Eric Wilson, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology

Proper functioning of cells of the immune system is highly dependent on their efficient accumulation to tissues where infection may occur. These cells migrate throughout the body to sites of possible infection via arteries and blood vessels, much like commuters travel to their places of employment via highways and city streets. Just as commuters must take the appropriate off-ramps to get to their desired destination and then enter their work place, white blood cells must also exit the blood vessels of the body at appropriate locations and enter their destination tissues to effectively protect the host from infection.

Successful accumulation of white blood cells to specific tissues of the body is the result of a complex cascade of events, mediated by a wide variety of adhesion molecules such as selectins, integrins, chemokines and chemokine receptors (1-3). Each component of this multi-step process is vital for the successful migration and proper positioning of lymphocytes within the body.

Based on preliminary studies we hypothesized that it was possible to target robust antigen specific IgA immune responses to specific mucosal sites through differential expression of chemokine receptors. In this proposal we aimed to do this through upregulation of chemokine expression through including vitamin D3 as an adjuvant.

This work is still in progress. Below is included a short summary of what has been done and what is continuing to be done on this project as well as the tangible outcomes to date.

This work resulted in the submission of one paper. This manuscript has been submitted and reviewed. Based on reviewer recommendations we preformed additional experiments this past year. In these experiments we attempted short term homing assays using wild type cells in to CCR10 KO mice. To date these experiment have been very problematic and results inconsistent with our hypothesis and earlier findings. We are continuing to work on these experiments and currently believe that we have found ways to eliminate much of the variability we saw earlier. Most of these experiments have been performed by Kaitlyn Vance. She is now graduating and leaving campus. This project is now being taken over by a group of three students Cameron Sargent, Ally Miyazaki and Youna Choi.

Products of this research are as follows.

Poster presentation at American Society for Microbiology Branch meeting Pocatello Idaho 2012
Title: Highly Selective Lymphocyte Accumulation within the Mucosal Immune System Using a Salivary Gland Model Authors: Yuet Ching Law, Kathryn Distelhorst, Lauren Zagieboylo, Kaitlyn Vance, and Eric Wilson.

Manuscript submission: Selective IgA plasma cell accumulation to the murine sublingual salivary gland is dependent on CCR10 expression. Authors: Yuetching Law, Kathryn Distelhorst, Kaitlyn Vance, Lauren Zagieboylo and Eric Wilson.