Immunity Commons^™

Energetic Cost And Physiological Trade-Offs, Heba A. Ali

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding how organisms allocate limited resources across physiological systems is a major challenge in biology. This study revealed that high energetic demand of electric signals of male electric fish (Brachyhypopomus gauderio) is matched by a metabolic trade-off with other cellular functions. We used thyroxine (T4) to modulate the fish’s signal metabolism, partitioned the energy budget pharmacologically, and measured energy consumption using oxygen respirometry. In males, total energy consumption was unchanged pre- and post-T4 treatment, while signal metabolism rose and the standard metabolic rate fell in an even trade-off. Total metabolism in females did the opposite. Under T4, the …

Food Insecurity Is Associated With Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Cognitive Impairment, And Immune Activation In People Living With Hiv, Javier A. Tamargo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Food insecurity (FI) is a socioeconomic condition characterized by inadequate access to enough food and nutrition to sustain health and wellbeing. Food insecurity is a risk factor for chronic and age-related conditions, raising concerns for the aging population of people living with HIV (PLWH), in whom food insecurity is disproportionately prevalent. PLWH are at increased risk of nutrition-related complications and chronic co-morbidities, thus food insecurity may exacerbate adverse health outcomes in this population. This study investigated whether food insecurity was associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), cognitive impairment, and immune activation among socioeconomically disadvantaged adults living with and without …

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 …

Phenomenological And Molecular Basis Of The Cnidarian Immune System, Tanya Brown

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coral reefs are one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet due partially to the habitat structure provided by corals. Corals are long lived organisms that can live for hundreds of years and as a result growth of many species is very slow. As a result of this, recovery of corals from disease outbreaks is very slow and difficult and therefore the ecosystem is deteriorating rapidly. Due to this increase in disease and its detrimental effect on coral reefs, it has become imperative to study how corals respond to disease outbreaks. The response of the coral to pathogens is …

Investigating The Driving Mechanisms Behind Differences In Bleaching And Disease Susceptibility Between Two Scleractinian Corals, Pseudodiploria Strigosa And Diploria Labyrinthiformis, Zoe A. Pratte

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Disease and bleaching are two conditions which commonly lead to coral death. Among coral species, susceptibility to disease and bleaching is variable, and Pseudodiploria strigosa tends to be diseased more than Diploria labyrinthiformis, while D. labyrinthiformis bleaches more readily. The focus of this dissertation was to investigate and compare multiple components of these two coral species, and identify how they may relate to disease and bleaching resistance. Compenetnts examined included the surface mucopolysacharide layer (SML) thickness, gene expression, microbial associates, and a white plague aquarium study. The SML thickness decresased with increasing temperature regardless of coral species, indicating that SML …

Auto-Antigenic Properties Of The Spliceosome As A Molecular Tool For Diagnosing Systemic Lupus Erythematosus And Mixed Connective Tissue Disease Patients, Annia Mesa

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (MCTD) are chronic, autoimmune disorders that target overlapping autoantigens and exhibit similar clinical manifestations. Despite 40 years of research, a reliable biomarker capable of diagnosing these syndromes has yet to be identified. Previous studies have confirmed that components of the U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein complex (U1 snRNP) such as U1A are 1000 fold more autoantigenic than any other nuclear component in SLE patients. Based on these findings, I hypothesize that models derived from the U1 snRNP autoantigenic properties could distinguish SLE from MCTD patients. To test this hypothesis, 30 peptides corresponding …

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. …