Cell and Developmental Biology Commons^™

The Immunosuppressive Role Of Edn3/Ednrb Signaling In The Melanoma Microenvironment, Juliano Tiburcio De Freitas

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Endothelins are cytokines ubiquitously expressed in the microenvironment of several tumors. In melanoma is not clear whether stromal cells respond to the endothelin present in the microenvironment. To address this question, I generated tumors derived from different murine melanoma cell lines (B16F10, YUMM1.7, YUMMER1.7) in a transgenic mouse that overexpresses endothelin 3 (Edn3) by keratinocytes in the skin (K5-Edn3). Tumors from all the cell lines grew larger and were more aggressive when Edn3 was overexpressed in the skin. In tumors derived from YUMM1.7-GFP cells, very few tumorigenic cells expressed the Edn3 receptor, Endothelin receptor b (Ednrb) suggesting an …

Aspects Of The Innate Immune System In The Caribbean Octocoral Swiftia Exserta, Lorenzo P. Menzel

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The immune systems of cnidaria are important to study for two reasons: to gain a better understanding of the evolution of immune responses, and to provide a basis to partially redress the precipitous world-wide die-offs of reef corals, some of which have been attributed to diseases and stress. Many immune responses share ancient evolutionary origins and are common across many taxa.

Using Swiftia exserta, an azooxanthellate ahermatypic local octocoral, as a proxy model organism to study aspects of innate immunity in corals and cnidaria allows us to address both of the reasons listed above while not using endangered species. …