Life Sciences Commons^™

Examining Early Interactions Between Innate Airway Resident Immune Cells And Mtb-Specific Factors During Pulmonary Infection With Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, Micah D. Dunlap

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is the leading cause of death by an infectious agent in the world today, infecting roughly one quarter of humans. Despite this, the mechanisms of early pathogenesis and host protective innate immune responses remain poorly understood and uncharacterized.

Lung resident Alveolar Macrophages (AMs) are the first host contact with Mtb bacilli after inhalation and are thus key mediators of the early pulmonary immune response. AMs are generally believed to reside entirely in the airway, but it was recently demonstrated that they have the capacity to egress and enter into granulomas during pulmonary infection with hypervirulent Mtb. Furthermore, …

The Role Of Fibrillin-1 In Eye Development And Disease, Wendell Brooks Jones

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ciliary zonule of the human eye consists of a circumferential array of fibers that connect the ocular lens to the nonpigmented ciliary epithelium (NPCE) located at the inner wall of the eye. Zonular fibers consist of bundles of beaded filaments called microfibrils. Microfibrils are major structural elements of the extracellular matrix and are present in pure form in the ciliary zonule. Microfibrils are composed principally of fibrillin-1 (FBN-1); a large extracellular matrix glycoprotein. In humans, mutations in FBN1 underlie Marfan syndrome; a pleiotropic connective tissue disorder that profoundly affects the eye. Ocular manifestations include ectopia lentis (dislocated lenses), cataracts, …