Immunopathology Commons^™

Immune Regulation In Fungal Airway Inflammation And Host Defense, Ruoning Wang

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the lungs characterized by complex pathophysiological mechanisms and diverse endotypes, primarily categorized as T helper type 2 cell (Th2)-high and Th2-low asthma. Despite significant advances in understanding asthma pathogenesis, the mechanisms governing the pulmonary immune system’s response to external challenges have not been fully understood. To address these gaps, this comprehensive project was designed to investigate the interplay between fungal infections and specific CD4⁺ T cell populations in asthma. Our findings suggest that fungal infections can contribute to neutrophilic asthma by promoting the migration of platelet-myeloid aggregates into the lungs. We also …

Regulations Of Pathogenic Cd4+ T Helper Lymphocytes In Inflammatory Diseases, Handong Zheng

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

In this comprehensive project, three interrelated studies with distinct foci were employed to understand the regulations of specific CD4⁺ T helper cell population in inflammatory diseases.

Pathogenic TH17 cells play an essential role in the initiation and development of both human multiple sclerosis (MS) and animal experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Nevertheless, the underlying mechanism by which the pathogenicity of TH17 cells is controlled in the autoimmune neuro-inflammation remains unclear. In aim 1, we revealed that lumican (Lum), an extracellular matrix (ECM) protein, negatively regulates encephalitic TH17 cell responses. Our findings highlighted a TH17 cell-intrinsic effect of Lum in suppressing …