Grant: Project Grant

The protection of the airway lining is extremely important since it is a single cell layer thick and its integrity allows for oxygen exchange. Immune responses to infectious microbes and to innocuous environmental agents like pollen have to be balanced to clear serious challenges yet not over react to harmless ones. This balance in immune responses depends on several immune mediators called "cytokines". Several cell types can make cytokines but one relatively new immune cell type called innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) have been found to play important roles in recovering from infections by initiating repair but are also capable of triggering allergic reactions that can lead to asthma. We work on a cytokine receptor molecule, CD127 or IL-7Ralpha that is a known surface protein on ILCs. We know it has diverse roles in other immune cells that display it but its unknown what its exact role in ILCs is. We will determine that using selective gene targeted mouse models, gene profiling and large immune profiling approaches in 2 models of airway diseases: asthma and influenza. We expect that this study will shed light on how CD127 signals direct ILC development and function and how this is changed in the diseases above. This will allow identification of better targets to treat such diseases.