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Understanding fundamental aspects of bovine cellular immunology

Reference	BBS/E/I/00001432
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Bryan Charleston
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	The Pirbright Institute
Department	The Pirbright Institute Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	791,698
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/07/2009
End date	31/03/2012
Duration	33 months

Abstract

This project aims to understand fundamental aspects of bovine cellular immunology and will focus primarily on developing a detailed understanding of dendritic cells (DC) and their capacity to interact with cells of both innate and adaptive arms of the immune response. New tools, reagents and assays will be developed underpinned by flow cytometric sorting/analysis which enables the study of rare cell populations. DC orchestrate the immune response and early interactions with innate and adaptive effector cells may be pivotal in determining whether protective immunity is induced in response to vaccination or infection. Targeted approaches to the induction of appropriately biased immune responses may involve stimulation of specific DC subsets with specialised functions, or triggering responses of specific subsets of innate and adaptive immune cells. Detailed knowledge of cell populations in terms of phenotype and function is essential in both immunologically naïve and vaccinated/infected animals. The project will assess the properties of DC isolated at peripheral and mucosal sites. The interaction of DC with pathogens or proteins/peptides derived from pathogens will be analysed particularly in the context of induced responses of NK cell and CD4+ T cell subsets. These cell populations are associated with protective immune responses induced by BCG vaccination in cattle and will be studied in detail utilising existing reagents and assays. An important objective of this project will be to develop and validate new immunoassays and tools which will facilitate greater understanding of the role of cell subsets in protective immune responses. This may allow identification of correlates of protection or the development of new diagnostic assays and overall, will allow greater understanding of the bovine cellular immune response.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Animal Health, Immunology
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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