UNDERSTANDING THE IMMUNE RESPONSE PCOM RESEARCHERS STUDY HOW AGING IMPACTS UPON THE ABILITY TO FIGHT INFECTION O N E
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In the complex world of immune response, researchers at PCOM have a simple sounding hypothesis: that the cellular immune response against Chlamydia pneumoniae declines with age. Of course, the hypothesis merely sounds simple. Immunity is a multi-factoral wonder that continues to perplex physicians and researchers from a range of disciplines. Understand the immune response and you’ll develop far better treatment modalities for an array of far too common degenerative diseases that become more prevalent with aging, such as cancers, autoimmune disorders and a lengthy list of others. Even infection seems to be worse in the aged. And that’s exactly where the research of Kerin Fresa-Dillon, PhD, professor, pathology, microbiology and immunology, is headed. “We’re looking directly at whether and how the course and severity of chlamydial infection changes with age and how a declining immune system may facilitate infection,” emphasizes Dr. Fresa-Dillon, who has a major two-year area grant for her work from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). P C O M
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Using a mouse model, Dr. Fresa-Dillon and Scott Little, PhD, instructor, pathology, microbiology and immunology, are testing the immune response in the young and aged by infecting both groups with C. pneumoniae. Young mice are about six to seven months old and aged mice are about 20 to 22 months old. The researchers are examining the lungs, brain, liver and spleen to determine where and how much of the organism is present and to learn about the degree and nature of inflammatory cellular infiltration, says Dr. Fresa-Dillon. “The questions are scientifically interesting all by themselves, but there are implications; there are things we can learn about the immune response, things that might teach us something about the reaction to acute and chronic infection as we age and possibly about more,” explains Dr. Fresa-Dillon. “Chlamydia pneumoniae is particularly interesting because it lives inside the cells, allowing us more control in what we’re looking for,” explains Dr. Little. “It’s very preliminary, at this point, but so far we’re seeing everything we expected we might see.
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