Microglial Activation and T-Cell Infiltration to the CNS Following LPS Administration (2023)
Undergraduates: Morcos Saeed, Yash Patel Nicole Sagarnaga Brooke Deronne
Faculty Advisor: Shveta Parekh
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a progressive autoimmune disease affecting three times as many women as men with underlying mechanisms related to malfunctions in cells of the peripheral immune system. MS causes symptoms such as fatigue, emotional and cognitive impairment, numbness, and other factors making day-to-day living painful and difficult. Understanding the complicated pathways and mechanisms that are involved in MS will help develop more viable therapeutic approaches, and increase rates of early diagnosis of MS patients. T-cells are a type of peripheral lymphocyte that plays a critical role in the instigation and course of MS by attacking myelin sheaths, which are important for neural communication. Microglia are the innate immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS) that release cytokines that can attract T-cells to areas in the brain in which they are activated. This study attempts to clarify crosstalk between T-cells and microglia after lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced immune challenge in the dentate gyrus, thalamus, and choroid plexus of female rats. Fluorescent double-stain immunohistochemistry for Iba-1 and CD3 enabled us to determine the amount of colocalization and potential microglial activation in these areas following LPS administration. LPS was administered because the mechanisms by which T-cells infiltrate the brain during an immune response are very similar to those occurring during a neuroinflammatory response like those associated with MS. Our study will provide insight into the relationship between T-cells and microglia that is central to MS, which may produce new targets for research in the field.
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