β-estradiol (E2) and estrogen receptor (ER) signaling for stimulating β-cell generation during embryonic development and in the severely injured adult pancreas. E2 concentration, ER activity, and number of ERα transcripts were enhanced in the pancreas injured by partial duct ligation (PDL) along with nuclear localization of ERα in β-cells.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality worldwide, accounting for 16.7 million deaths each year. The underlying cause of the majority of CVD is atherosclerosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_sessionpffugun1q09i7v556p8s3k9i0qsbo6tc): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once