Project

Role of professional and non-professional antigen presenting cells in cardiovascular immunopathological disease

Completed · 2007 until 2010

Type
Fundamental Research
Range
Monocentric project at KSSG
Units
Status
Completed
Start Date
2007
End Date
2010
Financing
SNF
Keywords
Autoimmunity, Myocarditis, Vasculitis, Atherosclerosis, Transplantation, Vascular Rejection
Partner
1. Prof. Dr. Ari Waisman, University of Mainz, Germany 2. Dr. Andreas Henke, University of Jena, Germany 3. Dr. Yinghua Tian, Visceral Surgery, University Hospital Zürich 4. Prof. Annette Oxenius, Inst. Microbiol., ETH Zürich
Brief description/objective

The importance of chronic inflammatory processes in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases is now widely recognized. Atherosclerosis and autoimmune myocarditis are prototypical diseases illustrating the detrimental effects of constant immune activation within the cardiovas-cular system. Activated T helper (Th) cells that recognize mainly cardiovascular self-antigens contribute crucially to the maintenance of the chronic inflammation seen in these diseases. Likewise, chronic (vascular) rejection of solid organ transplants is characterized by a persistent activation of both helper and cytotoxic T cells that elicit and maintain the injurious blood vessel-associated inflammatory process. With this study, we expect to provide a detailed analysis of the factors that influence the decision making process between T cell activation versus T cell tolerization in the context of cardiovascular immunopathologies. These studies will not only im-prove our insight into the basic immunological mechanisms underlying chronic inflammatory processes within the cardiovascular system, but may also permit the evaluation of treatment strategies that could help to specifically tone down the detrimental consequences of chronic immune activation in cardiovascular diseases.