New Publications by Project A2

The group of Project A2 adapted a previously described alveolar Transwell® A549/HPAEC bilayer model for the assessment of epithelial barrier integrity and cytokine response to fungi of the order Mucorales. Exhibiting high reproducibility using multiple readouts, the alveolar bilayer model may become an appealing tool for the in vitro characterization of host pathogen interactions in the context of pulmonary mould infections.

• Original publication: Belic S, Page L, Lazariotou M, Waaga-Gasser AM, Dragan M, Springer J, Loeffler J, Morton CO, Einsele H, Ullmann AJ, Wurster S (2019) Comparative analysis of inflammatory cytokine release and alveolar epithelial barrier invasion in a Transwell® bilayer model of mucormycosis. Front Microbiol 9: 3204. Link to Front Microbiol

The chemokine release by NK cells is correlated to the multiplicity of infection of A. fumigatus used for stimulation. In particular, mRNA expression and/or protein release of CCL4/MIP-1beta might be useful as indicator for the involvement of NK cells within an immune response in further studies.

• Original publication: Marischen L, Englert A, Schmitt AL, Einsele H, Loeffler J (2018) Human NK cells adapt their immune response towards increasing multiplicities of infection of Aspergillus fumigatus. BMC Immunol 19: 39. Link to PubMed