Sublingual allergen immunotherapy (SLIT) is an emerging treatment option for allergic asthma and a potential disease-modifying strategy for asthma prevention. The key cellular events leading to such long-term tolerance remain to be fully elucidated. We administered prophylactic SLIT in a mouse model of house dust mite (HDM)-driven allergic asthma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOver the past decade, the flow cytometry field has witnessed significant advancements in the number of fluorochromes that can be detected. This enables researchers to analyze more than 40 markers simultaneously on thousands of cells per second. However, with this increased complexity and multiplicity of markers, the manual dispensing of antibodies for flow cytometry experiments has become laborious, time-consuming, and prone to errors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMyocarditis can develop into inflammatory cardiomyopathy through chronic stimulation of myosin heavy chain 6-specific T helper (T)1 and T17 cells. However, mechanisms governing the cardiotoxicity programming of heart-specific T cells have remained elusive. Using a mouse model of spontaneous autoimmune myocarditis, we show that progression of myocarditis to lethal heart disease depends on cardiac myosin-specific T17 cells imprinted in the intestine by a commensal species peptide mimic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAutoimmune myocarditis often leads to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Although T cell reactivity to cardiac self-antigen is common in the disease, it is unknown which antigen presenting cell (APC) triggers autoimmunity. Experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM) was induced by immunizing mice with α-myosin loaded bone marrow APCs cultured in GM-CSF.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeart disease is the major cause of death and it is broadly recognized that the immune system plays a central role in healthy and injured heart. Here, we focus on the contribution of various subsets of mononuclear phagocytes in the cardiac system. Macrophages and dendritic cells reside in the healthy myocardium to fulfill homeostatic functions and rapidly increase in numbers in diseases like myocardial ischemia and myocarditis to contribute to disease or resolve it.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeripheral tolerance is crucial for avoiding activation of self-reactive T cells to tissue-restricted antigens. Sterile tissue injury can break peripheral tolerance, but it is unclear how autoreactive T cells get activated in response to self. An example of a sterile injury is myocardial infarction (MI).
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