“Cross regulation between the immune system and the extracellular matrix during lung pathology”

 Host: Dr Henry McSorley  

Venue: MSI Small Lecture Theatre, MSI

Abstract 

Communication between our immune system and the extracellular matrix is essential for keeping our tissues healthy and functional. Dysregulation of immune-ECM interactions can be a big factor in contributing to pathogenic changes in the tissue. Therefore, understanding how immune cells and molecules can influence the ECM becomes an important factor in treating disease. In conditions like asthma, inflammation is often a predictor of disease severity. However, using mouse models of mixed Th2/Th17 inflammation, our lab has shown that pathogenic ECM remodelling still occurs in the absence of chronic inflammation. Rather, we have discovered ECM changes are induced and sustained by chitinase-like proteins, immune-associated molecules highly upregulated in inflammatory and fibrotic diseases. I’ll discuss more broadly spatial imaging studies of key immune cells and mediators that play a part in regulating ECM organisation in the lung and why understanding immune-ECM crosstalk may give rise to new ways to modulate pathogenic matrix formation during disease.