Immunobiology of Chlamydia

描述(由申请人提供)：应聘者正在申请职业发展奖，以获得衣原体特定微生物学和免疫学方面的培训，目标是追求衣原体免疫生物学的职业生涯。他将在自己的实验室里工作，由斯坦利·斯皮诺拉博士(导师)和拜伦·巴特伊格博士(共同导师)监督。一个由细菌发病机制和细胞免疫学专家组成的地方委员会将监督约翰逊博士的进展。此外，他还将前往阿肯色大学，与罗杰·兰克博士(咨询师)一起培训MoPn动物模型。应聘者在细胞免疫学和病毒免疫致病的动物模型方面受过显著的培训。在这份申请中概述的指导发展应该为候选人未来的衣原体免疫生物学研究提供坚实的基础。在获奖期间，候选人将应用他在先前培训期间开发的独特T细胞培养系统来研究生殖道衣原体感染的粘膜免疫反应。到目前为止，在这一领域所做的大部分工作都利用了来自系统免疫室的T淋巴细胞。候选人提出的使用粘膜免疫学方法的研究应该是对这项工作的补充。基于他之前的研究，Johnson博士假设，使用上皮抗原提呈细胞(APC)将促进粘膜T淋巴细胞的生长，这些T淋巴细胞具有独特的特性，可能在宿主防御衣原体感染方面发挥重要作用。这项建议的目的是：1)从雌性小鼠的上生殖道获得上皮细胞系，作为APC，用于研究衣原体感染的粘膜免疫反应。2)用衣原体感染的上皮细胞株作为APC，研究衣原体免疫生物学，为体外研究生殖道感染后的CD4、CD8T细胞应答提供实验依据。3)探讨粘膜CD8、CD4T淋巴细胞过继转移对MoPn生殖道感染自然病程的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The candidate is applying for a career development award in order to gain training in chlamydia-specific microbiology and immunology with the goal of pursuing a career in chlamydia immunobiology. He will work in his own laboratory under the supervision of Drs. Stanley Spinola (mentor) and Byron Batteiger (co-mentor). A local committee consisting of experts in bacterial pathogenesis and cellular immunology will monitor Dr. Johnson's progress. In addition, he will travel to the University of Arkansas for training in MoPn animal models with Dr. Roger Rank (consultant). The candidate has significant prior training in cellular immunology and animal models of viral immunopathogenesis. The mentored development outlined in this application should provide a solid foundation for the candidate's future studies of chlamydia immunobiology. During the award period the candidate will apply a unique T cell culture system that he developed during prior training to study the mucosal immune response to chlamydia infections of the reproductive tract. Much of the work done to date in the field has utilized T lymphocytes from the systemic immune compartment. The candidate's proposed research using mucosal immunology methodologies should compliment that work. Based on his prior research, Dr. Johnson hypothesizes that use of epithelial antigen presenting cells (APC) will facilitate outgrowth of mucosal T lymphocytes with unique properties and possibly important roles in host defense against chlamydia infections. The goals of this proposal are: 1) To derive epithelial cell lines from the upper reproductive tract of female mice to serve as APC for studying mucosal immune responses to chlamydia infections. 2) To investigate chlamydia immunobiology using chlamydia-infected epithelial cell lines as APC for ex vivo studies of CD4 and CD8 T cells responding to genital tract infections. 3) To determine the effect of adoptive transfer of mucosal CD8 and CD4 T lymphocytes on the natural course of MoPn genital tract infections.