Kirsten Dietze
Dipl. Biologist, Ruhr-University Bochum, 2008
Analysis of T cell responses during retroviral Infection
Cytotoxic T cells (CTL) facilitate control of acute viremia in many viral infections, including retroviruses like HIV or HTLV. However, viruses that establish chronic infections have developed mechanisms to evade destruction by CTL. Many functional aspects of induction and regulation of these cells remain unclear. We use the Friend virus (FV) model to investigate these open questions. FV is a retrovirus that induces lethal leukaemia in susceptible mice while resistant mice develop strong immune responses during the acute phase of infection but cannot completely eliminate FV and get persistently infected. CTL produce the cytolytic molecules granzyme A and B and perforin to eliminate virus infected cells. However, regulatory CD4+ T cells (Treg) that expand in the infected mice suppress the production of cytotoxic molecules in CD8+ T cells and the cytotoxic function of CTL. The aim of our work is to characterise and compare the expansion and cytotoxic functions of CD8+ T cells in different lymphatic organs of FV-infected mice. We also want to analyse the local suppression of CD8+ T cells by Tregs in different phases of an ongoing retroviral infection, which might help in manipulating the immune response in order to completely eradicate the chronic retroviral infection. 1st supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ulf Dittmer Institute: Telephone: +49 (0)201 - 723 - 3042 |